By popular demand, here is our homegrown chai tea recipe for your enjoyment. We've had oodles of fun over the years refining this recipe to suit our tastes. Our chai tea recipe is basically a spicy ginger green tea. Feel free to modify to your taste, and do leave us some comments if you like it! Chris used it successfully to kick his office-born coffee habit, and finds it to be a stimulating non-addictive morning drink that is very low in caffeine. You can make it completely decaffeinated by not using black or green tea at all.

1/2 cup cinamon
1/4 cup ground black pepper
3/4 cup cloves
1/4 cup allspice
1/4 cup black cardamom
1/2 cup star anise
2 cups roasted chickory
2 1/2 cups roasted barley
1/2 cup roasted dandelion
1/2 cup licorice root

4 vanilla beans, or use a tablespoon of real vanilla extract after you turn off the heat.

Fresh ginger root, 8-10 inches, chopped up. (look for organic baby hawaiian ginger to find out what ginger should really taste like)

All spice ingredients are measured ground up. I usually buy bulk whole spices, as these are cost effective and potent, then grind them up with a mortar and pestle or dedicated coffee grinder.

1 tbsp ginseng root
1 tbsp astragalus root
peppermint or spearmint tea
lemon or berry zinger tea
any herbal tea you like
1 tbsp sassafras root (don't use too much sassafras, it can be harmful if you drink alot)
fresh lemon juice
just about anything else you like in tea

Gather your own dandelion root, chickory root, or sassafras root for double the fun and half the cost!

use 1/3 cup ground chai mix in large tea bag or tea ball per 1-2 gallons water chop in 10 or more inches of fresh ginger, to taste.

Simmer for an hour or 2. It just keeps getting better, I cook it sometimes for 4 or 5 hours, adding more water as needed. This is great to do on a wood stove in wintertime.

When you think its strong enough, remove from heat and add a black or green tea bag (or bulk equivalent) per cup of water in the tea. Add optional peppermint/spearmint/lemon/other herbal tea at this time.
Add a tablespoon of real vanilla extract if you didn't use vanilla beans in the spice mix.

Let this steep for about 5 minutes, then strain off all ingredients. Add honey to taste and stir it in. I use about 1/2 cup honey per gallon of tea.

This is now ready to drink chai tea concentrate. Store what you don't want to use in the refrigerator. When ready to drink, add soy/cow milk to what you want to use. Use equal portions milk and chai, or to taste. (I usually do 1/3 milk, 2/3 chai).

Serve hot, iced, with a scoop of ice cream, blended in a blender with ice, or any other way you wish!

Good luck, and be creative with ingredients and porportions to find a chai that's yummy, stimulating, and sustaining for you.

p.s. when I've poured off the completed chai, I usually cook another pot with the same bag of spices, the second pot takes longer (several hours on the wood stove), and I add more fresh ginger. Then when the second pot is done, I mix the 2 batches together to get alot of well balanced tea!