How to Make Chai Tea

Earlier this week we made the masala, or spice mixture, to make chai tea. Today we're going to make the actual tea. This procedure is a bit more involved than just boiling water and brewing tea leaves. A cousin of J's makes a good cup in the microwave so one day I'll have to have him tell me how he does it. This way of making chai takes a good 15-20 minutes, but it's so worth it.

What you need:

- a pot
- mug
- teaspoon and tablespoon
- tiny sized grater (a zester?)
- cup sized strainer
- loose black tea - J uses this brand
- chai masala
- milk - this recipe works best with real milk. I'll post the recipe for non-dairy milk later.
- fresh ginger - I keep it in the freezer and grate it in frozen 

Measure a ¾ full mug of milk and pour into the pot. Add ¾ mug water. Turn on the heat to medium high. 

Next add the masala. I like it on the spicy side but if you're new to this authentic chai business start with ¾-1 teaspoon of masala. I think I add probably 1 ½ teaspoons per serving. 

Grate in some ginger. You don't need much. 

Once you add in the masala let the mixture heat until it starts bubbling up. 

Immediately turn it down to low and add a tablespoon black tea per serving. 

Not quite.

Ready!

Let the tea simmer for about 10 minutes, until it turns a nice golden color. Turn off the heat. (And turn up the beat.) Using the cup sized strainer, slowly pour the tea into the mug. It is best to do this in the sink just in case the strainer gets clogged and tea misses the mug. 

Drink up.

Now all you have to do is add your favorite sweetener and sip the delicious spiciness that is real chai. Add only a little of the sweetener at first and taste it. Like I said, I love a spicier chai but a spoon of honey really takes the edge off. 

I was making Babycakes NYC banana bread while enjoying this fine cuppa chai. With chocolate chunks, of course. I'd love to hear your chai making experiences. If you have questions, just ask!

Goldilocks and the Three... Elephants?

Oh, the elusive chai tea. Before I moved to Maryland I had not had real chai. My chai experience included Starbucks' Tazo Chai Tea Lattes. Did you know that a tall soy chai has 32 grams of sugar? (Thank you Starbucks for letting me cringe at the nutritional info while drinking my syrup laden lattes.) That's almost the same as a can of Coke. Anyway, they're tasty but sugary. And they're made with a chai concentrate.

Jay's mom has made homemade chai everyday for the past 40 years (give or take a few days). Sometimes a couple times in a day. She is an authentic chai expert. And guess what! I will share her secrets with you! But not yet. First we must discuss other chai. I've had a lot of different chai. One loose leaf chai that I actually liked, Yogic Chai Original Masala, just won Best Chai at the North American Tea Championship. It's got some spice. Chai tea must have spice. Not just cinnamon and cloves-- it has to have pepper. A lot of loose leaf and bagged chai teas have too much cinnamon and cloves or an over abundance of cardamom. Where's the black pepper!? The only chai concentrate I've tried that had more spice to it was the Tazo, which can be purchased at most grocery stores. I think that if any tea has cinnamon, cloves and maybe ginger or cardamom the powers that be automatically name it "chai." Wow, can you tell I've become a chai snob? And I said I wasn't going to be a pretentious tea drinker.

I was talking to a coworker today about my quest for the ultimate chai. I have likened it to Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Instead I'm Goldilocks and the Three Elephants-- get it? There are native elephants in India. Or maybe Goldilocks and the Three Tigers? Either way... one is usually to sweet, one has too much cinnamon, and I've tasted and tasted and haven't really found the "just right" yet. But that doesn't stop me from wanting to try them all.

There's a chocolate company called Taza based in Massachusets that makes delicious authentic Mexican drinking chocolate. They are fair trade/living wage and work directly with the cacao growers. [CACAO!] They have partnered with a Massachusets based tea company called Mem Tea to create a cacao chai. I like the fancy name: Chai Spice Cascarilla. Cascarilla. Apparently that means husk, as in cocoa shells maybe? Cascarilla is more fun to say. Here's the ingredients list thanks to Taza: black tea, organic roasted cocoa shells, whole cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, vanilla. Sounds delicious, no?

