I love Sunday mornings, waking up late, rolling out of bed, and thinking what can I make this morning? Living in New England this time of year, your body is just starting to adjust to the chilly weather after the grueling humid hot summer and unpredictable fall. I love nothing more than making my own teas from common ingredients I usually always have around my house. They may not be common in yours, but once you find a store in your area that readily supplies these unique ingredients you will forever keep them around! They are tasty, health promoting, and can be used in many unique applications!
I’d like to share the yummy tea I whipped up this morning, its spicy, yummy, healthy, and pretty easy to make! Its not like your Chai Tea you get from Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts. It doesn’t have 65 grams of sugar per cup, and you don’t even have to drive down the road to get it!
I like to call it Homemade Almost Chai Tea.
Ingredients:
Makes about 3 cups of yummy tea!
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- Turmeric. A very healthful root, you can most likely find at a “Whole Foods” or “Coop.” You can use the powdered Turmeric but for this application I love the fresh root. It looks like mini ginger root, but it has a beautiful orange inside. Turmeric could help prevent cancer, reduce inflammation and a naturally pain reliever for many ailments!
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- Cinnamon Sticks. Cinnamon has been shown to be an amazing spice, you can use ground cinnamon as well but I like the sticks for this application. You can find cinnamon sticks easily in the grocery store. Cinnamon has been shown to help with; blood pressure, diabetes, yeast infections, inflammation, and have antioxidant effects.
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- Raw Honey. You can find good raw honey at any health food store, most of the honey in grocery stores can be over priced and/or questionable. Honey is very good for overall health and tastes delicious besides! Honey could help; prevent overall sickness, colds, allergies, cough, burns, skin health, diabetes, wound healing, and much more! Please see my post about Honey, you can find that link below.
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- Vanilla Bean. You can find these usually at a gorcery store or health food store but I prefer to get mine online, they are usually cheaper. Vanilla bean is a great ingredient to have around the house for teas, baking, flavored water, and many other applications. If you use vanilla extract in this recipe be sure it is pure vanilla extract, not that cheap artificially flavored stuff. Vanilla could help with gas and fever. But it is a delicious ingredient regardless!
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- Lemongrass. You can find lemon grass stalks at most Asian Markets and probably at a “Whole Foods” too. Lemongrass has a delicious, fresh, and energizing scent with notes of lemon. Lemongrass could help; digestive issues, the common cold, headache, and other pain related ailments.
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- Ginger. You can find fresh ginger root in almost any grocery store nowadays and its pretty cheap too! You can use the powdered ginger but I would not reccomend it especially when fresh ginger is usually right at your disposal. Ginger has been shown to be very healthful in helping with; indigestion, stomach aches, PMS, inflammation, among many other great health benefits.
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 5 slices of fresh ginger
- 1/2 vanilla bean
- you’ll want to use your knife to cut the bean long ways, scrape the beans out with your knife and use the beans and remaining stem
- or use a tsp of pure vanilla extract WHEN you add your honey.
- 4 slices of fresh turmeric
- one stalk of largely diced lemongrass- Find an Asian Market Near Me!
- 4 cups of water
- honey to taste, I use about a tsp per cup –> See my must read Post about Honey!
- milk or cream if desired
Method of Prep
- Place your ginger, turmeric, lemongrass, vanilla bean, cinnamon stick, and water in a medium saucepan.
- Bring to a boil, and then turn the heat down to low so your pot simmers for about 15 to 20 minutes uncovered.
- Prep your mug with your honey, milk, and vanilla extract (if you replaced this with the fresh vanilla bean).
- Strain your brewed tea into a large bowl, or if you have a hand held strainer handy just strain the tea right into your cup!
- Mix it up and voila you have a yummy healthy tea to enjoy on a chilly morning!
Other Tricks
You can also brew this tea and chill it, and make an iced beverage which would be very yummy!
Or if you would rather make a creamy type Chai latte, you can use milk as your base instead of water. Just be sure you do not bring the milk to a full boil or scald it because it will develop a skin and taste funny which is not very appetizing when you’re looking for a smooth rich tea! You can also use other milks like almond, coconut, or soy!
You can also add other spices or roots to your tea such as cardamon, slippery elm bark, cloves, fennel seed, anise, or nutmeg. Be creative, go outside the box, and try something new! You never know when you’ll discover a new favorite ingredient!
Finally, if you’re one of those non morning people and need an extra kick in your cup, you can steep a bag of black tea in your simmering pot for some caffeine!