Tea has been growing in popularity for a long time, making waves in tea shops and coffee bars in both hot and cold brew. Well, is tea beneficial for you? Considering all things, it usually depends on the type of chai tea you drink.
Like other food varieties, it is convenient to look at not-really nutritious chai tea pretty much anyplace nowadays. It would help to be mindful of the name and chai tea ingredients.
In any case, conventional chai teas contain unique ingredients. With the length of your focus on ingredients, you can have the best variety of tea-the version that will inspire you and allow you to say, “Yes, Chai tea is great for you.”
This article takes a deeper look at chai tea, possible ways to thicken the tea, recipe, and ways to make your chai tea tasty.
Chai tea is prepared by utilizing various spices of different flavors and tea. One of the most commonly used teas is a combination of black tea with ginger, black pepper, cinnamon, fennel, cardamom, and clove.
You can presume that every ingredient in this masala chai possesses unique therapeutic properties which are impressive for body health. Indeed, chai tea assists healthy digestion, reduces blood sugar levels, and upgrades heart health.
How To Fix Watery Tasting Chai Tea?
Chai tea, a spicy warm tea, can be made from scratch, but it’s not as easy as you may think. Slight variation in the recipe, ingredient quantity, and method may change the flavor of your beverage.
Large amounts of water and fewer leaves combined with a short steeping time may lead to a watery taste of chai tea. Moreover, the quality and purity of water may affect the taste of chai tea.
To fix the watery taste of chai tea, add adequate amounts of water and loose tea leaves or tea bags. Another way is to boil water and tea leaves over a high flame and then allow them to simmer for 6-10 minutes at a low flame. After straining tea leaves, add milk and let it boil again.
How To Fix Bitter Tasting Chai Tea?
Chai tea is a refreshing and delicious spicy beverage enjoyed around the globe. But what makes the taste of chai tea bitter or astringent, and how to fix it?
The answer lies that chai tea may become bitter for various reasons like too much steeping time, presence of polyphenolic compounds in the tea, if water is too hot or cold, high caffeine content, tea has been kept at a moist climate, the teapot is not cleaned correctly or increased blending time.
However, there are some tea experts who state that bitter tea is the best way to enjoy it. Well, the bitterness can be calmed by adding a few ingredients.
- Tweak some baking soda in the chai tea, and you’ll end up with a tea flavored with baking soda.
- Put in a touch of honey, stevia, or maple syrup to subdue the bitterness. Remember, no matter how much sugar you add, it will not remove bitterness. It will only weaken the bitter taste.
- Add some ice which makes the bitter hot tea less potent and covers the bitterness.
How To Thicken Your Chai Tea?
Well, the addition of some ingredients may help thicken your tea. Thinner tea is most commonly used by people worldwide, as people use the tea before meals to suppress their appetite. But, some people like thicker tea the most.
- You can add more milk instead of water, which will result in richer and thicker tea. If you want more viscous, add cream, which will add thickness to the tea.
- Arrowroot can also thicken the tea and can be used as an alternative to corn starch. It neither results in cloudy beverages nor affects the flavor of the tea.
- Some people use corn starch to thicken chai tea. It gives thickness to tea and results in a dirty flavor.
- Unflavored gelatin may also make your tea more viscous.
Simple Fool-Proof Tasty Chai Tea Recipe
Chai tea was traditionally prepared by gently boiling bison milk and water with black tea and condiments, enveloped by the fabric to allow the straining.
These flavored condiments give warmness to the body, and commonly used spices are ginger, cinnamon, peppercorn, cardamom, and star anise. You can modify the recipe according to your preferences and taste.
Chai tea is not only delicious and refreshing; it’s easy to prepare from scratch with little effort.
Ingredients
Coconut milk 2 cup
Cinnamon ½ tsp
Cardamom 1/8 tsp
Ginger 1/8 tsp
Clove powder 1/8 tsp
Nutmeg 1/8 tsp
Sugar or maple syrup 1 tbsp.
Pitted date 1
Directions
- Heat the coconut milk on a medium flame in a small bowl. Add the hot coconut milk to a high-speed blender, pour the spices into the blender and blend it until smooth.
- Take this blend out in the cup and enjoy this delicious chai tea.
However, to make the chai tea latte, you need loose black tea, which is brewed and mixed with other ingredients. To make the chai tea latte:
- You need to make a tea concentrate. Chai concentrate is a potent brew of masala tea loaded with unique flavors and then weakened with milk.
- Remember that concentrate should be strong to the extent that it does not lose its flavor when it is weakened.
- You can make the tea concentrate by two methods: mixing the water with black tea leaves and individual spices or utilizing a masala chai blend by which you can brew the tea from scratch.
- Add sugar or maple syrup at a time when making chai tea concentrate. You can also adjust the quantities of each spice as per your preferences in this step.
- Strain the tea concentrate whenever it’s finished. Now heat some milk and stir vigorously for about 2 minutes. Milk frother can also be used in this recipe which stays at the top of the chai tea latte.
- Drain the tea concentrate in the glass, pour the whisked milk into the chai tea concentrate, and enjoy the delicious chai tea.
More Tips
You can store tea concentrate in a refrigerator for three days.
To enhance the flavor of your chai tea, add more milk, sugar, or cinnamon powder.
For making a cold beverage, freezing the chai by placing it in an ice plate is an excellent method for chilling off your beverage without diluting it.
Bottom Line
Chai tea, also known as masala tea, is prepared by brewing black tea with different spices like ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, clove, or fennel.
These spices give warmth to the body and a distinct flavor to the tea. Besides adding flavor, masala chai is known to have beneficial effects on health.
