a la Indian Railroad The authentic chai is served on trays and is passed through the windows of train stations throughout India. Use 1/4 cup of Indian mamri tea pearls in place of the tea bags if you can locate them.
| Prep Time: | 5 mins |
| Cook Time: | 5 mins |
| Total Time: | 10 mins |
| Servings: | 4 |
| Yield: | 1 quart |
Ingredients
- 2 cups water
- 1 tablespoon fennel seed
- 4 whole cloves, or more to taste
- 1 ½ teaspoons cardamom seeds
- 2 cups whole milk
- 4 black tea bags, or more to taste
- 1 tablespoon white sugar, or to taste
Instructions
- Bring water to a boil in a saucepan; add fennel, cloves, and cardamom. Continue boiling water for 3 minutes.
- Stir milk into the water and return mixture to a low boil; add tea bags, reduce heat to low, and boil until the tea has a strong, but not bitter flavor, 2 to 3 minutes.
- Strain tea into 4 tea mugs; sweeten with sugar to individual tastes.
- It’s important to use a cheap granulated tea. For years I tried to make this using the best Darjeeling and Asaam teas that I could find and it never came out right. The cheap granulated tea (basically what we put in tea bags) is the key. It takes a strong-flavored tea to stand up to the flavor imparted by the spices.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 96 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 11 g |
| Cholesterol | 12 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 4 g |
| Saturated Fat | 2 g |
| Sodium | 56 mg |
| Sugars | 9 g |
| Fat | 4 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
This was good, though I did sub in almond coconut blend for dairy and tweaked the spices. Used ground cardamom because it’s what I had inn the house, and increased the proportion ( love that cardamom flavor!). Added a sliver of fresh ginger and a piece of cinnamon stick. Boiled the spices a few minutes longer before adding the “milk”. Sweetened with Swerve. Smells and tastes lovely And is keto/diabetes friendly
I liked this tea even though I’m not big on the liquorice taste of fennel. I used some tea from tea bags I got in a hotel room, I figured you can’t get cheaper than that. I’ve never been on an Indian train, but something tells me there should be some ginger in this. It is nice and re-heats well. Thank you KitchenBarbarian for this recipe.