Indian Chai

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 1 tbsp ginger, dried or fresh
• ½ tbsp black peppercorns
• ½ tbsp cloves
• 1 tsp cardamom, green
• 2 tbsp tea (Assam tea CTC)
• 800 ml water
• possibly sugar, brown
• 200 ml milk

Instructions

Working time approx. 10 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 10 minutes; Total time approx. 20 minutes

Chai tea as I drank it in India

To make the spice mix, mix all the spices together. For 1 liter of tea, heat 800 ml of water in a saucepan over high heat. As soon as the water starts to crackle, add 2 tablespoons of tea and the spice mix. If desired, whisk in up to 2 tablespoons of brown sugar. When the water starts to boil, add 200 ml of milk while stirring. Bring everything to a boil until foaming. Remove the pan from the heat and stir vigorously until it stops boiling. Bring everything to a boil a total of three times, removing the pan from the heat and stirring vigorously until it stops boiling. Then pour the tea through a kitchen sieve into a teapot or directly into the cups. Tip: You can also prepare the spice mix in advance. Simply scale up the quantities accordingly and store in a tightly sealed container in a dry place. To do this, either use dried ginger and measure as described above, or alternatively, just combine pepper, cloves, and cardamom and then add 1 tablespoon of fresh ginger + 4 teaspoons of the pepper, clove, and cardamom mixture to the pot while cooking. Note: The best tea to use is Assam CTC, which stands for Crush, Tear, Curl, a process used in black tea production and means breaking, tearing, and rolling. After wilting, the leaves are broken open with a thorn roller before the tea is oxidized. Due to their small grain size (0.5–2 mm) and the resulting greatly increased surface area, CTC teas develop more caffeine than conventionally produced black teas and also have a very strong flavor. If CTC is too strong for you, you can also use regular whole-leaf Assam tea.