My Secret to Stovetop Chai

Sophie's Smokin' Squeezebox presents a new series: Things That Get Me Through a Day Busking

Today's topic: CHAI

Is there anything that hits the spot more than a hot mug of sweet, spicy chai?  No, there isn't.  And that is why it singlehandedly causes me to violate my "no caffeine" lifestyle.  Two years into this life change, I found myself craving chai this winter, and I've succumbed to the habit.  However, in an attempt to save money, I decided to master home-brewing, since a 12-oz cup of chai from a café leaves you upwards of $4.00 poorer.

(Chai fans who come across this are going to be VERY confused when they see the nature of this blog.  No, it's not a cooking or home-keeping or chemistry blog, but solely a street performing blog.  Sorry to disappoint you!)

So here is my recipe that I've come up with for stovetop chai that does the trick.
Time: 5-6 minutes.  Yield: 2 mugsful

My recipe makes two mugsful (because you're only using "half" a tea bag), so I simply put the second half of the pot in a mug in the fridge for the next day.

Ingredients:
-1 mugful vanilla soymilk (or use another milk with a splash of vanilla)
-1 mugful boiling water
-1 black tea bag
-Cardamom
-Cloves
-Cinnamon
-Ground ginger
-Ground black pepper
-Honey

(The order you add things doesn't matter to me.)

1. Put the kettle on to boil
2. Measure a mug of vanilla soymilk, transfer to small pot, turn on low to medium heat
3. When the kettle boils, brew a mug of black tea, to your desired strength (I keep mine weak to avoid getting hooked on caffeine again) (I use the same mug I used for milk, just rinsed out)
4. When your tea is ready, remove the bag and pour it into the milk
5. Add spices, stirring with a whisk:
     -A tiny bit of cardamom (like, tap the jar once)
     -A tiny bit of cloves
     -A little bit of cinnamon (tap twice)
     -A generous amount of ginger
     -2-3 grinds of black pepper
6. Add a generous teaspoon of honey

7. Taste!  Perfect chai, in my opinion, is sweet at first, but then spicy at the back of your throat.  If it's not sweet enough, add more honey.  If it's not spicy enough, add more ginger and black pepper.  If it's STILL not spicy enough, then maybe you should have put more spices in.

And you're done!  Drink half now and let your mom drink the other half, or put the other half in the fridge for the next day to microwave, saving yourself some work.  Since you're only consuming half a cup of tea, it won't wreak total havoc if you're sensitive to caffeine like I am.  I still avoid it late in the day, though.

Voilá!