Making your own Marsala Chai

If coffee were perfumes, chai latte would be the one I'd wear in Autumn. I love the smell of it and perhaps someone should invent chai perfume. I'd buy it for sure. Not surprisingly chai latte is one of my favourite drinks to order at cafes. Then I came across marsala chai at this amazing Indian restaurant when I was in Taiwan on holiday - it was rich and creamy, full of spice and sweet. Hmmmmmm.

I found a recipe online the other day and have been experimenting with it by tweaking it here and there. Normally at home I'd make my chai over a pot on a stove using cardamon pods and real ginger amongst other spices - but since I plan to take these to work, I had to settle for the ground spices which is not as strong in flavour.

I found these tea bags at the $2.50 Japanese store near work (Maruyu on Clarence Street)! Perfect for my instant chai tea experiment!

Tea bags $2.50

For my chai tea mixture, I also added milk powder so I wouldn't have to add milk as it cools down my tea. I like my tea really hot!

Mixture of all the spices + tea and milk powder

Tea bags all ready to go!

Marsala Chai Tea

Recipe adapted from AllRecipe

Ingredients

• 1 cup nonfat dry milk powder
• 1 cup powdered non-dairy creamer
• 1 cup French vanilla flavored powdered non-dairy creamer (I omitted this)
• 2 1/2 cups white sugar (I used brown sugar)
• 1 1/2 cups unsweetened instant tea (I used Dilmah's black tea)
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves (I added whole cloves instead)
• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom (I added 2 teaspoon)
• 1 teaspoon fennel

Directions

In a large bowl, combine milk powder, non-dairy creamer, vanilla flavored creamer, sugar and instant tea. Stir in ginger, cinnamon, cloves and cardamom. In a blender or food processor (or by hand), blend 1 cup at a time, until mixture is the consistency of fine powder.

Add them to the empty tea-bags and store in a air-tight container.

The verdict?

This mixture is pretty good and addictive. I love it with an extra teaspoon of honey too! Because they are 'instant' and not cooked over the pot, I find that I'd need to add more spices next time for the spices to be more dominant in the taste.