What is Chai:  Chai is the Indian name for Tea.  Chai masala is the blend of spices to add to your tea.  Chai is becoming very popular in a lot of coffee shops such as Starbucks, Costa coffee etc.

Several spices are blended together to get the perfect Tea masala. Some like their masala to have more pepper whereas others may prefer more cinnamon or cardamon taste.  Over the years, I have blended tea masala numerous times and have found the perfect blend for us.  For example, in the winter we tend to add more ginger powder than in the summer.  I would suggest that you use this recipe as a base and add or decrease ingredients to your preferred taste.  To keep our spices fresh, we only blend enough Chai Masala or Tea Spice Mixture to last us two to three weeks.

Ingredients enough to make 1 and half cups of  chai masala mix:

• Ginger powder 10 grams
• Cinnamon 25 grams
• Black Whole peppercorns 10 grams
• Ground white pepper powder 10 grams
• Cardommon 10 grams
• Cloves 15 grams
• Nutmeg 10 grams

Method:

1. Lightly roast the cinnamon and cloves separately on a hot griddle for 2 minutes .

2.  Grind the cinnamon, cloves, peppercorns,cardamon and nutmeg until quite fine.  I used an electric grinder.

3..  Transfer to a bowl and add the ground white pepper and ground ginger

4.  Mix well with a fork and store in an airtight container. The aroma of the Chai masala filled the kitchen and I had to have a cup of tea with the freshly ground Tea masala.

5.  You can add the masala to any blend of Tea to enjoy a nice cup of tea.

For a perfect Gujarati chai – boil all these in a saucepan:  2 mugs of water,  2 tea bags, 1 level teaspoon of the chai masala, 1 mug of semi skimmed milk and sugar to taste.  Once boiled, allow it to boil for 3-4 minutes more then sieve the tea and enjoy it.  The full recipe is here