Chai Hot Drink Mix

Chai (pronounced as a single syllable and rhymes with PIE) means, simply, "tea".  For most Americans who refer to ordinary tea as "tea", the word chai has come to imply "masala chai". Masala meaning "spiced"  It is Indian/South Asian in origin.

You can purchase many chai tea mixes in the store, and I am certain some people even make their own at home with tea, milk or cream, spices and a sweetener.  My sisters Cathy and Karen are chai tea addicts.  When pricing the premix in the store, which I am sure is mostly sugar, I decided to find a recipe online and see how it worked out for the dry mix.  For some reason, maybe its just me, but if I make the premix at home, and its full of sugar, its not nearly as bad as when you buy it in the store!  It is a nice mental mind-game I like to play with myself!  I don't have the conversion for sugar and sugar substitute mastered yet but you could make this sugar free and almost fat free.  

I had to trust the taste testing of my sister.  I do not drink this, I am a coffee girl from way back and do not enjoy any hot tea.  It sure makes the house smell cozy and very "fall".  I figured if you utilize your dollar store, it will cost you approximately, 10.00 initially.  Of course if you have unsweetened ice tea, ground ginger, cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg and white sugar or sugar substitute it will be cheaper.  My sister said she pays almost 5.00 for a container the size of a soda can.  This makes about 5 times that much (in my guess).  
If you are a chai tea contessuir, you will notice this recipe has no cardamom.  Don't like it, it was hugely expensive and took such a tiny amount, I am told, you can't even tell its not in there.   You can add it if you like, I will write the recipe and put it as OPTIONAL.  

Chai Tea-Dry Mix

1 cup nonfat dry milk

2 cups french vanilla non dairy creamer (powder)

2 cups granulated sugar

1 1/2 cups unsweetened instant iced tea

1 tbsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp cardamom (OPTIONAL)

 

Combine thoroughly in a large bowl.  To ensure no undissolved "stuff" at the bottom of your cup, put into food processor and process approx 1 minute to make a fine powder.

Add 1/4 cup of mixture into your cup of hot water.

Enjoy!

 

Excuse the clumping look on the sides, I had just washed my processor and obviously didn't get it dried completely!!

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