Spiced chai concentrate recipe

Over the summer my favorite drink at Starbucks quickly became the iced chai tea lattes and although when I go there over Christmas, I will always go for the gingerbread latte, I have been craving the slightly odd, slightly spicy, slightly sweet taste of the chai tea. I first purchased from Tesco, a box of Royal Chai sweetened mix but this turned out to pretty much just taste of cardamom and from that I worked out I absolutely do NOT like the taste of cardamom.  Chai FAIL -1.

The second tub I purchased is Drink Me, Chai Latte (Spiced) and this stuff is seriously good! I prefer to have this hot and it's delicious! You can get this in all of the supermarkets and it comes in vanilla too. Chai WIN +1.

While I browsing Pinterest (Again! Yes I know, i'm never off that site!) I came across a recipe on A Wooden Nest to make your own spiced chai concentrate and, well... it would have been rude not to give it a go! I adapted this recipe to suit my taste (i.e. I didn't add any cardamom and only 1 star anise) but you can always refer back to the original with the link above.

You'll need: (To fill a 450ml bottle)


4 cups water
1 stick cinnamon
1 inch piece of fresh ginger, chopped
1 whole star anise pods
10 whole cloves
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon orange zest
10 bags of black tea
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1) Measure out all of your spices and set them aside along with your tea bags.

2) Bring to the boil your 4 cups of water and take off the heat.

3) Add in all your spices & the tea bags and leave to infuse for 15 minutes.

{Photo from A Wooden Nest}

4) Remove your tea bags and strain the mixture into a jug or large bowl. Add in your sugar, honey and vanilla and stir until dissolved. Pour mixture into a bottle or jar and keep in the fridge! I put my cinnamon stick in the bottle because I can't get enough of the stuff! Chai WIN +100.

To serve, mix one part concentrate with one part milk. Heat it up or serve it cold over ice! This should last in the fridge for a couple of weeks at least. 

Mmmmm. Starbucks who?