How to Make Delicious Tea at Home

Summary

The web content presents a personal recipe for authentic South Asian milk tea.

Abstract

The article details how to make traditional South Asian milk tea at home by blending water, milk, tea leaves, sugar, ginger, and cardamom in specific proportions and steps. The author emphasizes the importance of a well-prepared tea, highlighting differences in tea consumption preferences and practices around the world. The recipe yields about 300 ml and includes boiling water, adding tea leaves and ginger, letting it boil with cardamom, then adding milk for a final boil, and filtering before serving. The tea is described as a hot beverage best enjoyed slowly with a partner, savoring its aroma and taste. The author also notes potential side effects of overconsumption, such as gastric issues and advises against drinking it on an empty stomach.

Opinions

The author expresses a strong preference for the South Asian style of tea preparation, considering it superior to other methods.
The inclusion of ginger and cardamom is highly recommended for their contribution to taste and health benefits, such as improved immunity and antioxidant properties.
There is a cultural acknowledgment that adding milk

A cup of tea that will make your day

A cup of milk-tea is my most preferred hot beverage since childhood. Either it would be breakfast or afternoon snacks, I prefer it to any other hot-drink. But tea has to be well cooked and not merely a casual mixture of milk-water and tea leaves.

For many people around the world, a cup of tea means boiling water with tea leaves. But in the South Asian community, including Nepal and India, such tea is an insult to the most practiced version of tea. So, today, for a change, I write my recipe for making a delicious tea at home. Tea is called as chai in Hindi and chiya in Nepali.

Wait, before taking you further, I warn you that tea with milk can be strange in many parts of the world. Yes, Last year when I offered a well-made tea to my friend from Kosova, an eastern European country, he told me that his country can never imagine adding milk into tea. So, you may find my recipes and idea strange to digest.

My ingredients to prepare 300 ml of tea

Water and milk in the ratio of 50:50.

2 tea sachets or 2 small spoons if it is loose tea packet.

Sugar (as per your taste)

A tiny piece of ginger (I prefer to use raw ginger instead of powder). Ginger in your tea brings a good taste. It is also helpful for our immunity power.

2 units of green cardamom (Best when it is in the form of powder). Cardamom is antioxidant and gives a beautiful aroma to your tea.

My recipe for making tea consumes an average of 10 mins.

How to prepare tea

Boil water in a vessel (I wouldn’t prefer electric kettle, please).

When it is heated, add tea leaves. For the best experience, keep those leaves without tea sachets.

Crush ginger pieces by a hard object and put it to boiling water. Add cardamom powder/pieces.

Cover the vessel by its lid. Let it boil for a few minutes.

Add milk and. Boil again for few mins.

Serve your hot tea. Make sure you filter out tea leaves.

It is best served as a hot beverage. Drink with your partner. Enjoy its aroma and taste. Drink slowly.

Photo by author

Side effects of milk-tea

Its’s excessive drinking of milk-tea can give you gastric problems.

Drinking milk-tea regularly in an empty stomach is not advised.

I hope you find this recipe helpful. Let me know if you liked this taste. If you are traveling to South Asia especially India, tea at a road-side shop will be delicious than tea in hotels.