Masala Chai Mix

I love tea! I love drinking it, eating with it and even just smelling it. It's my happy place. The smell of tea reminds me of Sri Lanka.

I was wracking the old brain to try and think of something to give the lovely ladies at my second baby shower. Pabs, I guess this means I owe you a present or two ;).
While at the appropriately named Whole pay-packet (otherwise known as Whole foods) I saw some re-usable tea-bags. Something I'd never seen before. It occurred to me then that maybe I should give the lovely ladies some tea. Something that reminded them of me.

I scoured a number of places for recipes and in the end, tweaked a few to  make my own. I then made my own and finally asked my dear husband to try it as black tea is on my list of no-nos.

Ingredients

• 125g of good quality loose leaf black tea (we used Dilmah - a ceylon orange pekoe)
• 3 tablespoons cloves
• 4 sticks of cinnamon
• 3 tablespoons of cardamon pods crushed
• 1 teaspoon of peppercorns
• 1 teaspoon of nutmeg (ground)
• 150 g of crystallised ginger

Instructions

Preheat oven to 140 celsius or 120 fan forced.

Crush the cinnamon sticks and cardoman pods in a mortar and pestle.

Place cinnamon, cardoman, cloves and pepper in a baking tray roast in a the oven  for 5 minutes until
fragrant. Trust me you'll know when the time is right, the whole house will smell like masala chai.

Place the black tea in a small bowl, along with the crystalised ginger (chop into small pieces if they are big like mine) and nutmeg.

Let the spices cool briefly and mix with the tea. Make sure there is an even distribution.

I bottled these for friends and added the following 'brewing instructions for one' from thekitchn.

Brewing Instructions

tea for one

1 cup of water

1/2 cup of milk

1 tablespoon of Chai Mix placed into a tea bag

Sugar or honey to taste

Bring the water to a boil and add the teabag. Turn off the heat and let steep for about 5 minutes. Add the milk, turn on the flame and reheat until hot. Remove from heat, discard teabag, sweeten to taste, enjoy!

I should add that the best way to store tea is away from light and, while pretty, if you plan on keeping the chai for a long time I'd invest in some dark or opaque tins to keep the light out and the tea fresh.