Chai tea

Jen threw together a pretty awesome gift for me this Christmas, including all the fixin's for some seriously delicious Chai tea. The original recipe is from Cooking Light but Jen added a few modifications, as you'll see below. I didn't use the full 1/4 cup of honey to sweeten the tea I made a couple of days ago and it was still fantastic.

Basic ingredients:

• 7 cardamom pods, crushed*
• 6 whole cloves*
• 4 white peppercorns*
• 1 (1/2-inch) piece peeled fresh ginger, coarsely chopped*
• 1 cinnamon stick, broken**
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 tablespoon black tea leaves (such as Darjeeling or Assam)***
• 1/4 cup honey

Preparation:

1. Combine first 5 ingredients with 1 1/2 cups water in a medium saucepan; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes.
2. Add milk and tea; simmer for 4 minutes (do not boil).
3. Strain through a fine sieve into a small bowl; discard solids.
4. Add honey to tea mixture, stirring until well blended.

~Makes two 1-cup servings~

*Alternately, combine these into a packet. Jen simply wrapped enough for one recipe in a coffee filter, then tied the filter with some twine. Smart cookie.
**Keep the cinnamon stick whole and simmer with the spice packet.
***Use one Darjeeling tea bag in place of the loose tea. With the spice packet, whole cinnamon stick and tea bag, there's no need to strain!

Note: You can also substitute and modify any of the spices used in the spice packet, including: black peppercorns, vanilla bean seeds, star anise, bay leaves, or allspice. Enjoy!