Spiced Chai Concentrate Recipes

Steps:

• In a spice grinder or with a mortar and pestle, combine cardamom pods and peppercorns; grind until aromas are released., In a large saucepan, bring water to boil. Add cardamom mixture, honey, cinnamon sticks, cloves, star anise and ginger; simmer 5 minutes or according to taste. Remove from heat. Add tea bags; cover and steep 5 minutes., Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, heat milk. Strain tea, discarding spices and tea bags. Stir in hot milk and vanilla. Pour into mugs. If desired, sprinkle with nutmeg.

Steps:

• Bring water to a boil in a saucepan; add cloves and boil for 1 minute. Add cinnamon sticks, ginger, cardamom pods, peppercorns, and tea. Allow tea to steep for 6 minutes; strain into a container. Stir brown sugar and vanilla extract into tea and refrigerate until chilled, at least 1 hour.

Steps:

• Pour condensed milk and spices into the blender and blend on high speed for a few seconds until the milk looks evenly "flecked" with spices.
• Pour mixture into a clean jar or container with a lid.
• Refrigerate at least 24 hours.
• Alternatively, pour mix into ice cube trays and freeze.
• To use concentrate: Brew a strong black tea or strong herbal tea of your choice.
• Stir in 1 frozen concentrate cube or 1/2 to 2 teaspoons of chai concentrate mix per cup of freshly steeped tea.
• Frozen cubes will keep up to one year in the freezer if you pop them out of the trays and store in a freezer bag.
• Concentrate will keep in the fridge for up to 3 weeks.

Steps:

• Prepare the spices and the tea; set aside. Bring the water to a boil and remove from heat. Add the spices and the tea bags then allow the mixture to steep for 15 minutes.
• Strain the mixture into a 4-cup glass measuring cup or large bowl, discarding the spices. Add the sugar, honey and the vanilla and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Pour the mixture into a jar and store in the refrigerator.
• To serve, mix 1 part concentrate with 1 part milk or half-and-half. Heat for a warm beverage or pour over ice to enjoy cold.

Steps:

• special note about spices (If you have a bulk foods or Whole Foods or Vitamin Cottage kind of grocer nearby, get the spices from the bulk section. They often cost 25% what you'd pay for a jar! My total ingredients expense was around $1.50, not including the milk!).
• In a medium-large saucepan, bring about 7 cups water to a boil.
• Meanwhile, add the 6 spices (do not add the tea yet).
• Once the water/spice mixture is boiling, add the tea.
• Boil 5 minutes, then remove from heat. (I know you're never supposed to boil tea, but I found this works just fine. If you don't want to boil the tea, just boil the spices for 5 minutes and steep slightly longer.).
• Stir in the brown sugar (or honey) and vanilla.
• Steep for 8 minutes, then strain into a glass container.
• While you wait for it to cool, pour a mug 2/3 full with your chai and add hot milk to the top. (If it isn't spicy or sweet enough, you can still add more spices to steep - just strain the mixture again before storing.) OR for a real treat, use hot evaporated milk (I wouldn't want this every day, because its a little sweeter and creamier than regular milk.).
• Store in the refrigerator for 7 days (maybe longer, but all chai concentrate containers claim 7 days is best). Note: Normally you'd use 1:1 ratio of chai:milk, but I brew it a little weaker and save $ on milk since I drink so much chai.

Steps:

• Crush together the black pepper, ginger root, cardamom, cinnamon stick, and cloves in a coffee grinder or food processor(just pulse, do not grind to a powder).
• Add to 8 cups of water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium and cook for 10 minutes.
• Add 8 teaspoons of tea. Allen uses Darjeeling OP. Steep for 8-10 minutes. Stain out the spices and tea. Add 1 teaspoons of vanilla and 3 teaspoons of honey, or sweeten to taste. Enjoy!
• This can be refrigerated for weeks.
• Heat up as needed and add an equal amount of hot(Allen steams his) milk. Top with ground cinnamon.
• Note:.
• For a mocha chai, use chocolate milk instead of white.
• For herbal chai, replace the Darjeeling with 1 teaspoons each of chamomile, fennel seed and peppermint.

Steps:

• Coarsely crush cardamom pods with a mortar and pestle, then partially grind seeds. Transfer to a plate. Grind peppercorns with mortar and pestle until about medium-coarse; transfer to same plate.
• Rinse a medium pot (about 9" diameter) with water (this helps keep the milk from scorching). Combine milk, cardamom pods and seeds, pepper, and ginger in pot and bring to a rolling boil over medium heat, scraping sides and bottom of pot occasionally with a heatproof rubber spatula. When foam starts to rise, cook 20 seconds, scraping spices from sides of pot (some plant-based milks won't foam; simply cook 30 seconds from boiling). Reduce heat to low to allow foam to die down, then increase heat to medium-low and simmer, scraping bottom and sides of pot occasionally and adjusting heat as need to keep foam from rising, until milk is light tan in color from spices, about 2 minutes.
• Stir in tea and simmer, scraping pot occasionally and adjusting heat as needed, until milk is deep tan and reduced by one third, about 4 minutes. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a large measuring glass, pressing on solids with spatula. (Soak pot in hot water immediately to help with cleaning.) You should have 2 cups chai concentrate; return chai to pot and simmer another minute to reduce further if needed. Add sugar and stir until dissolved.
• Place ice in a large heatproof bowl with a spout or a large heatproof pitcher. Immediately pour hot chai over ice. Stir until ice is almost completely melted (larger cubes may take longer), about 2 minutes. Taste chai and add up to 2 Tbsp. cold water or 1 Tbsp. simple syrup (dissolve 2-4 tsp. sugar in 2 tsp. warm water) if needed. Serve in glasses filled with fresh ice if desired.
• Do ahead: Chai can be made 3 days ahead. Transfer to an airtight container; cover and chill.