I have had good chai and I have had bad chai. But sometimes, the best chai is easy chai.
In the spirit of this, I made some instant chai mix. Also, a bag of this makes a good gift.
Chai Mix
3 cups vanilla sugar
3 cups powdered milk
1 ½ cups unsweetened instant tea
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cloves
2 tsp cardamom
Mix everything together in a bowl. At this point it will look grainy and not terribly appetizing.
But through the magic of food processing, it becomes a lovely uniform powder. You’ll probably have to do a few different batches in the food processor, unless you have a mondo one. This recipe makes about 3 pint jars full of mix. The jar of instant tea I bought had the perfect amount for making this recipe twice.
To make a cup, mix hot water with 2 Tbsp of mix. You can also cool it off and pour over ice. It’s really good both ways.
Fun fact: chai is the Hindi word for tea so saying chai tea is a little redundant.