Winter Is for Masala Chai (Syrup)

Time for a cup full of coziness

Photo: Toby J Burrows

In Europe, it’s winter right now. Days are short and a mixture of snow, sleet, and rain. Outside the home office window, grey skies dominate the scenery. Time to get a cup full of coziness on your desk, couch, or wherever you need it!

This recipe was born purely out of impatience. My girlfriend and I love Masala Chai, but most of the time, we don’t want to spend 30 minutes cooking just two cups to drink right away. So we came up with the idea of cooking a syrup that can be used to prepare a drink from it. This way, you only cook the syrup once and can extract a lot of servings from it. Cooking a cup of Masala Chai is now as fast as brewing a regular tea. Believe me; it’s a game-changer to have a cup ready in seconds!

Chai Syrup

Makes: 700 ml (~ 35 servings)

Time: About 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons fresh ginger (roughly chopped)
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 1/4 teaspoon fennel seeds
• 7 cardamom pods
• 2-star anise
• 1 knife tip turmeric
• 10 cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 dried chili (optional)
• 750 ml water
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 10 tablespoons honey (optional but create ‘smoother’ mouthfeel)
• 6 tablespoons black tea

Note: you don’t need all of the spices; the syrup will still taste great with a subset of the mentioned spices. Adjust spiciness to your liking by adding or reducing the amount of ginger, pepper, and chili.

Instructions

1. Crush the dried spices (without pepper, chili, and turmeric) roughly in a mortar. Put the crushed spices in a pot and dry-roast on medium heat until the kitchen smells good. Douse with the water.
2. Add the ginger, pepper, chili, and turmeric, and bring everything to a boil. Let it simmer on low heat for about 15 minutes.
3. Bring to boil once again and add the black tea. Set aside for 10 minutes.
4. Now add the sugar and honey. Stir until the sugar has dissolved completely.
5. Filter through a sieve into clean bottles and set aside to cool down. Closed bottles can be kept in the fridge for multiple weeks without going bad.
6. Serve: Use ~ 20 ml of Syrup to prepare a drink. Simply mix it with hot water or milk. It is also tasty to mix with cold milk and steam until warm and foamy.