unsure

variation

4s

smoked

pseudo choc

spicy

sometimes my mouth gets the better of me. one day i was having a chai from our restaurant and i made the comment that it was not very good. long story short one of the restaurant managers looks at me and says “then make a better one.” game on.

i have messed around a little with chai spice blends a little in the past but only for baked goods and ice cream. making the traditional spiced black tea is a little different. research showed a variety of spice blends that varied depending on what part of india it was from. some recipes use water with a little milk, milk with a little water, all milk, all water and some were even based on condensed milk. several people from india and the subcontinent have told me that chai is just a hot tea beverage that has no spice at all, it is just the expression used for tea drinks in general. then there is the u.s. version, very sweet, very milky and more spice than tea.

with this in mind i put “tradition” behind and went down my own road with two goals in mind. 1 – i wanted to make a concentrate/base that would be finished in the coffee shop. 2 – i like my chai to be spicy with a lot of ginger.

i played with infusing spices in water, sometimes reducing the mixture, then infusing tea, then boiling with milk. the spice mixtures went through several changes but always include cinnamon, fresh ginger, cardamom, star anise, clove and black pepper. all of these variations made an ok product but was not quite what i was looking for. the final result was a very light spicy tea that had too much ginger for everyone except me. the project went to sleep for a week.

the next generation involved roasting my spice blend a little then putting it in a vacuum bag , adding the tea, a can of condensed milk, sealing the bag and poaching for several hours in a water bath. the idea was to create a spiced milky paste where a spoonful would flavor a finished drink. it sure made a thick paste. too thick to strain out the spices. i put the whole blob, put it in the blender, covered it with water and lightly blended it. after blending the base was strained through a super bag and reserved for service. i made a mix of half base half milk and frothed it on the espresso machine. this was a good start but too milky. later versions varied from using no condensed milk to equal parts condensed milk and water.

this batch was made with just condensed milk.  it was very rich, maybe a little too rich for my taste

this batch involved one with just water and one with half water half condensed milk.  both were good but very different

here is the “final” recipe

condensed mi             235g

ginger fresh               60g

clove                        8g

cinnamon stick           14g

cardamon                  18g

star anise                  12g

black pepper              12g

nilgiri black tea          40g

water                        250g

Tags: black tea, chai, condensed milk, ginger, nilgiri, recipe, sous vide, spice blend