Gujarati Chai Masala

Tea or chai, is a single most powerful word in my life. It is one of the top most item in my survival list, without which I really really have bad headaches and sometimes even nausea.... don't want to even think about it. P knows this and every weekend (almost every weekend) I'm awaken by him with a tray bearing that heavenly concoction. Actually I think he too has started liking tea, which he rarely used to have before our marriage, he is rather a coffee person that too hot and black.

Back in India, my side of family, my parents and my siblings, we all are huge chai fans, never a day goes by without we guys having two cups of tea in morning and one in evenings. My mom prepares chai either by adding ginger to it or adding chai masala and sometimes both. My bro used to prepare chai adding just cardamom. But what ever the way, Chai is all we need.

Here is My Mommy's way of blending chai masala. Tip of teaspoon full is all you need in 1 cup of tea.

Ingredients :

2 tbs dry ginger powder
1 1/2 tbs black peppercorn
1 tbs cardamom
1 tsp cloves
1 inch piece cinnamon

Blend all the ingredients into a fine powder and what you have is aromatic chai masala. You can adjust the spiciness by adding or reducing the quantity of peppercorns.
In a way you can adjust quantity of each and every spice as per your taste and preference.