Chai

Basic Chai Tea

• 1 cup milk
• 2 cups water
• 1 tbsp loose black tea
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 drop vanilla extract
• 1/2 tbsp cardamom
• 1/2 tbsp cinnamon
• 1/8 tbsp ginger
• 2 whole cloves

Place all ingredients except milk in a small saucepan. Simmer for a few moments. Add milk. Simmer for a moment. Strain. Drink.

Bexxta's Chai Tea

• 1 cup of water
• milk
• 1 tea bag
• 2 cloves
• 1/2 a cinnamon stick
• A few cardamom seeds
• A sprinkle of nutmeg
• A few slivers of fresh ginger (can be replaced with a sprinkle of ginger powder)
• Sugar to taste (keep in mind that Chai is traditionally very sweet)

Method 1: *Place all ingredients except milk into small saucepan. Simmer for a few minutes. Add milk. Strain. Drink.

Method 2: Place all ingredients except milk and water in a mug. Boil water. Pour water over ingredients. Let sit for a minute. Add milk. Drink. (The ingredients will sink to the bottom and remain there, but if you're fussy and don't want them there at all you can strain the tea before you drink.)

*Tip: Multiply the ingredients by the amount of cups you may want to drink. You can always heat the tea up later, however be careful reheating the milk.

The tea keeps quite well in a bottle in the fridge. And can be drunk cold.

Henna's Tea

I know how it sounds but don't be crazy, you can't drink henna leaves. I don't know what that'll do, maybe turn you red or brown, or green. Most likely purple. I won't even try.

This is how Henna made tea when she was in a good mood:

• Take 1 cup water and put to heat.
• When it comes to boil, lower the heat and add following:
• 1½ tablespoon sugar
• ¼ tablespoon Chai Masala (wait! I'll tell you how to make this too)
• 2 pinches cardamom powder
• 1 tsp. dried tea leaves (she used Lipton Red Label).
• Allow to simmer till aroma exudes.
• Take a deep breath, take a moment away from everyday troubles and lose yourself in the aroma. But don't take too long.
• Add 1 cup milk, preferably whole milk. Raise the heat (but not too much, else you'll burn the milk!)
• Bring the concoction to boil.
• Lower the heat again, and allow to simmer for another 2 minutes.
• Cover and take off heat. Keep aside for a minute.
• Strain and serve piping hot.
• Sip! don't gulp.

» Preparing Chai Masala: (See? I told you I'll talk about this too)

Take the following:

• 1 cup dried ginger root.
• ½ cup green cardamom pods.
• 1 tbsp. peppercorns.
• 6-7 2" sticks of cinnamon.

Grind all the mixture together into powder. This is Chai Masala. Label it well.

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Half Milk Tea

And this is how my mom makes bed tea every morning:

• Take about 2½ cups of water. Boil it.
• Now add 2 cups of milk and 2 teaspoons of regular tea leaves.
• Add 3 teaspoons sugar. It depends on your taste of course.
• If you want to make it into a special kind of tea - add some grated ginger here. You can also add 3-4 crushed cardamom pods at this point.
• Let if boil.
• Your cardamom/ginger/plain tea is ready.
• Strain and serve piping hot.
• Sip! don't gulp.

The Hebrew word CHAI, (spelled Chet Yud) means life. It is also typically used to indicate the number 18, due to the fact that the numerical value of the letters is 18. It is considered auspicious, therefor, to give gifts at weddings and Bar Mitzvahs of, or in multiples of 18. This also hold true of giving gifts to charity, and in almost any Orthodox Synagogue, when the have a charity auction for various honors that will be given out in synagogue, such as who hold the Sefer Torah on Simchat Torah, the amounts are counted in multiples of Chai ("Do I hear 10 Chai? 10 Chai going once...") This word is also the root of the word L'Chaim, a traditional Jewish toast (meaning "To life")

Ingredients
Solid Ingredients, listed in order of personal preference:
Cloves
      These are super-christmasesque. Too many cloves in your tea can make your tongue go numb, which is sort of annoying, because otherwise they make a great breath freshener when chewed!
Black Tea (preferably Earl Grey)
      All the tea i use is very stale, and thus I end up using much more of it than is likely advisable. If you have fresh tea, you may want to use less than my suggested amounts.
Cardamom seeds
      These are pretty very strong, and will overpower your tea easily. They numb your tongue, too! But, you need them, because they add some spicey kick to your chai.
Peppercorn
      These are spicy and are good for when you want really peppy happy tea! One per cup should do it.
Cinnamon (sugar, sticks, powder, et al)
      Cinnamon powder is very strong and should be added carefully, cinnamon sugar is not preferable because I personally dislike sugar in chai tea. Cinnamon sticks are great if you can find them.
Pumpkin Pie Spice
      This is just a mixture of a bunch of various pumpkin-y ingredients, many of which are already in your tea. Don't add too much or else you won't be able to taste anything else in your brew!
Dried and ground hot peppers!
      Obviously you need just a few infinitesimal specks of this in tea, if any at all. Nonetheless, it can make your tea very spicy and peppy happy if used!
Nutmeg
      This is christmas.
Ginger
      Add to taste. Don't grind whole ginger stem, peel it and then cut it into thin strips, then slices, then throw it in the pot.

Liquid bases, in order of preference:
Soy Milk
      Vanilla Silk is the best! You can boil this and it won't scald or nothin'. Tastes great with honey.
2 part water, 1 part warmed milk
      Be sure not to warm milk too much, or else it will scald and taste rotten! Never boil milk.
Water
      Meh. This is for breakfast tea.

Sweeteners, in order of preference:
Honey
      Delicious! Add bit by bit, as too much can really smother the other flavours.
Vanilla
      Add slowly. Not a substitute for actual sweeteners.
Brown sugar
      This sort of tastes like a cross between honey and sugar, and if definitely preferred over the latter.
Sugar
      Yuck! This is for coffee. Really bad coffee.

Personal Notes

All ingredients must be added carefully, as too much of any single ingredient often sticks out like a sore thumb.

You could grind ingredients with a mortar & pestle, however I usually pulverise them into a fine powder with a coffee grinder. This way, you end up having to use less, as their flavour will be more efficiently absorbed by the water/soy milk. But, then again, you may prefer the traditional way of grinding ingredients.

You can put all of the ingredients in a tea bag and steep it in a teapot after heating up your water/soy milk, but you often end up with a papery flavour. To avoid this, I usually brew the ingredients with the water/soy milk in a pot or pan on a stovetop, and then filter them out when pouring.

Amounts

Sorry, I don't measure anything when making tea, so I'm just going to guess. I suggest that you learn to add ingredients by taste, it's much more fun and you get to know your ingredients a whole lot better.

1 standard mug size's worth of soy milk or watermilk whatever you're using.
Roughly 1/3 of a teaspoon, of the following spice mix:
      5:1 clove/cardamom ratio
      4:1 cardamom/peppercorn
1 tablespoon tea leaves
Dash of nutmeg
Dash of cinnamon powder and/or pumpkin pie spice
A few grains of dried and ground hot pepper
1 tablespoon of honey

Steep until you have something that suits your taste buds.

Chai

2 mugs of water
1 mug of milk
2 teabags
4 cardamom pods, seeds only
1 tsp ginger
1tsp nutmeg
3 cloves
A sprinkling of black pepper
Three tablespoons of honey

Boil the water, teabag, honey and spices together until well brewed. Add the milk. Drink.

**

Tasty, sweet, spicy and better than cocoa. For the really sickening feelgood factor, replace the honey with condensed milk.

Part of Devilfloss' Vegetarian Cookbook: A Simple and Accurate Guide To The Revolution