Chai tea is awesome! Love it and have loved it since I came back to America in 2005. It’s a perfect fall drink, warming, calming, and a little kick from the chai spices. I used to love the chai tea lattes from Starbuck and Coffebean, but these days, I don’t really go there anymore.
So I’m doing it raw, raw vegan that is. And how did I do with making it raw vegan chai tea? Is it just as good as my old time favorites? I have to say, it is pretty darn good!! Gave myself a little pat in the back there.
Now, to make chai tea, the chai spice mix is essential. It’s what gives this milk tea its signature flavor. Indian families have their own concoctions, making them slightly different from one another and unique. My chai spice is made up of cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, clove, nutmeg, and black pepper. This fragrant blend of spices are anti-inflammatory, and aid your digestion. Black tea being chock full of anti-oxidants, means chai tea is not only tasty, but great for you! It is also a great alternative to coffee, if you are a coffee lover and trying to cut down on your caffeine intake.
Now making chai tea is quite simple. you begin with the magical chai spice mix. You can mix up the spices yourself! Simply put all the spices into a coffee grinder, and grind it fine. If you don’t have a coffee grinder, you can use a blender. You can skip this process, and just mix by hand, but this grinding makes the black pepper really fine, and prevents you from getting a large spicy granule of black pepper on your tongue when you’re drinking it.
Transfer your freshly made chai spice mix into an air-tight container. Store it in a cool place away from sunlight, and it’ll last for months. Now that you have your own chai spice mix in your spice cabinet, you can enjoy chai tea anytime, and you can even chai-ify things with it, like oatmeal and granola!
On to making chai tea! Add water, tea bags, some chai spice, and maple syrup to a sauce pan or small pot, and heat it up on the lowest flame until it temperature rises to about 110°F (42°C). Stir constantly and check the temperature with a cooking thermometer often to ensure there’s no hot spots and the tea doesn’t go over 118°F (48°C), making it no longer “raw”.
Once the tea reaches about 110°F (42°C), pour in the raw vegan almondmilk and vanilla extract. Keep stirring and heating it up until the temperature comes back up to about 110°F (42°C) again. Once the chai tea reaches the temperature, turn off the flame and serve immediately before it cools off. You would be surprised how warm it is when you drink it at only 110°F (42°C). However, because we didn’t bring it to a rolling boil, it will cool off relatively fast, so it’s important to serve it immediately.
If you want to make it into an iced version, cool off the chai tea a little before you pour it over an ice cube filled glass.
If you want to make it into a chai latte, have some coconut whipped cream (not raw but vegan) standing by ready before you make the tea. Place some coconut whipped cream or raw vegan coconut whipped cream on top of the chai tea and dust some cinnamon.
Writing this post has only made me want some chai tea right NOW! I’m going to go make some. Enjoy!
- ½ Tablespoon cinnamon
- 1 Tablespoon ginger powder
- 2 teaspoons cardamom
- ¼ teaspoon clove
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 cup water
- 3 black tea bags (inexpensive ones are better)
- 1 Tablespoon chai spice
- 3 Tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon non-alcohol vanilla extract
- 1 cup almond milk
- Some coconut whipped cream
- A dusting of cinnamon
- Put all the spices into a coffee grinder or a blender, and grind it fine.
- Transfer the chai spice into an air-tight container. Store it in a cool place away from sunlight, and it will last for months.
- Add in water, tea bags, some chai spice and maple syrup into a sauce pan or small pot, and heat it on the lowest flame until it the temperature rises to about 110°F (42°C). Stir constantly and check the temperature with a cooking thermometer often to ensure there's no hot spots and the tea doesn't get hotter than 118°F (48°C).
- When the tea reaches about 110°F (42°C), pour in the raw vegan almond milk and vaniila extract. Keep stirring and heating it up until the temperature comes back up to about 110°F (42°C) again. Once the chai tea reaches the temperature, turn off the flame and serve immediately before it cools off.
- Top with some coconut whipped cream (not raw but vegan) and dust on some cinnamon.
Just wanted to say that I just found your blog and I am loving it! I just started a raw food diet and your recipes are so tasteful and easy to make!
Right now it is around 35 degrees here and I am drinking a chai, prepared using your recipe!
By the way, what template you use to write the recipes you post? I am re-writing some of the because we use metrics and I would like to keep an uniform layout…
Take care!
Hi Fabiana,
Thank you so much for your kind words!
I use a recipe plugin for wordpress, but I actually need to change it out because it’s outdated and doesn’t work with my site anymore.
I don’t know if this is an answer you were looking for but…
Thank you for trying the recipe!
Thank you so much for your kind attention! I will try other recipes and let you know!!
Thank you so much Fabiana!