What is chai?? Chai is a tasty power drink full of spices. Chai is the word for tea in many parts of the world. Chai from India is a spiced milk tea.

In Lintukoto in Finland I made my first Chai from scratch and i wrote down the recipe in my notebook. This is my first release of the recipe, please add comments on results, tips and tricks.

Ingredients

Ginger	4-5cm piece
Cinnamon	5-10cm piece
Peppercorn	3 tea spoons
Salt	1/2 tea spoon
Green Cardamom	1 big spoon
Cloves	1 tea spoon
Star Anise	3-4 pieces
Black tea
Milk/Rice milk	2-3 dl
Sugar	2-3 big spoons

Instructions

1. Boil 1,5L of water and let it boil while adding spices
2. Add chopped-up ginger
3. Crush and add the Cinnamon
4. Crush and add the Cardamom
5. Add Peppercorns and Salt
6. Add Cloves
7. Add crushed Star Anise and/or chopped-up Liquorice root
8. In a separate casserole make 0,5L of strong black tea
9. Let your chai boil for 30 minutes
10. Filter and add the black tea
11. Before proceeding taste your Chai and add more spices/water to make it stronger/weaker. This is a critical point to make your chai perfect. You will learn by experience.
12. Add milk/rice milk
13. Add sugar
14. Taste your Chai again, you may still add more spices. Serve it in cups when you are happy.

Tips and tricks

Try to avoid spices in powder form.

Liquorice root might be used if you do not have Star anise

Be careful not to add to much clove, it is adding a strong aftertaste paralyzing your tongue.

Milk should not boil for a long time. Have a cup full of cold water ready to poor in the casserole to stop the milk from quickly boiling over the edges. One secret is to use mothers milk in your Chai.

Prepare yourself for a long line of people asking if your Chai is ready soon…

Honey might be added in each served cup.

It is possible to reheat cold chai and you may make more chai from the used spices, you only need to add some fresh spices.

Dictionary

English	Norwegian
Cinnamon	Kanelstang
Clove	Nellik
Ginger	Ingefær
Peppercorn	Pepper korn

External Links

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masala_chai
• http://www.chai-tea.org

Thanks to Tom making the Chai workshop.