I am pretty sure that this is not an original – but I do believe that you should “Chai” (try) this at home as it will turn your world upside down.. well at least it has for me and my previously non-existent caffeine addiction.
My morning Chai is not just a basic necessity to get my day started and to satisfy my newly found caffeine addiction but it also has become my most favorite morning routine that looks and tastes different each day but constantly provides a calm and safe harbor before the bustle and hustle of the day starts.
Every morning starts the same, whether grumpy from a short night with bad sleep or well-rested and feeling like nothing could ruin the moment: the very first thing that needs to be done is to kick off the Chai preparations.
For this, we simply boil some water while scrambling together the ingredients in a small pot that we use for boiling the tea.
Us personally, we are not too particular with our black tea choices. Currently, we are actually looking for some good loose tea that we can buy in big quantities while not spending too much money to satisfy our usage volume without us having to resupply every couple of days – if you have any tip where we should have a look, please do let us know in the comments!
So, we just take about 10 bags of whatever black tea we have in the house, and yes I mean 10 as in ten as this was not a typo and I did not accidentally add on a zero – we actually need that much caffeine and sometimes this does not even wake us up no more. But we love the taste and the newly found morning routine tradition, so we keep it going.
Together with the handful of tea bags, we use about two teaspoons of our favorite chai mix. For us we have been recommended to use the Chai mixes from this amazing Fiji Spice Market in Newtown here in Sydney which has got us absolutely hooked – hands down the best chai mix we ever had and a wonderful opportunity to support a local business, especially during the current times and continuous lockdown periods.
We are currently using a complete Chai mix including Black tea as during our last visit to the store they did not have the original spice mix we previously used in stock, but we are sure to resupply with that as soon as we have finished our current spices. Below I have inserted an image of the Chai Spice mix we have been using – click the following link to get more details on the mix we are using and their other products:
https://www.chai.com.au/product/spice-mix/
However, with any spice mix, it is always a trial and error until you find your preferred ratio of black tea to spices and then to milk. So don’t give up after the first trial – readjust the ratios if it wasn’t to your liking the first time around and “Chai” again.
Also do not hesitate to add on more spices if you feel up to it – I know Amro does it sometimes for us but when I make the Chai, I am perfectly happy with the mix we have. In the end, it is all up to you.
Once the water is boiled and the pot is filled with tea bags and spices, we simply fill the pot up with water of around 2 cups or so while turning on the stove to the highest heat setting available. If we have a lot of time such as on weekends, we sometimes let it boil on medium to high heat for a little longer in time instead.
The tea and spices usually boil for about 5 minutes, sometimes longer and sometimes shorter, until we add in the milk. Here, the same procedure as with the Chai spice mix – it is completely up to your own preference on what type of milk you use and how much you add in here.
For us, it always differs a bit as we never really measure the milk usage – but you could say we use around 1 cup of milk, usually, eye measured depending on the color of the tea in the pot.
Once we have added the milk into our pot, we set down the heat to a low-temperature setting for everything to come together. This would then take about another 5-10 minutes until it comes to a full boil on that lower heat setting.
Now, this is very important: once we have finished boiling the Chai and if we have used tea bags instead of loose tea, we take a small strainer for our tea bags and press all the liquid out of them using a teaspoon for us not to lose any of the valuable Chai to the trash can. We literally always do this and I promise you there is lots of juicy Chai stored in these bags!
We are almost at the finish line at this point and the only thing left for us to do is to strain the chai into a big jug – we usually use our plunger for this which has been repurposed for our Chai addiction as it is fairly big and can hold all of the Chai if we don’t go overboard with the quantities.
Depending on the color of the tea we tend to add more milk in our separate cups as the darker it is the stronger it usually is and we prefer to have it medium strength in our cup. But again, this is a trial and error possibility and all depending on your personal taste.
So all that is left now, is to fill our cups, potentially add in more milk, and of course not to forget, add in our sweetener or sugar of choice – I love everything sweet, so I do need good amounts of equal or brown sugar for my own cup.
With this, we then usually just head on to our sofa in the living room and enjoy the morning quiet and the soothing feeling of the Chai. Maybe we will pick up our book, watch something on skillshare, journal, chitchat, or more often than we would want to admit scroll through our phones until we are somewhat ready to start the day.
Ingredients:
- Black tea
- Chai spice mix or individual spices
- Water
- Preferred Milk
- Strainer
- Large jug and pot for boiling.
Easy steps to make tasty Chai in a quick morning routine:
- Boil water depending on how many cups of Chai are needed – for two cups you can usually use about two cups of water.
- Add about 10 black tea teabags and two teapsoons of the Chai spice mix to your boiling pot.
- Add in the boiling water and let everything sit on the stove for about 5 minutes on the highest heat setting available.
- Add in your preferred milk and let it all slowly come together on a low temperature heat setting on the stove for about 5 – 10 minutes. You can use about 1 cup of milk for the above mentioned quantities.
- Once everything has come to a boil, strain out the teabags of the excess Chai (we won’t want to waste anything) and strain the chai either direct into your cups or into a big jar.
- Potentially add in more milk if desired as well as preferred sweetener or sugar.
- Enjoy in the sun, on the couch, in the bed or wherever your morning sanctuary is for a calm and peaceful start to the day and slowly grow that caffeine addiction – once you have started this Chai routine I promise you will not want anything else.
Zereine 