Chai in Five?
Yes, great Chai is possible in five minutes, but the longer you have, the richer and more velvety the reward...
A spicy, sweet stunner.
We’ve had Chai since we first founded Brew. It has changed once since launch, back in 2014. We thought the tea (then a Sri Lankan Ceylon leaf) could do with being stronger, and we thought that a true Chai blend really ought to have an Indian tea base, so we set up Team Chai, a panel of some of our most dedicated Chai drinkers, and sent them samples to taste, review & vote on. This was the universal winning result.
So, what's in our Chai blend?
- Assam - Indian black tea bringing malt & body
- Spices, naturally - a blend of sweet cardamom and cinnamon paired with powerful ginger, clove & black pepper.
How much time have you?
Try Chai three different ways - the longer the brew, the bigger the belter you'll get. You can start by brewing your Chai in a pot, but with a few extra minutes, you could have a delicious latté, or deliciously rich, traditionally-made Chai in your hands.
5 MINS? MAKE IT LOOSE.
The easiest and quickest brewing method for our Chai blend. Simply drop a scoop (5g) of the blend into a 400ml Tea Pot and leave it to brew fully for that 5 minutes. That longer brewing time allows the spices to impart properly into your cup of tea.
Whilst this, being a rolled whole leaf blend, is smooth enough to be enjoyed without milk, it's definitely made more delicious with the addition of a generous splash of milk. If you prefer yours sweet, honey or a demarara sugar bring sweetness and an extra bit of richness into the mix.
The longer brew time gives the spices - especially the ginger and clove - time to infuse in the water, so you'll get a sweet, spiced smell, but a powerful and quite dry taste (if you have it black). Like the controversial pinch of salt in porridge, adding the sugar does help bring those sweeter spices to the fore. This is perfect work for large, rolled whole leaves - imparting flavour, but no bitterness. 👌
15 MINS? MAKE A LATTÉ.
Take a pot of tea, and make it much stronger than seems sensible - start with a triple scoop (though when we made these in the shops back in 2012, we were using four scoops) in a 400ml pot (that's 15g of Chai). Use boiling water, and brew for that maximum five minutes - don't over-brew here, otherwise you might find the malty Assam takes over the spices somewhat. Pour, and cnce decanted, you'll get around 300ml of Chai base - sweeten with honey or syrup of your choice - about 30ml.
To make the latté, let's say you're using a milk frother machine - most seem to have a capacity of around 240-250ml. The best starting ratio for your Chai latté is 40% (min) tea, 60% milk. If it's 250ml, that's 100ml of tea into the bottom, add milk, and froth away. Dust your latté with your favourite festive spices if you fancy a flourish - nutmeg and cinnamon are especially great.
30 MINS? GRAB A PAN.
Match it with your favourite foods
Start with those same ratios as the lattés - three scoops of tea (15g) per 400ml liquid (except we like to make it with 300ml milk, 100ml water so we can get the temperature nice & high and not worry quite as much about the milk boiling over). Give that twenty minutes brewing by itself, before adding honey or sugar to taste - it can take a lot.
Customise it | Making Chai this way allows for some professional experimentation. A grate of fresh ginger is great - turmeric even better (though beware of stains). Similarly, if you love star anise, chuck a few in to begin with. A twist of citrus is best added by using the zest only.
When it's time to serve, just sieve your the pan (keep the liquid, obviously) and you'll have a traditionally-made proper Chai - rich with spice, sweet, yet malty enough to deal with everything. You'll never look at one of those powdered chai lattés in the same light.
