"Robert Choate" > wrote in message
...
> Since my wife loves chai lattes from Starbucks, we decided to try our hand
> at making our own chai mix. Found a good recipe in a coffee-table book we
> have. The mix seems pretty good, but I'm skeptical about the brewing
method
> the book says to use.
>
> It says to mix equal parts water and milk in a saucepan and bring to a
boil,
> then steep the tea mixture in the milk/water. Doesn't heating the milk in
> this way scorch it? And isn't there some chemical process that happens
with
> the milk and tea (something about polyphenols and milk solids) that might
> interfere with the infusion?

The way I do it, I learned from Indian folks:

Having your chai masala (spice) mix, add one teaspoon for every 2 cups cold
water. Bring to boil, add 4 tsp. loose black tea or 4 teabags (per 2c
water) Keep on heat and boil for 15 seconds or so. Remve from heat, steep
1 minute, strain leaves from tea. Add sugar or honey to taste. Mix with
milk which was heated in a separate saucepan, 1:1 ratio is good though I
tend to add a little less milk.

I like this way best because I can adjust the amount of milk for individual
tastes. The 1 minute steep sounds low but I think the 15 sec boil gets
things going pretty fast, I've tried this with English Breakfast, Assam and
Ceylon and had good results with each kind.

-ben