As much as I am a coffee lover, I do on occasion enjoy a nice cup of hot tea. I recall tasting Masala Chai for the first time, years ago and absolutely loved it! This deliciously sweet, milky hot tea has spices with full notes of cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, ginger, and black peppercorns for that perfect ‘pick me upper’ to awaken the senses. After recently buying a store bought pre-packed mix, I was determined to learn how to make it from scratch.

There are many recipes out there with slight variations in ingredients but after testing this out a few times and substituting some ingredients in order to make it (a somewhat) low calorie tea, this is my version:

ingredients

*serves 4 cups

• 2 cups of water
• 4 whole cloves
• 4 green cardamoms, lightly cracked
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh ginger, peeled and crushed using a mortar with pestle
• 1 black peppercorn, grounded (I was scared to use more than that!)
• 2 tbsp of loose tea (traditional recipe calls for black loose tea, but for my recipe, I used Red Label Tea Orange Pekoe)
• 2 heaping spoonfuls of sugar, or to taste (I used Sugar in the Raw)
• 2 cups of skim milk (traditional recipe calls for whole milk or half-n-half)

directions

• In a medium sauce pan, bring water, cloves, cardamoms, ginger, cinnamon sticks and black peppercorn to a boil
• Reduce heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes
• Remove from heat, add milk, sugar, tea, stir and bring to a boil (make sure milk doesn’t bubble over)
• Remove from heat, cover pot and steep the tea for 3 minutes (the longer you let it steep, the stronger the taste of the tea will be)
• Strain and pour directly in tea cups, serve hot and enjoy!

-Photos by Rose Angel for Design by Occasion