Starbuck’s Chai tea with soy yumm… but at $5 a cup it was getting really expensive. So I switched to buying the Tazo Chai Tea concentrate. However, after visiting a friend’s house for lunch I discovered how easy it was to make the concentrate myself! Since then I have been making my chai syrup at a fraction of the cost.

3 black tea bags
handful of cardamom
handful of black peppercorns
1 cinnamon stick
1 Tbs ginger root
3 cups water
1/3 cup sugar**
Milk (regular, Soy, Almond, etc. I use a mixture of homemade soy / almond milk)

** to taste, if using unsweetened milk increase sugar

Syrup
Put the tea bags, cardamom, peppercorns, cinnamon stick, ginger and water in a pot. Bring to boil and decrease temperature and simmer for about 5 minutes. Take off the stove, and remove the tea bags. Add the sugar and stir until the sugar has melted. Leave the syrup in the pot until it has cooled down. This will increase the spice flavour in the syrup. Once cooled, transfer to a bottle and store in the fridge.

Hot
Fill about 1/3 of your cup with the Chai syrup and fill the rest of the cup with milk. Heat until hot.

Cold
Fill about 1/3 of your cup with the Chai syrup. Fill the rest of the cup with milk until about 3/4 full. In another cup fill with ice about 1/4 full. Pour the chai/milk mixture over the ice.

Blended
Fill about 1/3 of your cup with the Chai syrup. Fill the rest of the cup with milk until about 3/4 full. In a blender put about 1/2 cup of ice and the chai / milk syrup in. Blend until desired smoothness.