Masala Chai Latte
Aromatic and with a blend of spices, where bold black tea meets creamy milk for a comforting cup you’ll crave again this autumn and the next!
Ingredients
- 3 pcs Green Cardamom
- 2 pcs Star Anise
- 1 tsp Cloves
- 1½ tsp Black Peppercorns
- 1 tsp Fennel Seeds
- 1 stick Cinnamon
- 3-4 slices Ginger
- 2-4 mugs/cups Water use the mug/cup you would be serving the tea in
- 2 Teabags Black Tea Lipton tea, Ceylon tea, Assam tea, Scottish/English Breakfast (see Recipe Notes)
- 2-4 mugs/cups Whole Milk use the mug/cup you would be serving the tea in
Instructions
- Slice 3-4 pieces of ginger and bruise them with the pestle and mortar to release more flavor. Alternatively, you can use the ginger slices without bruising them. If you prefer a milder ginger taste, feel free to use less, but avoid using too little, as ginger helps balance all the flavors.
- I personally like to dry roast the spices to release their essential oils and deepen their flavors, but this step can be skipped. Using a pestle and mortar, crush the spices until they are broken but not ground. This helps extract as much flavor as possible during the brew. If you don’t have a pestle and mortar, you can add the whole spices as they are.
- In a milk pan, add water, the crushed spices, ginger, and the cinnamon stick. Bring it to a boil over medium heat. Once boiling, lower the heat and add the tea bags. Let it simmer for 3-4 minutes—do not let it come to a full boil.
- Option 1 is to make the Classic Masala Chai: Add the milk at this stage and bring it to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, remove from heat. Using a tea strainer, strain it into the mugs or cups used to measure the water/milk, add sugar, and enjoy a delicious cup of masala chai. Option 2 is to make the Masala Chai Latte: For a deeper, more intense flavor, do not add milk yet. Instead, remove the spiced tea from the heat and let it steep for about 2 hours to enhance the flavors. After steeping, bring it to a boil over medium-high heat.
- (If you chose option 2, then proceed with this step) Once the masala chai has brewed, strain it into the mugs or cups used to measure the water/milk using a tea strainer. Add sugar and stir. Then, froth hot milk separately and pour it into the tea and sip away!
Notes
Spices
If you don’t own any of the spices listed in this recipe, or if you are short of a couple of spices, don’t feel the need to run to the stores to buy the spices just for this recipe. Alternatively, you can just use ginger, cardamom, and cinnamon—or just ginger even (I make ginger tea all the time using the same method in this recipe) and you will still have a good cup of Chai.
Tea
I've used both packaged tea and loose tea with this recipe, and all turned out great. So, feel free to use whichever is at your disposal. If you opt for loose tea, use 10-20 grams (5 grams for each cup of tea) for this recipe.