March 5, 2022
Category: Regenerative Recipes
I really love coffee. I have loved it since I was 2 years old! My husband roasts his own coffee beans and makes his own espresso/lattes daily. I love drip coffee, oat milk lattes, and oat milk London fogs. Unfortunately, coffee doesn’t always agree with me, but I love it so much that I usually drink it daily (shame on me!).
There are a lot of “coffee alternatives” trending right now. Mushroom/Chai alternatives are all over the place right now (which I actually like quite a bit but I have to add so much sweetener and creamer to it that I probably remove all healthiness – not to mention the sludge that you get at the bottom of the drink, even if you blend it well).
I’m always up for trying new drinks that have the same “comfort-feel” as coffee. I think Chai definitely fits that bill and has been a favorite for a lot of people for a long time. It hasn’t been a favorite of mine, probably due to seeing the ingredients in the chai mixes when I worked as a barista when I was young. I am a hippie at heart and have been excited to see a new wave of natural spices being added to drinks (beetroot, turmeric, etc.). One of my recent favorite drinks was called “Matt’s Special” at Ghost Town Coffee, here in Bozeman. One of our employees also made me a home-made golden chai that was delicious! I have decided its one of my new favorite coffee-alternatives so I wanted to try my hand at it. Not to mention that they run about $6 for a 12oz at any coffee shop. Yikes!
Now, I’m not saying this is a magic concoction and will heal all your ailments BUT it does have some healthy ingredients, so enjoy this special treat!
I’ve read a few recipes that just seems super complicated. I don’t really do complicated, if I can help it. So here is my simplified recipe. Hope you enjoy it!
Ingredients:
- 3C Water
- 3C Oat Milk (substitute any milk)
- 3 cinnamon sticks
- 4″ fresh ginger grated (or even more if you like it really strong)
- 10 whole cloves
- 10 peppercorns
- 2 black or chai tea bags (I use decaf if I can)
- 1/2 t vanilla extract
- 1 Tbsp ground turmeric (or fresh if you have it!)
- honey, to taste
Instructions:
- Add water, cinnamon sticks, fresh ginger grated, whole cloves, peppercorns, tea bags, ground turmeric to a medium sized sauce pan.
- Turn on medium heat.
- Bring to a boil. Boil for 4-6 minutes (longer will make it stronger)
- Turn down heat, add oat milk.
- Simmer (without boiling) for another 3-4 minutes.
- Strain through a very fine sieve. Add vanilla.
- Let cool.
- Pour into a glass jar and store in the fridge.
- Shake before use.
- Enjoy your golden chai by warming it up in the microwave, OR mixing it into vanilla ice cream. Our family calls it “chai-scream” (so good!)
Notes:
- Tea bags: Don’t worry if the black tea bags explode, you will strain all chunks out at the end.
- Ginger: You should be able to substitute dry ginger powder but I haven’t tried it yet. I would guess about 1 Tbsp.
- Straining without the mess! I made a huge mess the first time when I was trying to strain it. The best system I found was to first pour mixture into a glass pyrex measuring container and then I poured it into one of my tea pots that has a fine strainer. Then I was able to pour the perfectly mixed and amazingly delicious golden chai into a glass jar for storing in the fridge.
- Turmeric: Use care because turmeric stains pretty easily.
- Ginger: 3″ of ginger is the equivalent of a 1″ wide cylinder of ginger by 3″ long or so. Ginger varies so much in thickness so just approximate. I would say maybe about 3 – 5 Tbsp, or more
- Creaminess: You can adjust the creaminess factor by decreasing water and/or increasing your milk. A good “creamy” recipe would be 1 – 2 C. water to 3 – 4 C. oat milk. Do the same process as above but maybe simmer with the oat milk a little longer to make sure it absorbs the delicious flavors.
- Sludge: I have found that when you strain with very fine strainer, you don’t have the sludge problem. I do shake my glass jar before I pour it out but any particles left are super fine.
Please let me know what you think!