Lazy Chai

With the internet being down from 5am to noon today, you'd have thought I would have gotten some "real" work done. Not so. I did manage to waste over an hour making tea...

I love the chai masala tea that I make, but I don't always feel like going through that whole process of getting the pan dirty and making the whole 8 cup recipe I use. You can see below the Trikona brand masala and tea on the left that I use for the big recipe.  I bought some really expensive black tea with chai spices, and was not totally surprised to see inside the tin that it was (wait for it) black tea with chai spices. I could literally see recognizable bits of cardamom, cinnamon, and clove. And the tea looked remarkably like the Brooke Bond Red Label/Mamri that I use for the base of my recipe.

So, vowing never to pay $12 for 2 ounces of that tea again, I set off with my mini processor to replicate it. I used the spice ingredient list from the masala mix I had bought and was lucky to have all of the spices on hand (I make a lot of curries.)  Ginger was the only problem in that I had it ground or in root form - nothing that could be chopped up to make a dry mix. So I used powdered, and yes, it does settle out a bit.

I adjusted ratios a bit as I tasted it in the only way possible, adding more stuff to the bowl, which resulted in a near double batch to overcome my initial black peppering.  Estimated cost for the batch for the near pound of tea mix is about $3.

Although I used only half the 2lb. Red Label box, you can see that I'm set now for quite a while. And the epitome of laziness for brewing this tea - I use a pyrex measuring cup instead of a teapot.    My Belgian friend Gigi cringes when I tell her this, but I do at least put boiling water in it for 30 seconds and dump it before I put in the tea and the water I'll drink. So, cheers to laziness and to cheapness if the end results get you where you need to be.

Some days having a good cup of tea in hand sets the mood for the entire day.

It's a Wrap

I wanted something besides another cup of tea this afternoon, so I made up a glass of this stuff - Lo-Han-Kuo Beverage.  We call it "Not Tea," with references to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.  You can find it at any Asian grocery.  As I prepared my cup and boiled the water, I found myself terribly amused at the amount of wrapping involved.

Let us peel back the layers to get to the product...

• Outer plastic wrap
• cardboard box containing
• twelve smaller cardboard boxes each containing
• a plastic bag which holds
• waxed paper which unfolds to reveal
• ta da: two little cubes that look like bullion cubes.

I think they really missed the mark by not having an additional layer of plastic wrap on the twelve tiny boxes. Seriously, moisture or dust or anything could have contaminated the product.