Chai has many different meanings, but those of us from the uk festival / free party scene will know it as a sweet, warm, milky, spicy tea. The basic recipe is cinamon, cloves, cardamon, ginger, vanilla, black tea, water, milk, sugar - but different people use different things and make up their own blends based on ratios, how long it's steeped for etc.
Before i turned vegan I was buying it places made with soya milk, which seems to be quite accepted amongst omnis as a valid ingrediant for it as opposed to cows milk.
My own recipe changes each time i make it and i generally don't measure things out, but I did this time so i can share it. I have a mug infront of me as i type this and it tastes pretty good. I don't have any cardamon at the moment, so the method i used was as follows:
400ml boiling water in a pan on a medium heat with 1 tsp ground cloves, 1 tsp ground ginger, 1 tsp ground nutmeg, 1 inch cinamon stick, 2 cm vanilla pod simmered for 15 mins. 1 black tea bag added and stirred for 2 mins then removed. Finally 200ml of soya milk added and bought back to the boil (approx 10 mins).
This can then be left on the stove on a low heat with a lid for however long, then strained into mugs when served and sugar added to taste (i like mine sweet - approx 3 tsp).
Anyone else wanna share any blends? I have been known to add lots of extra cloves before when I've had a toothache, it's very soothing and makes the mouth go numb
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