Chai tea is a warming, spicy tea that helps promote healthy digestion by reducing bloating, boosts immunity, and is a nice sweet treat to sip on through the day. Chai tea is traditionally made with black tea but we’re using rooibos tea, which is high in antioxidants and naturally caffeine-free. However… If I you are looking for a little caffeine boost, you can add 1 tsp black tea leaves (assam or black chai) to about 1 cup of near-boiling water, then add 1 cup of the heated steeped chai tea and a touch of mylk to make a really yummy morning cup of Chai tea.

I’ll usually let the tea simmer for several hours, adding water as needed, since the flavours from the spices are released the longer you steep them. I’ve even left it over night (turned off, of course) and in the morning there is a nice strong brew of rooibos chai tea ready to be made into a black-rooibos chai tea when I add black tea leaves, as mentioned above.

We have these really cool Libre tea mugs that have a strainer built right into the mug so that you can drink looseleaf teas anytime and anywhere. This comes in really handy when you’re scooping up this homemade the chai tea – spices and all.

WARMING ROOIBOS CHAI TEA

Beautiful display of Rooibos chai tea ingredients.

Ingredients

• 6 cups water
• 2 inch chunk fresh ginger, thinly sliced
• 3 Tbsp honey
• 1 cinnamon stick, broken into pieces
• 1 tsp whole cloves
• 1 tsp whole fennel seeds
• 15 cardamon pods, opened (about 1 generous tsp)
• 1 – 1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• 2-3 tsp rooibos loose tea (or 2 bags rooibos tea)
• Milk or ‘mylk’ alternative, to taste

Directions

• Place 4 cups of water, ginger, honey and all spices and in a medium sized pot.
• Bring to a near-boil. Let simmer for 30 minutes, covered.
• Add 2 cups water and rooibos tea, cover pot, and let simmer 10-20 minutes.
• Scoop tea into your favorite mug or tea pot (you may need a strainer to catch any spices) and add mylk to taste.
• The longer you let the spices steep, the more flavour will be released. Sometimes I’ll let the tea simmer for an hour or two (or more!), adding more water as needed.