DIY Chai Tea Latte

So, for those of you who know me well, you can easily name my favourite coffee drink- Non-Fat Chai Latte. Starbucks sells a concentrated Chai syrup that you can buy, so that you can make your own Chai Lattes at home (just add equal parts Chai syrup and milk, warm, and serve!) I recently bought this syrup, and while I enjoyed having a delicious Chai Latte at home, I'm not totally thrilled about paying nearly $9 for a 1 litre carton.

So I thought about how I would make my own Chai syrup. Having made my own Chai tea before, I knew it couldn't be too hard. So I Googled it (and those who know me well also know that I Google often!), and sure enough, it just required one extra step!

So here's my recipe for a delicious Chai Tea, and how to make it into a latte!

Ingredients

3 cups cold water

4 black tea bags (pick your favourite - I use orange pekoe)

3 cinnamon sticks

1 tsp ground ginger

4 whole cloves

4 cardamom pods

2/3 cup sugar (brown or white, whatever you have!)

milk (to make the latte)

Directions

1. In a small pot, add water, tea bags, cinnamon, and ginger to the pot.
2. Put the cardamom and cloves into a tea ball, and add the tea ball to the pot. If you don't have a tea ball, you can drop the spices into the pot. The tea ball is a personal preference. It stops little bits of the cloves and cardamom pods from getting into the tea mixture.
3. Bring the water and spices to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer. If you're making tea, remove the pot from heat, strain tea bags and spices, and serve once tea reaches desired strength. If you're making the latte, simmer for 5 minutes.
4. Remove tea bags, spices, and tea ball. Stir in the sugar.
5. Add syrup to milk (1/3 syrup to 2/3 milk; or 1/2 and 1/2). Refrigerate remaining syrup in an airtight container for about a month.