Well put up your hand if you've ever tried Chai Tea. Chai Tea, which considering chai is Hindi for tea, meaning it's Tea Tea, is a delicious blend of so-called sweet spices and black tea. It's made very creamy, and in India the milk is often boiled until caramelized. What's crazy, is that I just can't find the authentic spices. No. I can only find it premixed, in tea bags or more commonly, syrup or concentrate. Even my favorite shop in the whole world, Whole Foods Market, does not sell just the spices. but they do sell the spices individually in their bulk spice section. here in this photo you can see what I bought.



Here we have Cinnamon Sticks, Star Anise, Cardamon Pods, Ground Ginger Root, Ground Nutmeg, Whole Cloves and very course Ground Pepper. These go into a pot of water, get boiled for 15-30 minutes, and then strained to make my own genuine Chai Tea extract. I think though that I am not extracting as much flavor as I thought I would. I may need to let it brew overnight.

At Whole Foods they recommended I go to a shop called the Savory Spice Shop. I just Googled them. They sell pre-mixed spice for Chai. But using some interesting ingredients that I have not found in traditional recipes. I will get some of their spices today and give it a go. Hopefully I can find these spices cheap enough that this will not have to be a luxury item. I think right now the Chai extract cost me about $3.00, and should be enough for 5 cups of Chai Tea. That's not expensive, but I would like to get it cheaper still so i can enjoy it every day without guilt.