A watercolour of a glass of pale milky spiced tea with a faint dusting of cinnamon
Generated with OpenAI gpt-image-1
Adapted from Masala chai

Sweet spiced tea

An established dish converted to shelf-stable ingredients. Every substitution is documented below.

How long it keeps

About 18 months, set by Tea bags.

Indicative, for planning a build before you buy. The answer for a pack you already own is the best before date printed on it, and that only holds if it has been stored as the label says.

Serves
2
Burners
1
Pans
1
Water
0.5 L
Active
4 min
Total
8 min

Ingredients

The difference between this and tea with spices in it is that the tea and the spices are simmered together, not brewed and then flavoured.

  1. 400 ml of water in the pan with the ginger, cinnamon and sugar. Bring to the boil and simmer two minutes: this is where the spice actually infuses.
  2. Tea bags in, simmer another two minutes. Longer and the tannin turns it bitter.
  3. Whisk the milk powder into 100 ml of cold water separately, then stir it in and bring back to just below a simmer.
  4. Take the bags out. Do not squeeze them.

Adding milk powder directly to the hot pan is how you get lumps; mixing it cold first takes ten seconds and avoids it entirely.

Serves 2.

What this was adapted from

Masala chai: the South Asian method of simmering tea with milk, sugar and spice

  • whole spices crushed fresh, and fresh milk → ground spices and milk powder

    Chai is properly made by crushing cardamom and ginger and simmering them in milk. Ground spices give a flatter, less aromatic result and milk powder a thinner body -- honestly a lesser drink, and one you can make anywhere with a single pan.