Masala tea is popular throughout India and Thailand. It can be purchased in the store and typically contains clove, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, black tea and other spices. This spiced chai tea can taste sour if it doesn’t contain any sugar. A small serving of 120ml of masala tea contains approximately 40mg of caffeine. Compared to coffee, it usually has the same amount of caffeine for the same amount of liquid.
The tea itself is very fragrant in terms of flavour. The natural ingredients used to prepare can give many health benefits such as improving heart health, reduced blood sugar levels, improved digestion, and studies suggest that it could even help with weight loss. The recipe below will serve two people so if you are intending to make masala tea for more people feel free to double or triple the recipe. When it comes to choosing the milk for masala tea you can use whole cows milk or if you’d prefer to go for a vegan option, you could use soy milk, oat milk, or almond milk. You may need to adjust the recipe if using a plant based milk. For sugar, you can use regular table sugar which is the traditional choice, or can opt for honey or maple syrup. If you like your masala tea more sour, simply use less sugar.
Ingredients
- Green cardamom (5)
- Whole cloves (3)
- Star anise (2)
- Peppercorns (5)
- Water (1 cup)
- Thumb sized piece of ginger (1 inch)
- Cinnamon stick (1/2)
- Teabag (1 or 2)
- Milk (1 cup)
- Sugar (2 tsp)
Method
Start by crushing the cardamom pods, star anise, peppercorns and cloves. Then place them in a small saucepan with 1 cup of hot water. After that, add the ginger, cinnamon stick and tea bags. Boil the tea and then turn off the heat to avoid it becoming bitter.
Traditional masala tea is left to steep for about 10 minutes after boiling. The longer you leave it, the better the flavour. Add the milk of your choice and then simmer again to heat it to your preferred temperature. Remove the masala tea from the heat and add in your choice of sweetener to taste. Finally, strain the tea into a cup to drink and enjoy.
