Make your own warm and cozy cup of chai tea anytime with this recipe for homemade chai tea concentrate.
When I was in college, our dormitories had a contract with Starbucks and therefore only served Starbucks coffee. My particular dorm had late night food and provided Starbucks coffee beverages. This is where I had my first chai tea latte and I was hooked. I thought it tasted just like Christmas! I would order one almost every day.
Eventually I worked my way up to espresso based lattes, only choosing the poor chai on occasion. I never became a true coffee drinker, needing to sweeten the black stuff with loads of milk and sugar.
After some time and some minor health issues, I decided to stop drinking as much coffee and get back to tea. I had learned through my dorm that the Starbucks chai tea lattes were made from a concentrate. I was so excited a couple of years ago to learn that I could purchase said concentrate in my grocery store. Yay! No more need for $4 chai tea.
Then I was fortunate enough to stumble upon this recipe from Tasty Kitchen for chai tea concentrate I could make in my own kitchen. I made it once and I was totally hooked. Now I make it almost every week. I modified the original recipe a little bit to accommodate what I typically have in my kitchen.
The best part of making your own (besides the cost) is that you can add as much or as little as you’d like and mix it with whatever milk suits you. I personally use about half chai tea concentrate and half milk when I’m making it hot. I use a little more concentrate when I’m making it cold because the added ice dilutes it.
Chai Tea Concentrate
Ingredients
- 10 tea bags sometimes I use all black tea, sometimes 5 black and 5 green
- 4 1/2 cups boiling water
- 4-5 anise stars
- 20 whole cloves
- 7 cardamom pods
- dash of nutmeg
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1-2 drops orange oil
- 2-3 small pieces fresh ginger or 1 teaspoon powdered ginger
Instructions
- Boil water. Steep tea bags, anise stars, cloves, cardamom pods, cinnamon, and ginger in water for about 20 minutes. Strain. Mix in honey, sugar, vanilla, and orange oil. Pour into container and refrigerate.
- To make tea: mix 1/2 cup chai tea concentrate with milk and heat. (I microwave mine for about 1 minute and 30 seconds). My sister prefers to drink hers cold and I must say, that is quite tasty in the summer.