Explorations in Food: August 2011

Mmmm... Yes. Pure deliciousness.

Are you addicted to iced chai lattes in the summer like me? And hot chai lattes in the winter? Wait no longer, you can now make your own at home and it will taste just like Starbucks. Hooked? Yeah, I thought so.

A member of a naturally-minded listserv at that I am a part of recently posted a chai latte recipe. I've been itching for years to make my own but have never made the jump. Inspired, I followed her recipe, changing one or two things here and there, and wound up making a chai latte concentrate truly as good–or even better–than Starbucks.

Ingredients

1 to 1 1/2 gallons of water
3 cinnamon sticks
3 bay leaves
1 tablespoon whole cloves
1 tablespoon whole fennel
2 whole anise stars
8-10 allspice berries
1/2 vanilla bean split down the middle
1 tablespoon cracked cardamom seeds

as recommended by the woman who posted the original recipe, I crack them with my teeth

optional: 1/2 tablespoon sliced ginger
10 bags of black tea
sugar to taste

Preparation

Pour water into a stockpot and add all the spices (everything except for the tea and sugar).

Bring to a low boil and continue to boil, mostly covered, for 2 hours.

30 minutes

2 hours

Turn off burner, add the tea bags, and steep for 1 hour.

I used Twinings Decaffeinated English Breakfast, but want try rooibos next time for a truly caffeine free tea.

Strain out the spices.

Add sugar to taste at this point. Last time I made this I used a combination of raw sugar and agave nectar and found that I had to keep adding more. This time I added 2 cups of refined sugar from the start and it was way too much. Ah well. :) ... The best way to gauge how sweet you want the concentrate is to sample it every once and awhile with a ratio of 1:1 to 3:2 chai concentrate to milk.

Bottle up some concentrate to freeze for later.