Chocolate Chai

In a previous blog I suggested a Winter time activity of inventing your own favorite winter time hot drink. Well, I thought today I'd share with you my favorite and how to make it.

I am a chocolate lover ( aren't we all?) and I also love the spicey Indian flavors of Chai tea. So my favorite winter drink is Chocolate Chai tea. Now, chai mix is fairly easy to get off the shelves and so is hot chocolate mix, but when you combine them the whole thing is too sweet for me. So I make my own chai base and add hot chocolate to that. 

Here is a lovely recipe for the base, gratefully borrowed from Allrecipes

First the ingredients:

• 4 cups water
• 15 whole cloves
• 3 cinnamon sticks
• 8 (1/4 inch thick) slices unpeeled fresh ginger
• 15 cardamom pods, split
• 15 whole black peppercorns
• 10 black tea bags
• ⅓ cup brown sugar ( or sweeten to taste, but remember you'll be adding hot chocolate too...)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

To Prepare:

Boil the water in a medium saucepan; add cloves and boil for 1 minute. Turn off the heat and add cinnamon sticks, ginger, cardamom pods, peppercorns, and tea. Let it sit for 6- 10 minutes, then strain through muslin or a tea strainer into a container. I personally use a tall vintage glass wine or other bottle with an attached ceramic lid for this. Stir vanilla extract into tea and refrigerate until for at least an hour. This concentrate keeps in the frig for about a week and makes about a quart. Feel free to adjust the amounts of the ingredients to taste or to use a variation if convenient ( powdered ginger instead of fresh for example). Just be sure to strain well. 

To Make Chocolate Chai

Mix the chai concentrate base equal parts with your milk of choice. Warm this mixture up either in a small saucepan or, when I'm cheating, in the microwave until its as hot as you'd like it. Then simply add your favorite hot chocolate powder and stir. After you taste it you can then add that brown sugar from the chai recipe if you would prefer it a bit sweeter but I usually find it doesn't need much if any. You can also substitute honey for brown sugar too. Conversely, you can add the sugar/sweetener to the chai base and then use unsweetened cocoa powder for your chocolate if you prefer a darker chocolate taste.  

And that's it! This is really my favorite Winter indulgence and so fun and easy to make. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Let me know if you try it, or if you plan to, in the comments below and how you liked it!

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