Chai Tea Recipe Indian Tea
Hi Guys, today I’m going to make Chai also known as Indian Tea. We’ll need black tea leaves. This is a box of Indian Tea leaves, you can find this in most asian stores. If you can’t find Indian black tea, use another black tea. We’ll also need green cardamom pods, fresh ginger, whole milk, water and sugar. Crush the cardamom pods using a mortar and pestle or a spice grinder. Since it’s only four pods, I’ll use the mortar and pestle. Powder the pods. Break off a piece of ginger, peel it and use about a half inch piece.
In a steel pot, pour water, whole milk, don’t use skim or low fat milk for this recipe. You want the tea to be rich and creamy, not watery. Add the half inch piece of ginger cut up and the ground cardamom. Bring this up to a boil. Make sure to watch the pot so it doesn’t boil over. Stir once in a while. You can see the bubbles in the pot and it’s time to add the tea leaves. Add tea leaves. This will make a full strength tea. If you like milder tea, use less tea leaves. Boil and then simmer. Add sugar.
Strain the tea into a cup with a spout. You get about 12 ounces of tea from the 16 ounces of liquid we started with. This is one of my favorite tools in the kitchen and I use it to cool down the tea. You can use any cup with a spout. It’s nice to have a handle so you don’t burn yourself with the hot tea. This is called “pulling” tea and you’ll find this done at many tea shops in asia. If you search youtube for “tea pulling”, you’ll see guys doing 2 cups at a time with all sorts of tricks. I can manage just one cup at a time. If you’re new at this, do it over a sink so there is no mess. You can already see how much froth has formed.The more you pull tea, the cooler it gets and frothier it gets.
Now my tea is ready to drink. It’s the perfect blend of ginger and cardamom. The tea is rich, creamy and very soothing. After you try this Chai, it’ll be really hard to go back to a cup of water and a tea bag.
Recipe Video:
