Vanilla Chai Tea

For  those of you who may be getting tired of the diary, I made this instant Vanilla Chai tea mix today & enjoyed it while I browsed the diary and Ancestry.com this evening.... 

The first time I made this I omitted the non-dairy creamer... I hate non-dairy creamer (in theory anyway). Originally I used just straight powdered milk. Well the finished product was good but not as good as one I recently had. So I added it today. And it was just like the one I recently had. And it was delicious.... (I know, I'm a terrible hypocrite. Hate me...)  

 

The spices for this are kind of steep  if you don't already have them.  I had to buy Cardamom which was $11 a bottle. (What the heck is in this stuff? Cardamom, yes, I know that.....) And you only use 1 tsp. (which means I won't run out for a long time thank goodness. ) It's a lovely lovely spice though and I can only describe as smelling faintly like spicy lavender. I'm  going to look for some recipes which showcase this new found gem. 

 

Please note this recipe needs a sweetener.  The original recipe called for sugar but I left it out so that people can control what and how much they use. I also used decaff tea so that I can cosy up with a mug of this at night.

 Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups nonfat dry milk powder
• 1 1/2 cups French vanilla flavored powdered non-dairy creamer
• 1 1/2 cups unsweetened instant tea
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom

Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine milk powder, non-dairy creamer, vanilla flavored creamer,  and instant tea. Stir in ginger, cinnamon, cloves and cardamom. In a blender or food processor, blend 1 cup at a time, until mixture is the consistency of fine powder.(I did not do the blender part this evening as it seemed unnecessary. I don't think the end product suffered.  I may just keep mixing it together and be done with it.)
2. To serve: Stir 4 heaping teaspoons Chai tea mixture into a mug of hot water. (I mean the teaspoons from your silverware drawer, not an actual unit of measure.) Add sweetener of your choice. 
3. Send me a mental thank you for this lovely drink.