Are you a Chai virgin? (Chai Recipes)

Member Name: LittleEwok

Product:	Chai Recipes
Date:	21/04/05 (854 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Healthy, Gorgeous taste

Disadvantages: Not to everyones liking

So what exactly is Chai?

Chai is simply the Indian name for tea. Traditionally Masala Chai is made with various ingredients, ginger, pepper and cardamom among them, then milk is added and the tea is sweetened with honey or sugar. Properly made Chai is very sweet, with ginger and cinnamon usually being the most prominent spiced tastes. It sounds truly bizarre and disgusting, a spicy tea loaded with sugar, but properly made Chai tastes totally divine, it doesn’t taste “hot“ as you‘d expect it to, but it does make your belly feel all warm in a way no other hot drink does. Its fantastically warming on winter mornings, and it wakes you right up (as you’d imagine pepper and ginger tea might). There are a million and one recipes for making Chai, however I thought I’d share a couple of methods with you.


The slow method

You will need…

Black tea or Assam tea
3 Cloves
A small piece of Cinnamon stick
A pea sized piece of Ginger, crushed (preferably fresh)
One Whole black pepper
3 Cardamom pods (peeled if possible)
Half fat milk (or Soya milk)


In a deep container, add half a cup of milk and a teaspoon of tea to ¾ of a cup of water. Crush the cloves, cinnamon, ginger, pepper and cardamom pods and add to the milk and water. Heat in a pan for 15 minutes, stirring continuously. Add sugar or honey and strain the tea, then drink it. This is definitely the superior way of making Chai, however not all of us have time for this sort of malarkey, so…


The quick method

Buy plenty of the above spices, crush them and keep them in an airtight jar.

When you fancy some Chai, boil a cup of water, add a tea bag of whichever kind of tea you prefer, let it steep for around seven minutes (alternately if your in a hurry add two teabags instead of one and leave for a shorter time), add sugar or honey, the crushed Chai mixture and half a cup of milk, and boil until the Chai takes on a red-brown colour.


The Quickest method of all!

Buy some Chai teabags and boil! Chai teabags don’t have quite the same effect as a slow-brewed cup of Chai, but if you’ve never tried the stuff before or cant be bothered making your own, its an acceptable substitute.


Some interesting variations on regular Chai

Mocha Chai- My Indian friend would probably hit me if she heard this, but adding chocolate milk (or chocolate Soya milk-Plamil do some nice stuff) adds an interesting twist to the Chai. Much nicer than it sounds!

Herbal Chai- use one teaspoon each of chamomile, fennel and peppermint instead of tea.

Ice cream Chai- Blend Chai with ice cream…another bizarre but surprisingly tasty variation of the original!

Mint Chai- fantastic if you have a cold, simply add a couple of mint leaves to the Chai.

Chai coffee…I haven’t tried this one, I’m afraid to, but a friend of mine adds a pinch of Masala Chai to her morning coffee. Sounds a bit too rocket fuel like for my liking!


Its my experience that people are usually fairly reluctant to try Chai for the first time, I know I was convinced it was going to be horrible and I’d look so uncultured for not liking it, but give it a try and I bet you wont be disappointed.

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