Thursday, December 21, 2006

RECIPE ~ Green Chai Tea


I love to start the day with a pot of fresh, hot chai made with green tea and sweetened with vanilla rice milk (even better with vanilla soy milk!). For gifts this holiday I made little packets of my blend of chai spices for friends to make their own brew at home. I thought I'd share the recipe!

See a cup of this milky chai recipe on an earlier post with a recipe for an excellent breakfast for each dosha.

1 cup dry green tea leaves
1/2 cup dry black tea leaves (orange pekoe, earl grey, darjeeling...)
1 Tbsp ginger powder
1 Tbsp whole cloves
1 Tbsp crushed cinnamon sticks
2 tsp cardamom powder
(add 1 tsp crushed fennel seeds for a lovely accent!)


Combine all ingredients and store in a jar or tin. Makes about 1 1/2 cups of dry green chai mix.

TO BREW:
Place one teaspoon of the chai mix in a metal tea ball or reuseable cloth tea bag. Or spoon one teaspoon per cup of hot water into a teapot. Steep several minutes and serve with milk (dairy or non-dairy) and sweetener.

Alternately, boil the mixture in a pot, simmering for 10 minutes or more, with extra slices of fresh ginger for an excellently pungent brew: use 1 cup of liquid (half water/half milk (dairy or non-dairy) is very nice) with 1 tsp chai mix for each cup of tea. Sweeten with honey or sugar if desired.

FOR INDIVIDUAL DOSHAS
VATAS an excellent Vata tea; use any milk and sweeten with honey or sugar (sucanat or turbinado)
PITTAS due to the spicy cloves and ginger, make a weaker tea; use any milk and sweeten with sugar (sucanat or turbinado) or maple syrup
KAPHAS an excellent Kapha tea; use soy milk and sweeten with honey

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Never heard of green chai thanks for the recipe. Probably a little healthier because of the loose leaf green tea also.

Anonymous said...

I can't wait to try this recipe, thank you.

I am curious, however, about Kaphas using soy milk. I thought soy was undesirable for Kaphas? As well, the texts I've been reading re: Ayurveda, recommend cow's milk (skim for Kaphas).

What are your thoughts on this? I've been avoiding soy products for Ayurvedic purposes, but also because they are often overly-produced (some high in sugar and additives). I could very well be wrong, though!

Thanks!
Anita

Claudia Davila (Fran) said...

Anita, thanks for your question and for signing my guestbook!

From what I've learned, soymilk is appropriate for Kaphas only on the condition that it's consumed hot, and is even more compatible if it contains spices like the ones found in this chai tea. The same goes for tofu: only consume hot, cooked, and with spices (avoid deep fried ; )

That said, Kaphas need to avoid all other soy products including cold/sweet soymilk, soy beans, cold tofu, soy ice cream, soy mayo, and the like.

Hope this helps! : ) ~Fran

Anonymous said...

That helps a lot, thank you!!

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