Chocolate Chai

All out of cocoa mix so I made chocolate chai this week. Following recipe is for about two 12 oz cups.

Vanilla chai

• 1 1/2-2 cups water
• 1-1 1/2 cup milk
• 3 tsp chai tea (I prefer vanilla chai) or 2-3 chai teabags or put together your own chai tea
• About 3 tsp loose tea leaves (or 2-3 teabags) I prefer black
• The following spices - about a 1/4-1/2 tsp of each (Feel free to leave out anything you don't like or most likely do not have):



Cinnamon chips

• cinnamon (I prefer cinnamon sticks or chips over ground cinnamon)
• ginger (Fresh will be hotter, but dried or ground will do)
• cardamon
• nutmeg
• peppercorns
• clove
• vanilla (extract will do, piece of vanilla bean if you have it) vanilla helps to bring out the chocolate taste

• 2-3 tbs powdered baking chocolate (Or hot chocolate mix would be even better, but I don't have any tonight) 
• 2-3tsp sugar and/or 1-2 tsp honey 

You'll also need a tea strainer, or rig up something to strain out your chai, any kind of mesh strainer or a coffee filter and funnel. I assume anyone reading this has a pot big enough to hold 4 cups of water. 

1. Set the water in a pot on the stove at a medium heat. Add the chocolate, and if you're making the chai from scratch add the spices at this step. 
2. When the water starts getting hot (Starting to steam) add the tea leaves. 
3. When the water starts to steam add the milk, you can also add the sugar/honey at this step. Or you might want to hold off and add the sugar/honey to your cup.
4. Keep the chai at a medium heat until it just starts to boil. Of course if you're like me you'll turn your back for 10 seconds and when you turn around it will be boiling over and making a mess of the stovetop. If you added the sugar/honey at step 3 it will be extra sticky. 
5. Strain the chai into cups. If you are not wiping the sticky mess off your stove right now add the sugar/honey to your chai now. 
6. Caution: Chai will be hot enough to burn your lips, tongue and if you swallow it will burn your throat. Sip carefully until it cools. Do not sue me because you scalded yourself. 

I thought it would be fun to add a candy cane to my chai. I even had the foresight to unwrap it first. The crook was broken off so it was less visually appealing. Unsurprisingly the chai was so hot it melted the candy cane really fast and I got to watch it slowly sink into the chai like a giraffe in quicksand. I do not recommend adding a candy cane to chai, though it did give a nice hint of peppermint.

Casablanca Tea

I like New Mexico Tea Company's Casablanca, as you can see in my post on Steepster:

I love my bergamot.
I got this as a free sample from the NM Tea Company and I wish I had a couple ounces of it, this is good stuff. I’m usually not too crazy about mint teas because the mint tends to get overpowering, but in this tea I can also taste the tea and more importantly the bergamot. The mint blends well with it.
I only meant to steep this tea for 2 minutes but got distracted, I think it would be better with a shorter steeping time but it was still good. Added just a little sugar and drink it like I drink my regular Earl Grey – enjoying and trying to make it last instead of gulping it down too fast.

NM Tea Co Casablanca

It is a very attractive tea, one of the best smelling I've ever sniffed. I'd like to get a shower gel that smells like this.

Like Dorian Grey there are several teas with this name but are different, a lot of them are actually tisanes. 

• Pekko Teas Casablanca is a fruity herbal; Luxury natural dried apple pieces, Hibiscus, Rosehip, Elderberries, Maracuja pieces, Sunflower petals, Passion flowers, Rose petals, Raspberry pieces, Strawberry pieces, Kiwi pieces, Cornflower petals, Natural flavors.
• Culinary Teas Casablanca is also herbal; Hibiscus petals, Rosehip chips, Dried apple pieces, Dried strawberries, Dried currants, Cornflower petals, Calendula petals, Natural Flavors 
• The Tea Table Casablanca herbal, dried apple pieces, hibiscus, rose hip peels, elderberries, raspberry, strawberry, kiwi, and passion fruit pieces, sunflower, cornflower, and rose petals, and natural flavors.
• Special Tea Casablanca Is a fruity black tea, ceylon black tea, safflower, rose petals, natural flavor. Special Tea also has roobios Casablanca.
• Mariage Freres Casablanca is similar to NM Tea Casablanca, green tea with Moroccan mint and bergamot-flavoured tea
•  Leland Tea Co Casablanca is a white tea with Mediterranean fig.

I plan on putting in another order with NM Tea Co in a couple weeks, it's a little more expensive per ounce than ETS but you have the option of buying as little as 1 oz at a time, free shipping on any order and free samples so it's still a good deal. NM Tea Co is also the cheapest I've seen this version of Casablanca tea.