Kolkata Street Chai

Ingredients

• 3 cups water
  
• 1 ounce fresh grated ginger
  
• 3 teaspoons assam CTC loose black tea leaves (or orange pekoe) (equivalent is 3 tea bags)
  
• 3 green cardamom pods, coarsely ground in a mortar and pestle, leave the pods in
  
• 1 1/2 cups 3.25% milk
  
• 3 tablespoons raw cane sugar, or equivalent
  

Directions

1. Bring the water and ginger to a rolling boil.
2. Turn the heat down to medium high (6 on my dial), and simmer for 2 minutes.
3. Add the black tea.
4. Simmer 5 minutes.
5. Add the milk and ground cardamom with their pods.
6. When the mixture returns to a boil, put the timer on for 7 minutes.
7. Add the sugar, stir, strain into cups, enjoy!
8. Notes: If your chai is still watery - turn the dial up next time one higher, and boil this batch down a bit more. If you want to tone down the bitterness of the tea, put 2 tsp instead. If you have less than 3 cups of tea at the end of things, then turn your dial down a bit next time, or simmer for less time. These times work perfectly on my stove - but it is a crappy electric stove, so who knows :) You can play with the quantity of ginger too - I like LOTS! I will be posting a recipe for a mixture of teas you can use to get a nice balance of flavours and the edginess of cheap tea similar to street chai in India. You can double, triple, etc. this recipe, just expect it to take a bit longer to come back to the boil the second time around.