Chai question
I am usually very sensitive to caffiene, to the place that if I have a cup of tea, or God forbid, coffee, after about 11 AM I can expect to be up all night. However, chai doesn't seem to affect me as much. I have been making my own chai by grinding cinnamon, clove, ginger, pepper and cardamom in a coffee/spice grinder and adding a good teaspoonful to the water I make the tea in. I do follow the Indian "saucepan method" of boiling the tea and spices in the water for a minute and then letting it stand before adding the milk and sweetening. I find I can have a cup of chai and be able to sleep at night, even if I let it stand too long.
Is it that the spices are calming? I know some are but I didn't know about cinnamon etc.
BTW: With clove, more is not necessarily better. A little clove goes a looooong way in chai.
Hmm...I don't really have an answer for you there, but would you mind sharing your recipe? I haven't been able to find a good chai recipe yet :(
So, is there no leaf tea in the chai mix you make? It might just be the absence of caffeine rather than the effect of one of the herbs. But if I had to pick one, I'd say it's the ginger, because that's a common element of those "calming" herbal teas and is supposed to help tummy issues.
Some people also thinks it makes you forgetful... maybe it makes one sleepy?
Oh, it has black tea in it. I put a Tetley teabag, the herbs, and the water in a saucepan and boil them for a few minutes, then let them stand.
Hmm...I don't really have an answer for you there, but would you mind sharing your recipe? I haven't been able to find a good chai recipe yet :(
I'm still looking for the definitive blend myself, but I just tossed a few green cardamom pods, dried ginger chunks, a few cloves (and as I say, I used too many cloves), a few black peppercorns and 2 black cardamoms into my coffee/spice grinder and ground away. Then I added a couple of teaspoons of ground cinnamon which I had on hand. I don't really measure, I just kind of "some'd" it.
This made about a quarter cup of spice blend which I put in a small glass jar. Add about a hefty teaspoonful per cup. Of course being loose you have to strain the tea. I will say, in future I will leave out the black cardamom. I bought it out of curiosity and it really isn't my favourite. It doesn't taste anything like the green.
I have the same problem with caffiene, probably because I rarely drink it. I will have to try the chai and see if it keeps me up the way plain tea does.
If you're still searching for a chai recipe, I found this while flipping through the most recent issue of Real Simple magazine.
http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/easy-chai-tea-recipe-00000000029606/index.html
Easy Chai Tea
Ingredients
8 cardamom seeds
8 cloves
4 black peppercorns
2 cinnamon sticks
1 1-inch piece fresh ginger, sliced
2 cups whole milk
4 bags black tea (such as Darjeeling)
8 teaspoons sugar or more, to taste
Directions
1.Place the cardamom, cloves, and peppercorns in a resealable plastic bag and crush with a heavy skillet.
2.Place the crushed spices in a medium saucepan, along with the cinnamon sticks, ginger, milk, and 2 cups water; bring to a boil. Remove from heat, add the tea bags, cover, and let steep for 10 minutes.
3.Strain into cups. To each cup, add 2 teaspoons sugar or more, to taste.
By Sara Quessenberry, March 2010
There are a couple of chai recipes here on VW too. I have tried them both.
I love the instructions involving the "heavy skillet." I can just imagine someone walking into the kitchen to investigate the banging noise!
There are a couple of chai recipes here on VW too. I have tried them both.
I love the instructions involving the "heavy skillet." I can just imagine someone walking into the kitchen to investigate the banging noise!
Lol. I needed that laugh really badly.
My sister had an Indian roommate who would make chai from scratch. She gave me her recipe when I moved to Nashville but I lost it. :( So sad.
My sister had an Indian roommate who would make chai from scratch. She gave me her recipe when I moved to Nashville but I lost it. :( So sad.
Not a problem.
To make Indian Spiced Tea,
Boil 3/4 cup of water (softer the better). When it boils, add 1/2 tsp of good tea. boil further for 1 minute. Add 1/4 cup of Milk and add tea spice powder. The recipe for Tea Masala Powder is as under,
http://www.hemant-trivedis-cookery-corner.com/powder/tea.html
Boil for further 1 minute after adding sugar and Tea Masala.
Remove from stove and keep covered for couple of minutes.
Strain and serve hot.
NJA
I just use allspice, ginger, cardamom and black pepper in mine....
OK so basically no one knows if the caffiene effect is softened by the spices...apparently it's just me then. :-[
I can't think of any reason why the caffeine content would be effected by the spices. Sorry. Chai made with black tea can still make me jittery if I drink too much, or drink it late in the evening. If I want chai in the evening, I'll either use decaf black tea, previously steeped tea leaves (which contain less caffeine, but still have good flavor left), or rooibos tea which has no caffeine.
If you make it with less black tea than usual or steep it for a shorter time, then there would be less caffeine. Black tea has about 1/2 to 1/4 the amount of caffeine as coffee.
I just want to say that I am a Chai addict. I have at least one every day!
Sometimes hot, sometimes cold, sometimes in a frappe style.
YUM!