I was shopping yesterday and decided to pick up a box of Good Earth Decaffeinated Chai Tea Bags that were on clearance at Smiths. (Sales are good!) Upon arriving home I boiled water and poured it in a mug, placed my tea bag in, steeped it for a few minutes and then sat back to enjoy the spicy tea. However, I found the tea to not be very spicy at all. I was dissapointed. The box says to add milk and honey if desired. So this morning I was on a mission. How do I make my own Chai Tea taste yummy without having to go to the local tea house? I set out on the internet for my search. I found a great website Chai! that has all sorts of recipes to make the tea itself from scratch and gave me the info I needed on how to make my pre-made tea bags taste yummy.

So here is what I did. I filled my mug with water, poured it into a sauce pan, added 1/4 cup milk and 1/8 cup honey, then I placed in the tea bag and brought the whole thing to a boil. Then I allowed it to steep for about 5 minutes before consuming. Ahh, much better. I am still looking for some more spicyness, so I think I will try it next time with table sugar so that the honey flavor doesn't dominate.

I may just have to try making the tea itself from scratch, but in the mean time this will satisfy my Chai needs.


Just a side note: Wikipedia has a great bit of info (don't they always) on Chai. They explained that really Chai means tea and what we drink is really Masala Chai or spiced tea. Also Wiki says that you must use much sweetener to get the flavors of the spices to come out. Lesson learned. On with the Masala Chai experementations.