Chai Concentrate
We are all better here. Well, Pete still has that cough that seems to come only after 9pm and is loud, but aside from that we made it through this thing.
Here's the most recent concoction in the house. It's a chai concentrate. I have made chai before. It was mixed spices with loose black tea in a small tin. I would add that dry mixture to hot water and add milk and honey or sugar to the sweeten the chai. It was good, but was kind of a pain. Not a huge pain—but required several steps and I always seemed to sweeten it too much or not enough. So, I didn't make it often and kind of forgot about it.
Then over the holidays our local newspaper had this story about making homemade gifts from the kitchen and I thought this chai tea concentrate sounded very cool. It's got all the spices mixed with sweetened condensed milk. That's it. You just add a heaping spoonful into your already made hot black tea. Brilliant!
I am a big tea drinker (and coffee, too) and I usually have a pot of tea I sip from all day. I make a pot of Assam in the morning and drink it plain and then when I want a treat, I add a spoonful of this chai concentrate from the fridge. It's like getting two beverages for the price of one. So pleasing. I don't think it's too sweet either, which I was worried about. It seems perfect to me.
I was trying to make something like this last summer with Thai iced coffee and I wonder if it would work for that. You do need to add it to a hot liquid or the condensed milk won't dissolve, so I'm not sure how this would work iced. I would make all of it hot and then chill it after? Not sure. Tests will be conducted, for sure.
And thanks for all your support on the herbal recipe book/cheat sheet for eMailorder #11! Consider it done.
