Chai Tea Latte

I recently discovered Chai Tea Latte's at Starbucks. I'm hooked.

I had a coupon for a $2 tea latte there and decided to give the Chai one a try. I drink tea pretty much every day at home, and sometimes I drink Chai, but I was curious to try the latte. I decided to see if I could find a recipe online anywhere and found one. Once I hunted down the ingredients, I discovered that cardamom is really expensive...$9.95 a bottle! So I found a cheater's way...check it out! It was darn close to being as good as Starbucks and for a fraction of the price. Can't beat that! Update...for the record, I've made this every single day since I tried this homemade recipe for the first time. I LOVE it.

Decaf Chai Tea Latte

adapted from Instructables

1 Decaf Chai Tea Bag
1 1/4 cup water
Shake of ginger
1 clove
1 cinnamon stick
3 packets of splenda
1 cup of milk (I used skim)

makes 1 large serving

Add water, spices, and tea bags. Bring it to a boil, and boil for 5 minutes. Don't worry if a tea bag breaks open. You can strain the tea later. Add the Splenda. Then add the milk, and return it to a boil. Remove or strain out tea bag, clove and cinnamon stick before serving.

or the

Original online version
2 C. Water

2 Regular Tea Bags

1/8-1/4 teaspoon EACH of ginger and cardamon

1 whole clove

1 cinnamon stick

6 Splenda packets or 1/4 cup Sugar

2 1/2 C. Milk

makes 2 large servings

In your sauce pan, add water, spices, and tea bags. Bring it to a boil, and boil for 5 minutes. After boiling, it will look like this. Don't worry if a tea bag breaks open. You can strain the tea later. Now add the Splenda. If you'd rather you can use 1/4 C. Sugar. I have tried using less sweetener, gradually using less and less, and you get used to the less-sweet taste. I've heard of people using honey, but it would change the taste. Now add the milk, and return it to a boil. This won't take long, and if you aren't careful, it will boil over. Quite a mess! Here's a neat little trick: if you take a stick of butter and run it quickly around the rim of the pan when it's hot, the chai won't boil over. Now you get to enjoy it! I use a little cup strainer as shown in the picture. This is especially great if a tea bag breaks open. But also after boiling milk, you can get a "scum" on top. While the tea, spices and scum are harmless, they can be unpleasant to consume. So the strainer is nice to have.