Lauren's Masala Chai Concentrate

Total Time: 15 mins Preparation Time: 15 mins

Ingredients

• 7 cups water
• 2 tablespoons cut dried ginger (chunks, available at health food stores in the bulk spice department) or 1 inch fresh ginger
• 10 -15 whole cloves
• 1/4 star anise pods
• 3 inches cinnamon sticks
• 1/2 tablespoon black peppercorns
• 1/2 tablespoon cardamom seed
• 2 tablespoons black tea leaves
• 5 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• milk

Recipe

• 1 special note about spices (if you have a bulk foods or whole foods or vitamin cottage kind of grocer nearby, get the spices from the bulk section. they often cost 25% what you'd pay for a jar! my total ingredients expense was around $1.50, not including the milk!).
• 2 in a medium-large saucepan, bring about 7 cups water to a boil.
• 3 meanwhile, add the 6 spices (do not add the tea yet).
• 4 once the water/spice mixture is boiling, add the tea.
• 5 boil 5 minutes, then remove from heat. (i know you're never supposed to boil tea, but i found this works just fine. if you don't want to boil the tea, just boil the spices for 5 minutes and steep slightly longer.).
• 6 stir in the brown sugar (or honey) and vanilla.
• 7 steep for 8 minutes, then strain into a glass container.
• 8 while you wait for it to cool, pour a mug 2/3 full with your chai and add hot milk to the top. (if it isn't spicy or sweet enough, you can still add more spices to steep - just strain the mixture again before storing.) or for a real treat, use hot evaporated milk (i wouldn't want this every day, because its a little sweeter and creamier than regular milk.).
• 9 store in the refrigerator for 7 days (maybe longer, but all chai concentrate containers claim 7 days is best). note: normally you'd use 1:1 ratio of chai:milk, but i brew it a little weaker and save $ on milk since i drink so much chai.