Coffeeshop Chai at Home
Why does chai tea pack a punch at a coffee shop but taste tepid when you brew it at home?
Short answer: it's the ginger.
Long answer: it's all the spices, but the ginger makes the biggest difference.
Chai tea has a blend of spices--cardamom, ginger, allspice, cinnamon, and black pepper--that make it the perfect autumn drink, especially when you serve it warm with milk and a dollop of honey.
Bad chai lattes taste too strongly of cinnamon. The strongest flavors in chai should be cardamom and ginger. I will also hear arguments for allspice being important (allspice is not a spice blend, by the way, but a kind of peppercorn), but only with a light hand.
Naturally, the best way to make a perfect chai tea at home would be to simmer unground spices with some loose leaf black tea, but you probably won't find whole cardamom at your local store, and it might be pretty expensive. I wouldn't know; I'm too lazy to investigate.
Here’s the easier way.
Buy a ginger root at the store. You'll find it in the produce section near other herbs and spices. It looks like a tan, headless, dancing man. It's not expensive. It's actually cheaper to buy fresh ginger than to buy ginger tea bags.
Pick up a box of chai tea while you're at it. I'm not here to start a fight about the quality of tea brands, but Twinings is decent for this purpose. (It's pennywise, pound foolish to go cheaper than Twinings on tea.)
Go home.
Turn on the Anne of Green Gables soundtrack.
Cut and peel a one-inch section of ginger. Chop it into four smaller pieces. No need to mince.
Pop those pieces into a small saucepan with a cup or two of water. Cover, boil, then reduce heat and simmer about ten minutes with the lid still on.
Get out your favourite mug. Drop in a chai tea bag and pour the freshly-brewed ginger tea over it.
Steep five minutes.
Sip the tea. Tasty, right? And thanks to the medicinal benefits of ginger, you just got a little bit healthier. Convenient!
You can stop there or use the same saucepan to heat some milk. Froth it if you're feeling fancy. Add as much as feels right to you. Maybe stir in a bit of stevia or honey or brown sugar if you like it sweet.
If you live far enough south that you just cosplay autumn, then you can ice the drink instead. We've had such balmy weather lately that I've been craving more iced drinks.
And there you go! An excellent chai tea you can make at home for about 25¢ a cup. Use the $5 you saved to go support a substack you like. Just not this one. I don't post regularly enough to charge you.
Enjoy!
