My Holiday Gift to You: World's Best Chai Tea Recipe

Do you want to make your own masala chai tea from scratch? I'm talking about the best effing chai tea in the word, mind you. This is my mom's recipe, and it's BEYOND delicious. Would I lie to you, dear reader? No, I would not.

I'm cutting and pasting the instructions she emailed to me below, so that your tastebuds can have orgasms too. You deserve it. (Remember, you can always buy what you need at your local health food store to try it out once or twice, and then buy in bulk online if you want to save money regularly).

"I use the following site to buy ginger (cut and sifted), decorticated cardamom and cinnamon:

http://www.kalyx.com/store/prodpage.cfm

It's soooo much cheaper than at Whole Foods or other places that sell spices out of jars. I buy by the pound. At the end of each item listing, there's a letter, e.g., K. It has to do where the item is located and shipped from. If possible, try to order stuff from the same place because shipping is much cheaper that way.

I don't measure the ingredients in my basic mix, so the following is approximate. You can adjust according to your personal preferences.

Chai mix:

1 cup ginger, cut and sifted (this is what it's called. You don't want powdered or dried ginger root)
1/3 cup cinnamon pieces (I find 1/4-inch works well)
1/4 cup decorticated cardamom seed
1-2 Tbs. coriander seed
2-5 bay leaves (love the bay!)
2 Tbs. black pepper

Bay and pepper are the secret ingredients. Pepper isn't so secret, but it gives chai its warmth. I sometimes add a tablespoon of whole cloves, but often don't bother.

Put everything in a food processor and run just enough to break things up a bit. You're not trying to pulverize stuff, just get a little more mileage out of it.

Be very careful not to inhale deeply over the ginger or the mixed spices. It will make you sneeze like crazy. Trust me.

Chai concentrate (makes enough for 8 cups)

6-1/2 cups of water
4 Tbs. chai mix
8 bags black tea, e.g., English Breakfast

Bring water and chai mix to boil in large saucepan. When it reaches a boil, turn it down and simmer uncovered for 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes, turn off heat, add tea bags, cover, and let sit for 20-30 minutes. I've sometimes forgotten about it and let it sit for a couple of hours and it still turns out great.

Pour through strainer into clean pot or bowl. With a wooden spoon, press on the spices and tea bags in the strainer to get all the liquid out. Pour chai into glass or plastic container and refrigerate. Keeps about a week.

To make chai:

Put 1/2 to 3/4 cup of liquid chai into cup. Add milk or soymilk to fill, microwave till hot. You can add sugar if you like it sweet, but most soymilk is sweet enough."

I know, I know. You gotta work for good chai from scratch. But if you do, I swear you'll thank me. I live for Mom's chai (and for what it's worth, I NEVER add sugar). Try it out and report back!

SIP SMART!

Alright tea aficionados, tea novices, and tea-curious folk,

You're in luck, because I'm the proud new owner of my VERY OWN signature green tea blend at Adagio Teas called "Sip Smart"! This is absolutely one of the coolest things that's ever happened to me. My very own tea! And trust me, it's delicious. Adagio is the real deal and their stuff is top shelf. Two cups of "Sip Smart" in place of your regular cup of joe and you'll be on FIRE, I guarantee you. It's caffeinated, but a lot more hydrating than coffee. Plus, you can enjoy more of it without getting jittery or sour in the tummy.

If you're looking for a healthy way to kick-start your day or combat your afternoon slump, I think you'll really love this tea blend (my custom mixture of green pekoe, hojicha, and mighty rooibos leaves). If you've never prepared loose leaf tea before, all you need is hot water and a strainer. I love Adagio's all-in-one infuser, "IngenuiTea" and recommend it highly. Soak a pinch of leaves for 3-5 minutes, and enjoy. That's it!

The entire popSiren team made their own blends too, so between the five of us, you're totally, 100% covered.

Oh, and I'm looking to trounce Corbin in the stats, lest you think that this is all in good, clean fun. You know me better than that, don't you? I want to drink, I want to win, and I want you! Spread the good word, and SIP SMART!

Food For Thought

I read tons of blogs every day. Many of my current favorites I've stumbled across accidentally, such as Mihow.com. I don't know the woman who created it, but she's a fellow cat lover, has an insanely cute baby, and writes really well. I feel like reading her stories for the past six months has enabled me to know her intimately enough that she and I could have coffee and enjoy ourselves. That's more than I can say for most of the strangers I cross paths with every day.

Mihow (AKA Michelle) recently linked to a provoking New York Times article about knowing the animals we eat that I think you should read. Even though I'm a pescetarian with vegan aspirations, I try not to judge anyone else's eating choices. After all, I read dlisted.com almost every day, which is arguably more damaging to my body than rBST. I also have a lot of leather shoes. But I do think that if we were all more actively involved in the process of putting meat on the dinner table or on our bodies, we'd be weighing our ethical decisions more often. Just something to think about.

And just like that, my head exploded

Thanks to an anonymous emailer, I no longer have to live in fear of Newman-O's: Snack of the Gods. Things are looking up, my friends. Things are looking up.

Real Genius

Apparently, when you cut wheat out of your diet, you have to think about it all the time. Because as soon as you stop thinking about it, YOU WILL EAT WHEAT. It's in everything, including the soy sauce at the sushi restaurant I went to in order to not eat wheat. It's also in beer, which would seem self-explanatory but I let's just say I can be a little slow on the uptake when it involves not drinking a pint of pale ale. Wheat is also in Newman-O's: Snack of the Gods, which I already knew, except that the other day when I got to work around 8:30 a.m. I was technically still asleep and not thinking coherently, so when I noticed that someone had left a half-eaten bag of Newman-O's on my desk I started shoveling them into my mouth as quickly as possible before they were taken away from me. That's what I do in the morning. I shovel wheat. While sleepwalking. At work. And it took not eating wheat for me to realize that I had a problem.

Suffice it to say that my wheat-free experiment has been aborted due to lack of information and self-control, and will not be revisited until further research is conducted. And by conducting research I mean bathing in walnut sourdough bread with two sticks of butter and a Guinness.