By Peggy Alaniz
In the early spring of 2010, I took a trip out to Boulder, Colorado. While talking to the concierge, my love of tea came up. He suggested that I check out the Dushanbe tea house and to make sure that I drank the house Chai. At the time I was a bit of a novice when it came to tea and knew little about chai. However, one sip of the hot, sweet, spicy concoction and I was hooked. There is just something about cinnamon and ginger that makes a person smile.
The typical American version of Chai tea usually consists of black tea, milk, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, clove, cardamon, and black peppercorn. It can also be made with Green tea, Rooibos, turmeric, fennel, and star anise. However, if you happen to be traveling elsewhere in the world make sure that you are ordering chai marsala if you are looking for a latte. Otherwise, you might just get plain old tea. It is also my suggestion for a first-time tea drinker or someone who has never seemed to like tea. With all the aromatic spices you tend not to taste any of the black tea. It also tastes great with soy, almond, oat, or coconut milk.
Besides tasting delicious, Chai has health benefits attributed to it. Some of which are aiding in digestion, regulating sugar levels, weight loss, heart health, combating urinary tract infections, and reducing asthma symptoms. The tea contains an abundant mix of ingredients, each with their own unique healing properties. The typical ingredients do have individual healing properties.
Black Tea contains antioxidants just like green tea, but in a lower concentration.
Cinnamon lowers blood sugar, blood pressure, triglycerides, and LDL cholesterol.
Ginger is an anti-inflammatory, aides’ digestion, and lowers blood sugar.
Clove is known to help with inflammation and tooth sensitivity.
Cardamon combats infections in the urinary track and helps to lessen asthma symptoms.
Black Peppercorn detoxifies your body, helps with weight loss, and regulates heart rate.
Combined, these ingredients not only benefit your overall health, they are a nice cup of comfort on a balmy fall day. I like a chai tea latte hot or iced. Since most Americans prefer to drink their tea iced instead of warm, might I suggest an iced cranberry chai cider?
1 Chai tea bag per cup of boiling water, steep 2 minutes then chill
1 Cup of apple cider per cup of chai tea
1/4 Cup of cranberry juice per cup of tea
1/4 teaspoon of pumpkin spice, or a little extra for those of us who like things spicy
Combine the chilled chai tea with the apple cider, cranberry juice, and pumpkin spice. Stir and add to a glass half filled with ice. If too tart for your taste, it can be sweetened with a little bit of sugar, honey, or agave.
Peggy Alaniz is a poet, writer, and tea enthusiast. If you have any questions, please e-mail her at paalaniz.email.me@gmail.com.
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Last year for Christmas I got a surprise—orange tea. It was a gift from one of my relatives who always tries to find a unique tea for me to try. While I have added citrus to traditional tea, I never had one that was all citrus. It had a pleasant refreshing taste—one that I could pair with a cinnamon stick to give a little bit of warmth and holiday feel in the cold of winter. The whole house smells amazing when you brew orange peel with cinnamon on top of the stove. It made me realize that I can make a type of tisane (an herbal infusion) out of just about anything that will infuse into water.