Chai is a great spice milk tea from India that’s quickly becoming very favored in the West as folk discover it at tea and coffee homes everywhere.

The ingredients of chai are offered to have healthy benefits, which is generally prepared by boiling loose leaf tea and adding milk, sweetener, and numerous spices depending on personal tastes. In India, chai is more popular than coffee, and there are several different variants of the tea, that has been a staple there for centuries. Chai tea can be enjoyed hot, morning or evening, summer or winter.

There are instant chai mixes and chai concentrates that just need milk to be added. For vegans or the lactose intolerant, soy milk is a great substitute for the entire milk and cream that normal chai tea recipes call for. Low fat versions are also well-liked for anybody looking to bypass the additional calories. The commonest technique of making chai tea is to boil water with sugar, molasses, or honey with a number of spices including cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, star anise, peppercorn, cloves, nutmeg, chocolate, cocoa, vanilla, licorice, or saffron, and then add the tea and milk/soy/ cream and broil a bit longer. The secret to meaking good tea is to leave the tea leaves in the very hot water long enough, but not so long the tea is sour. If you’re a little intimidated, look at this recipe for a dry mix for instant chai tea that you can keep available for those frequent chai tea emergencies, and also a superb present for any tea fan.

It is easy to find heaps of great recipes online, including normal chai, and other fast and easy differentiations of spiced chai tea that you can make at home. Odie.org features recipes picked up from all over the world, as well as chai brewing tips and hints, and a chai ingredient dictionary.

If you are in a rush and are out of time to whip up your own, Starbucks features a juicy Tazo chai tea latte, which is a steamed mix of rare black teas, milk, exotic spices and comforting vanilla.