Healthy Living How To

Vanessa Rae Romero

How to Make Chai Tea

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Yesterday we discussed the healing power of various spices and herbs. While each one of them has a health benefit, there is synergy when you combine them together. One of my favorite ways to do this is to make a healthy and healing Chai Tea. Chai actually means tea, and refers to an Indian style tea made from milk and traditional Indian spices.

The individual spices added to Chai, each have a specific benefit to health and healing. According to Ayurvedic medicine, when combined they are calming, revitalizing and mentally clarifying. Chai tea is the perfect antidote to the stresses of our modern-day life. I don't know about you but I could always be a little more revitalized!

Cardamom benefits the lungs, kidneys, and heart, it is also a mood elevator. 

Cinnamon increases circulation and opens breathing, increase awareness and vitality, and reduces fatigue.

Black Pepper is used to support circulation and metabolism, and helps to alleviate coldness.

Cloves have pain-relieving and antiseptic attributes. Like pepper and ginger, clove is also used to synergistically increase the potency of other spices and herbs.

Ginger is a stimulant for the circulatory and the immune systems and is used to treat motion sickness.

Nutmeg promotes the digestion of heavy foods and is used to treat kidney and lymph problems.

These spices have been used for thousands of years to promote general health and well-being as well as treat various ailments.

If you've never had Chai Tea, you are in for a treat. There are many recipes for Chai Tea using any combination of water, black tea and milk as well as the spices, cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and pepper. Some recipes call for fennel and anise seed as well. The recipe I use is taken from the book The Way of Herbs by Michael Tierra, L.Ac., O.M.D. I modified the recipe a bit, by using canned coconut milk in place of cow's milk and sweetened with stevia instead of honey. You will notice there is no actual tea in this recipe, however, there are recipes that do call for black or even green tea.

How To Make Chai Tea Image

Chai Tea

Adapted by Healthy Living How To

Printable Recipe

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Serves: 2

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Simmer for 10 minutes, water and spices.
  2. Add coconut milk and simmer for 10 extra minutes.
  3. Strain tea and spices through a fine mesh sieve into a glass Pyrex measuring cup.
  4. Finally stir in vanilla extract and stevia.
  5. Pour into two mugs, garnish with a sprinkle of nutmeg and enjoy!

“Tea began as a medicine and grew into a beverage.”