Save Some Cash; Homemade Chai Lattes!

Happy Thursday! I don't know about you, but the blustery weather here has me freezing cold and ready for a big comfy sweatshirt (or two) and a cozy blanket! This weather is also perfect for chai tea lattes! Most of us know of the scrumptiousness that is chai tea lattes, but if you don't, now is the perfect time to learn! Starbucks makes the best ones by far, and I had long searched for a copycat recipe that would match the goodness, but came up short. Oregon Chai makes a good one, but its still not quite the same. Upon searching for the umpteenth time, Pinterest and all of its splendid options brought me to a recipe at a great site, and it was AMAZING! I tweaked it only slightly, because I had no honey or fresh ginger at that time, but it tastes just as delicious and as close to Starbucks as you can get without forking over the $2.95 plus tax! As a nutritional bonus, this has way less sugar (if you do the stevia route, it has none!) than Starbucks' little cup of joy. :) Enough suspense, here's the recipe! (here's the original recipe as well-I can't take credit!!)
 
Chai Tea Concentrate
Makes 1 1/2 cups, enough for 4 lattes

Ingredients
3 tablespoons sugar (or 4 packets of stevia-I've tried both and can't tell the difference!)
8 cardamom pods
1 cinnamon stick, snapped in half (1/4 tsp ground cinnamon if you have no cute sticks)
1 slice ginger, peeled (1/8 tsp ground ginger if you don't have this on hand either)
5 whole cloves
4 whole black peppercorns
2 black teabags
Combine all ingredients in a pot. Add 2 cups of water and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Lower slightly and let simmer for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and let steep for 5 minutes. Remove the teabags, squeezing out any liquid from them. Let the spices steep for another 15 minutes. Strain, removing all the spices. This is important so you don't have grainy chai :)

Chai Tea Latte

Makes 1 drink

Ingredients
6 tablespoons Chai Tea Concentrate from above
1/2 to 1 cup milk of your choice*
Ice if you're making it iced (although in this weather I imagine you'll choose hot!)

*If you use sweetened almond, soy, or rice milk, you may need to play around to make the concentrate less sugary. This recipe was developed using 2% milk and I've also used unsweetened vanilla almond milk from Trader Joe's with mine. Both were delicious and the perfect sweetness.

Warm the milk in a small saucepan until very hot and pour into a mug along with the chai tea concentrate. If you have one of those awesome milk whippers that foams it up, use it in the hot milk before pouring it into the mug! (Yes, I have one of these, I love foam! I shall take a picture of my nifty little foam-making gadget and the foam it makes to show you next time!) 

I just made one, and it made my whole afternoon! Plus it warmed me up (to my dismay, the kitten didn't close the sliding glass door for me when I forgot...so the apartment was a bit chilly) and I didn't pay a cent for it! That's the equivalent to a double word score in Scrabble ;) But my latte-making time is over and I've got to head back to work! Let me know if its love-at-first-sip for you, too ;)

--KQ