Try Your Own Chai!

Now a staple in many homes and coffee shops around the world, chai originated in India where the traditional spice blends for this delicious hot drink differ throughout Southern and Southwestern Asia. The term chai comes from the Hindi word chai, which was derived from the Chinese word for tea: cha. 

Chai basically consists of four elements—black tea, milk, sweetener, and spices—and there’s quite a lot of flexibility with all of them. You can use your preferred black tea, go with oat or almond milk if you’re vegan and/or froth the milk if you have frother, and choose your favourite natural sweetener like raw honey or maple syrup and adjust the amount of sweetness to taste. The core spices used in chai are usually ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, star anise and peppercorn, but, again, there are regional and personal variations. 

While there are tons of great pre-blended, ready-to-steep chai options available in BC, from time to time it can be really nice to brew your own chai from scratch using fresh and dried herbs. This allows you to gradually figure our your own personal preferences for the flavour balance!  We especially like making our own chai in the fall because the herbs and spices used are all really warming and energizing, and offer a range of systemic supports that are helpful as the colder weather settles in. Ginger, for example, is well known for being fantastic in calming an uneasy stomach and it has great anti-inflammatory properties too. Cinnamon also has very welcome anti-inflammatory properties, as well as anti-bacterial ones. Cardamom acts as a diuretic, has anti-microbial properties, and can settle your stomach like ginger. We find the overall effect of a good cup of chai to be deeply comforting and uplifting for mind and body.

Here’s a really simple recipe you can use as a base to begin your journey towards crafting your own personal perfect cup of chai! This recipe is for a single cup, so just double/triple/quadruple up for the number of cups you want to make, and you can always do some internet sleuthing to get ideas for spices and methods from different chai recipes from India and around the world.

Ingredients

1 cup of water
1/2 cup of preferred milk
2 teaspoons of preferred sweetener
2 heaping tablespoons of loose black tea (you can empty out tea bags to make a tablespoon if you don’t have loose leaves)
6 cardamom pods smashed with side of a knife
6 peppercorns
6 thin slices of fresh ginger root
2 whole cloves
2 star anise
Half of a dried cinnamon stick

Directions

Add water and desired spices to a medium saucepan, bring to a simmer and simmer gently for 5-10 minutes, covered. Reduce heat to lowest setting, add tea and your choice of milk. Steep until tea takes on a deep colour, about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Strain into a cup and stir in sweetener to taste.