{"id":1321,"date":"2025-02-19T12:50:21","date_gmt":"2025-02-19T12:50:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aegir-ran.com\/?p=1321"},"modified":"2025-02-19T12:50:23","modified_gmt":"2025-02-19T12:50:23","slug":"chai-tea-recipe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aegir-ran.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/19\/chai-tea-recipe\/","title":{"rendered":"Chai Tea Recipe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I remember the day in 2014 I became addicted to chai tea. I had just finished the Larapinta Trail<\/a>, a 139 mile-long walking track<\/a>\u00a0in the\u00a0Northern Territory<\/a>\u00a0of Australia. (from east to west, with the eastern end at\u00a0Alice Springs<\/a>\u00a0and the western end at\u00a0Mount Sonder<\/a>, one of the territory’s highest mountains. It follows the\u00a0West MacDonnell Ranges<\/a>, sometimes along the ridge line, other times on the plain below, in the\u00a0West MacDonnell National Park<\/a>. I had returned to Alice Springs and treated myself to a cafe where I sat pondering the menu and nursing my blisters. On a whim, I ordered chai tea, something I had never had before. It arrived as a steaming kettle of water and a sachet of fresh herbs and spices. It was ambrosia. When I returned to the US, I tried to source “good” chai tea and was disappointed with everything I tried. Being the scientist I am, I decided to experiment with recipes. I kept a notebook and with each batch, I fiddled with the formula.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What follow is the final product (the hot links are to Amazon), a concoction I drink almost every day. I even have a milk frother on the boat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

150 g chopped candied ginger<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

50 g star anise<\/a> (broken into pieces by hand)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

10 g dried bay leaf<\/a> (crushed by hand)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

50 g cinnamon chip<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

15 g whole allspice<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

50 g whole green cardamon<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

10 g whole black peppercorn<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

20 g whole cloves<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I measure the ingredients with a small kitchen scale<\/a> and usually make a double batch at a time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mix the spices and store in a ziplock bag (do not store with tea leaves).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Add to 4c water several tablespoons (to taste) of the spice mix and a couple of teaspoons of Assam tea leaves<\/a> (to taste). Bring to boil, then reduce to simmer 5-10 minutes. In the meantime, steam unflavored and unsweetened Silk soy milk (I use a Breville Milk Caf\u00e9 Frother<\/a>). Remove tea from the heat. Add honey (I use Nates raw unfiltered honey<\/a> to taste) and a teaspoon of vanilla extract (I use Watkins baking vanilla<\/a>). Filter the spice\/tea\/honey\/vanilla mixture. Note: throw away the precipitate at the bottom as it will make your tea bitter. I store the tea in a thermos. Add 2-3 times more tea than steamed soy milk (to taste) and mix. Spoon a little foam on the top.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I remember the day in 2014 I became addicted to chai tea. I had just finished the Larapinta Trail, a 139 mile-long walking track\u00a0in the\u00a0Northern Territory\u00a0of Australia. (from east to west, with the eastern end at\u00a0Alice Springs\u00a0and the western end at\u00a0Mount Sonder, one of the territory’s highest mountains. It follows the\u00a0West MacDonnell Ranges, sometimes along … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Chai Tea Recipe”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food","category-recipes"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aegir-ran.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aegir-ran.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aegir-ran.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aegir-ran.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aegir-ran.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1321"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/aegir-ran.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1324,"href":"https:\/\/aegir-ran.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1321\/revisions\/1324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aegir-ran.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aegir-ran.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aegir-ran.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}