I have a nasty Starbucks addiction, I have to confess. However, it’s not all about the coffee – sometimes you just have to have something different and their chai tea hits the spot. In the event of a blizzard (or the desire to just not go out and spend $4 on a Venti Iced Chai Latte), I always kept a package of the Tazo Chai Tea mix in the pantry. They also sell the chai tea bags but that just never was just right. However, the thought of making homemade chai never crossed my mind.
That was until I was perusing a recent issue of Cuisine Tonight and I saw a recipe for homemade chai. Even better – all of the ingredients were already in my pantry! Wait – I don’t have to pay a fortune to make it myself? More money for the choo fund, right?
Well, I have to say that while I will continue to frequent Starbucks, one thing that I won’t be spending my hard earned funds on is the Tazo chai mix. Why buy the mix when you can make it yourself, right?
Enjoy!
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup of loose tea or 5 tea bags
- 2 1/2 cups of water
- 2 cups reduced fat milk
- 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 2 tbsp. turbinado sugar
- 5 whole star anise
- 1 tsp. black peppercorns
- 3 green whole cardamom pods
- 1 piece fresh ginger (1-inch), cut into coins
Directions
- Over medium heat, add water to a medium saucepan.
- Crush cardamom pods and peppercorns. (Suggestion – if you don’t have a mortar and pestle, crush the spices in a small plastic bag so that you don’t have peppercorns flying everywhere). Add the crushed spices to water along with the ginger, star anise and cinnamon.
- Bring to a boil for one minute and then add the tea. Simmer for 5 minutes.
- Stir in the milk and return to a simmer.
- Sweeten with sugar to taste and stir so that the sugar dissolves.
- Remove from heat.
- Cool chai to room temperature.
- Once it is cool, pour the liquid through a fine mesh strainer (and, suggestion, line with a coffee filter for added spice/tea protection) into a pitcher. Discard the tea and spices.
- Refrigerate chai.
- To serve, fill glasses with ice and pour the chai over the ice.
- Chai should keep in the refrigerator for up to a week.
Notes
Recipe adapted from Cuisine At Home
Gather The Ingredients
Time to simmer
One of my fave ingredients – turbinado sugar
Adding the milk
Iced Chai Tea – easy on the wallet and so simple to make.
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I was a Starbucks junkie too, but I drank the fattening frappacinos. Thirty-four hours to go on the cleanse (no dairy, caffeine, or sugar allowed), and I'm celebrating that I made it to the finnish line with this!
Twitter: SueonFood
says:
I LOVE homemade Chai. My recipe is Madhur Jaffrey's, but yours looks really good too. She doesn't use the fancy sugar, but the main idea is to steep those spices. Don't you just love cardamon pods? I usually drink my chai hot. I have to try it on ice.
Ohh love chai lattes this will save me the 5 bucks they cost at starbucks
Aly:
I tried the recipe it was terrific, I drank it with some praline muffins and spiced peach jame that I had made. Your step by step pictures were great…….even if a person had no interest in cooking they would surely try this recipe.