Thursday, November 19, 2009

Healthy Gift from Your Kitchen - Chai Tea Recipe


There are many chai tea recipes - as many as their are chai tea drinkers! Each recipe is unique and it's possible to invent your own by taking the basic Indian spices and adjusting them to your own personal taste.

Chai tea is a wonderful gift to make in your own kitchen for a friend or loved one this holiday season. Winter is tea drinking time and tea is a healthy, warming drink. Add immune boosting Indian spices and you are helping to protect yourself from the cold and flu germs that fly around this time of year.

To give Chai tea as a gift, make a recipe and put it in a decorative jar. In another decorative jar, put loose black tea . This makes a nice gift all by itself but if you want something a little fancier, put the tea, chai and a nice tea cup and saucer like this Burgundy Tea For One Teapot into a basket, add more decorative glass canisters for the tea or a small personal size tea pot.

Chai Tea Recipe

Ingredients

1 Tbsp fennel or anise seed
6 green cardamom pods
12 cloves
1 cinnamon stick
1/4" ginger root, sliced thin
1/4 tsp black pepper corns
2 bay leaves

(To create a gift with this recipe, double it, mix well and put into air tight, decorative jar and then write up the following directions to put with it.)

To make this chai tea, add one-half of the ingredients to 7 cups water

Boil 5 minutes, then steep for about 10 minutes

Add 2 tbsp Darjeeling or other black tea, bring mixture to a boil again, then turn down heat and simmer 5 additional minutes. Strain liquid into a tea pot.

Then add 6 tbs honey and 1 cup of milk and pour into cups.

Enjoy with friends.

A smaller, simpler chai recipe for one cup of chai tea could include just

1 inch stick of cinnamon
8 cardomom pods
8 whole cloves
1 1/2 cups water

Experiment with chai spices to see what combination you like best.

For more healthy weightloss tips, visit my website Path2HealthyLiving.com

No comments: