Description
Fragrant homemade lavender chai tea concentrate with warming spices and black tea. Naturally sweetened and perfect for making creamy hot or iced lavender chai lattes anytime!
Ingredients
- 3 1/4 cups water
- 3 black tea bags or 3 tablespoons loose
- 1 large or 2 small cinnamon sticks
- 8 whole cloves
- 6 peppercorns
- 1 teaspoon culinary lavender
- 1/4 teaspoon ginger powder or 1/2 inch piece fresh, sliced (optional)
- 1/4 teaspoon cardamom or 3 whole pods, lightly crushed (optional)
- dash of nutmeg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
Instructions
Simmer the spices & tea: Bring 3 cups of water to a boil, add tea, cinnamon, cloves, peppercorns, lavender, ginger, cardamom, and nutmeg, turn the heat to low, and simmer for 15 minutes.
Rest & sweeten: Turn off the heat and let it cool for 10 minutes. Remove tea bags. Add vanilla and maple syrup, and give a good stir.
Strain: Pour the concentrate through a fine-mesh strainer into a jar or bottle.
Serve: In a glass or mug/cup, pour tea concentrate to about 1/3 – 1/2 full, fill the remaining with water or milk. Would be great with a little Vegan Cream stirred in!
Serve warm or iced.
Store leftover tea in the refrigerator; use it within one week.
Makes about 4 – 6 servings
Notes
If you don’t want to use all these ingredients, try using chai tea bags instead.
For the tea I used 2 black tea bags and one orange pekoe. I recommend going with the strongest black tea you can find since this is a concentrate.
- Prep Time: 10 min
- Cook Time: 15 min
- Category: Beverage
- Method: Boiling
- Cuisine: Indian-Inspired