Making Chai

I like to sit down for a bit during nap time with my bible and this...

The first time I had cream in my tea I didn't like it, but I've acquired a taste for it.  Most days I use 2% milk or non-dairy creamer (I heard somewhere that putting diary in tea cancels out the antioxidants in the tea and the calcium in the milk. Anybody know if that is true?)

Something else I've acquired a taste for is chai latte.  I think it's like cappuccino for tea drinkers!  A few years ago I looked around for recipes to make my own, but didn't come up with anything that was as easy as I would have liked.  I've tweaked what I've found and came up with this recipe.

leaves from 8 tea bags (or 8 teaspoons of loose leaf tea)

2t ground ginger

2t ground cardamom

1T ground cinnamon

1/2 t ground cloves

10 pepper mill twists

Mix and store in an air tight container.  I used a baby food jar.

I found a printable from Martha Stewart for the front of the jar.

I used a little less than a teaspoon of the mix in my mesh tea diffuser for 5 minutes like I would any loose leaf tea.  Add 1t sugar and 2% milk to taste (chai buffs will tell you that whole milk or cream will mask the flavor of the spices and the sugar helps bring them out). 

Because I used preground spices there were a lot of dredges that made it through, but it settled to the bottom of my cup so it didn't bother me much.  I think it would be better if I could get a hold of whole spices and ground them myself, but I'm not sure if I could justify the cost.  I haven't done a price analysis, but I think the cardamom was probably the most expensive part I put in...I think I used about 25 cents worth.

Enjoy! and let me know if you have any suggestions.