Chai Tea Recipe

Chai is a delicious spiced milky tea with its origins in Ayurvedic medicine.  All of the ingredients have health benefits.  Black tea is full of health benefits.  Black tea is full of antioxidants and contains caffeine for a pick-me-up.  Cardamom is excellent for nausea and gas and also helps the body to detoxify caffeine.  Cinnamon is warming and stimulates digestion, black pepper improves appetite and acts as a natural antibiotic within the digestive tract and ginger is a circulatory stimulant with anti-inflammatory properties.

So chai tea is a health tonic in a cup!

While there are many fine pre-mixed packaged products available nothing beats a cup of chai made from scratch with fresh spice!

1/2 cup water 1/2 cup milk or milk substitute 1 teaspoon black tea 1 cardamom pod 2 black peppercorns 1cm cinnamon stick fresh ginger root the size of two peas

Crush all spices in a mortar and pestle or on a board with a rolling pin.  In a medium saucepan heat the water, milk, tea and spices.  Simmer, stirring for 15 minutes.  Strain and add sugar, honey or agave nectar to taste.

Recipe by Kate Wylie, Huckleberry Farms Greenlane