Make a tasty chai latte at home

I’ve been having a great time on social networking platform Twitter, meeting current and future Best Health readers. One of them, Naveen Atwal of Toronto, heard my plea this morning for a delicious latte and kindly offered to share her (Indian) family’s recipe for homemade chai lattes with me and the Best Health community. If you try it, please let us know what you think, either on Twitter or in the comments below. Here’s what Naveen says:

Homemade chai latte recipe
My recipe is one that is passed along to me from my mother and the measurements are approximate. Depending on how long I simmer the water and tea for, I can end up with a large mug or a regular cup (meaning, I end up letting the water simmer too long!).

For one cup of chai:

• Heat on high
• In a small tea pot, add just over 1 cup of water (I use an actual cup or small mug to measure the water as a opposed to a measuring cup)
• Add a regular black tea bag or about 2 teaspoons of loose leaf Indian tea – let it simmer for about 2 minutes
• Crush together in a mortar-pestle – 2 green cardamon seeds, 1 clove – add to the pot
• Optional – a pinch of ground cinnamon
• Let the spices simmer with the tea water for about a minute
• Add homo or 2% milk (would not recommend this with lighter milk, it will be too watery) – add enough milk until it turns to a light brown colour – this all depends on how strong you want your tea
• Bring everything to a boil (my mother taught me to let it "boil a few times" – meaning bring everything to a boil, then remove the pot and let the tea calm down, and then add the pot to the stove again to bring to a boil — she told me to do this at least a few times. Many older Indian women do this. I’m not sure if it adds to the tea, but I’m conditioned to believe that this makes a better cup of chai and I follow it religiously!)

There – a perfect cup of warm, frothy Indian chai!

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