Tea Ceremony: Masala Chai Latte !
Nothing exotic today. I had a long journey back home. I felt weak thus thought of having a strong milk tea. Then suddenly realized today is my tea ceremony day. And quickly decided to have a Masala Chai Latte for today’s session. Before I get into details let me tell you, this is the most loved tea of my household. My husband and I almost every week drink a masala latte with some homemade cookies.
Our latte is made of fresh cow’s milk that we get from a farm just outside Dhaka, aren’t we lucky? And we also use unrefined natural brown sugar for every purpose at home. This is what my jams are made of; this is what I put in my cookies or butter creams. There you go, secret revealed. So, going back to tea, here is what I did. I first put 1 cup of fresh milk to boil. Waited till it fumes up and then I lowered the temperature.
Image source: https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/a28899368/how-to-make-chai-latte-recipe/
In the meantime I organized the Masala. I like bay leaf, 2 cardamom, 2 cloves and a medium size cinnamon. For 1 cup of tea this is good enough. Pick a small bay leaf. Well this can be done in two ways, one, you take one cup water and half cup milk. Boil the water for some several minutes with the masala and reduce to half cup and give in the milk. This makes a rather less intense latte. But I wanted very creamy strong latte thus used all milk.
Then the tea. For this I always go for a strange tea, Mita teas. Nope, you haven’t heard of it. Neither did I till 2013. Once I went to Karwan Bazar kitchen market and came across to this tea store. Very locally decorated with big tins from my good old days and everything done manually there. They have a tea garden in Sylhet, the main tea growing region of Bangladesh. They have three kinds of tea, one for the flavour, one for the colour and one for the strength. All are loose tea. I mix all three and make my version of Mita tea. I don’t buy much of the teas available in the market. However you can go for KK Black, Lipton Taaza, Ispahani etc.
Then the next step, put your masala and one teaspoon tea into the hot boiling milk and reduce the heat to low. If you have already been boiling the masala just give in the tea. Steep for 3 minutes in low medium heat, stand by the side of your tea pot as it will over flow. Adjust the heat and swirl the pot once and then steep for 2 minutes more in low heat.
Strain and add sugar.
You have one of the blessings of nature in your hands. Enjoy.
[ Tea Ceremony: Masala Chai Latte ]
Photo: Author.