Chai Tea Latte Recipe

It's that time of year. Christmas. That time to celebrate the birth of Jesus but also to find worthwhile and meaningful presents for your family that they wont return on Dec 26th. This year I'm attempting to make gift baskets for everyone in my family. I have kind of an eclectic mix of things to put in it, but I'm trying to find stuff that people will use. Now if you're in my family, stop reading now! Or at least not till after Christmas. Lol.

My  chai

Today I made Chai Tea Latte mix. While this is definitely not all natural or crunchy, it sure tastes good. I'm pretty particular about Chai Tea and only really like the liquid Tazo Chai brand that Starbucks carries. I used to drink the Oregon Chai brand but once I got used to the Tazo I can't drink the Oregon anymore. I think it's because the Tazo has a spicier flavor? I also don't like the tea bags kind of chai, even when I add milk. I have had a couple powder mixtures though that I liked. This is what I attempted to make today.

There are a lot of different recipes online but for the most part they're all the same. The instant Chai Latte mix recipe that I chose to use was from The Cheeky Kitchen. Now let me warn you. Before you decide to try and be all smart like I was and double the recipe because you need a lot, make sure you have enough ingredients first. I looked at the beginning of the recipe which  called for 1 cp each of all the creamers. I easily had 2 cps so that was fine. I didn't realize till I got to the middle of the recipe that it called for 2 1/2 cps of the instant tea! Which means I needed 5 cps! That's a lot of tea! Of course the store only had one size and brand of this and it really wasn't that big, definetly not that much. All of the creamers I was able to find the generic store brand in a larger container, but not the tea. So half way through I had to quit and run back to the store. Lame. Times like this I really miss having my hubby home to run out for me.

Another thing to mention if you do double it. Make sure you have a LARGE bowl. I originally started using a large pyrex bowl that I had and it ended up not being large enough. I switched to my KitchenAid 5-Quart Mixer which in all actuality I should have used from the beginning. This worked just barely however I did have a lot of power spray even with the plastic shield on top. Also be careful breathing right above it cause that's a lot of dust spray that you don't want to inhale.

Ingredients

Mixing up! You can see all the powder that floated up

First thing you do is mix all of the ingredients together. Next you want to grind it up really fine in either a food processor or a blender. The original recipe says to do one cup at a time but I found that in my blender anyways, it didn't mix very well. Once I started doing almost 3 cups at a time, it blended much easier.

Grinding

The final product

After that, you're done! Not too difficult. Put it in a container for yourself or into smaller jars to give away. I found some canning jars at my local Goodwill but I sill need some more so for now I just put mine in a large tub. I've also had a hard time keeping out of it so I may end up making one more batch. Oops!

Now if you look at my ingredients and you look at the original recipe, you'll notice that I did change the ingredients some. I personally like a spicier tea as I mentioned so I added in more white pepper, cardamom, and nutmeg. I also added in a little extra brown sugar for sweetness. I like me some sweet and spicy tea.

When you go to purchase your spices if you don't have them already, the cardamom is super pricey. That is the one thing I did not have and it was killing me to buy it. The cheapest jar I could find was $10 for one! Yikes! So be aware of that if you decide to make this.

Ingredients:

•  1 cup nonfat dry milk powder
• 1 cup powdered non-dairy creamer
• 1 cup French vanilla flavored powdered non-dairy creamer
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 ½ cups unsweetened instant tea
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp allspire
• 1 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 3 teaspoons ground cardamom
• 1 tsp white pepper

1. In a large bowl, mix all ingredients thouroughly.
2. Take mixed spices and grind together in a food processor or blender. 2-3 cups is an easier amount to grind in my experience.
3. Transfer to appropriate containers as gifts or for keeps.
4. Add approximately 2 tbls to a mug of hot water and enjoy!

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