Homemade Chai Tea

Mmmmm......chai.....so many yummy flavors all mixed together. We usually just use the packaged stuff. We add some milk warm it up or serve it on ice. Delicious! While it is yummy it has no health benefits whatsoever, We also have some dairy intolerant people in our house so they get kind of left out. So, I found a recipe from Christmas Cooking from the Heart that I was able to work with. So glad I tried it and I know you will be too. You can make this with regular milk or soy milk. I changed this recipe a bit (like I do with every recipe I try). So I will give the one that I made.

You will need:
2 c. of water
3-4 black tea bags (take off the string if there is one)
3 small cinnamon sticks
1/2 tsp. of cardamom
1/2 tsp. of ground ginger
1 tsp. of vanilla
1/3 c. raw sugar (regular would work too and you could also use honey)
6 c. milk (soy or reg.)


Put your two cups of water into a pot along with the cinnamon sticks and tea bags.
Bring to a boil.

Once it has reached the boiling point you can remove it from the heat.

Remove the cinnamon sticks and the tea bags from the water which is now tea.

Keep the tea in the pot and put it back on the stove.

Add to the tea, the cardamom, ginger, milk, sugar, and vanilla. 

Give it a stir. Turn your heat on low to medium heat.

You do not want to bring this to a boil.

You want it to be the temperature of a nice cup of hot tea but NO boiling! 

Stir  it occasionally.

You can see all the spices really coming out in the picture below.

The aroma is amazing! Better get the mugs out! It's just about done!

I wanted to put cinnamon sticks into the kids glasses

 because they like to use them as straws.

Since my sticks were so small I used small mason jars instead of a glass or mug.

They loved it! We also sprinkled a little nutmeg on the top of the tea.

This is a very healthy version of chai tea so, I have no problem making this more often.

The sugar is minimal compared to that of one package of the powdered version.

You could certainly play with this recipe and make it spicier or milky-er (is that a word?) or less milky. Whatever you decide I'm sure it will be delicious!

Now go relax! Only a few more days left till Christmas!