I drank this tea straight up. Usually I like tea and sweetener in chai, but I wanted to see what it tasted like plain first. I let it steep a bit longer than I should have and it was still on the mellow side. The cinnamon wasn't too overpowering and all the other spices were pretty balanced. Not too spicy and not too bland. They have almost all the "right" chai ingredients in there, minus the black pepper. The addition of vanilla adds a little sweetness and the cocoa shells gives a unique kick. I think this tea is good for a "little more than black tea but not crazy tea" day. May try with a little hemp milk next time.

The MEM Tea website is pretty fantastic. Their main focus seems to be on wholesale to coffee and tea shops as well as cafes and restaurants. But you can see all of the teas available and buy in bulk directly from them. One in particular I am desperate to try is the Thai Tea. I love a good Thai iced tea! They have a great "Learn"page that has tea basics, tea and health, preparation and recipes. There are instructions on how to make concentrates for chai and Thai teas for commercial use as well as instructions on basic tea brewing. They call it "tea dosing"- I think I want to start saying "I'm preparing my dosage of tea" when I make a cuppa now. Pretty great site-- definitely check it out! I found a retailer that sells Mem Tea in ounces instead of pounds. May be putting in an order for Thai tea very soon.

Since I am just getting the feel for this blog think I epically failed this week with regular posting. I do have a long list of teas to blog about now though! Expect to see some interesting teas and even a few recipes down the road. AND hopefully some tea room reviews!

Campfire in a cup

From Peets.com

A dear friend gave me a tin of Peet's Scottish Breakfast. He said quite a few times as he handed it over that it is malted or has a malted quality to it. Being the gluten intolerant person I am I heard "malted" and thought, well so much for that tea. (Malt is usually referring to malted grains-- grains of the glutenous variety are briefly sprouted then heat dried. It's actually a pretty cool process. Then they're made into beer and Milk Duds.) The tea tin doesn't have an ingredients list per se but it does mention "Indian teas" and "Lapsang Souchong" and "smokey."

Today at lunch I decided I wanted to try it so I checked out the website to see if it listed ingredients there. Nope, but there is an Ask Peet's line where I can talk to a true Peet's Coffee and Tea expert. I called. The nice young man (I say young but I bet he was the same age as me) cheerfully asked what he could help me with. This is what I said, "Well, I have a question about this tea that I received as a gift. It's Scottish Breakfast. He kept going on about how it was malted and I wasn't sure if he really meant malted or if he was just saying that for the fun of it. And I know that people with gluten intolerance can't have things with malted anything in it and there aren't any ingredients listed on the tin so I wasn't sure if I could drink it. So what did he mean by malted?"

I think he kind of laughed and said, "Scottish Breakfast is really just a blend of Indian black teas. The malt is a tasting note. So there isn't actual malt anything in it." Without a pause. He knows his tea. To which I said, "Oh thanks! Sorry for the silly question!" "Not a silly question at all (laugh laugh), have a good day!" Thanks Peet's Coffee and Tea for answering my paranoia question.

So I decided it was safe to try Scottish Breakfast. I pried open the lid and bang! Campfire! I made everyone on lunch break with me smell it. We agreed that the description of "warm hearths in the rugged Scottish countryside" and "smokey" were pretty accurate. After the covering and steeping for 4-5 minutes I tasted it and man, is it a unique taste. Have you ever tried Lapsang Souchong before? Well this is tea that is smoked over pinewood. I think it's a little more detailed than that, like a specific type of tea from a specific area, but generally speaking it's a smoked tea.

Scottish Breakfast tastes like a campfire in a cup. Really. My first thought was that it tasted like vegan hot dogs cooked over a barbeque. I can't remember what actual hot dogs taste like so someone will have to tell me if they thing lapsang souchong tastes like hot dogs. It's a weird taste but surprisingly good. I also can't remember what malted anything tastes like so I'm going with smokey. It's totally like a campfire in a cup. I suggest trying a cup of lapsang souchong at some point. Whenever I feel like I want a trip to the "rugged Scottish countryside" or just want to pretend I'm camping, I will certainly make a cuppa Scottish Breakfast. Maybe I'll even make a sheet tent and put on a fireplace DVD. A girl's got to make do when her husband loathes camping.

Let me know if you try some! I want to know what you think of any lapsang souchong!

Because I don't have any good pictures of the Scottish countryside, here's a picture of me in Scotland. I left the tea at work, so picture of the actual tea tomorrow.

Me living the dream, circa 1998

Today's tea tasting soundtrack: Hornpipes from Hell - Albannach