After a couple of weeks in lockdown going through a couple of bottles of store bought chai syrup, I decided it was high time I made my own.
I previously posted this homemade spicy chai syrup recipe which has been popular over the years, but I wanted to see if I could make it even more delicious and a little healthier.
To start with, I swapped out the raw cane sugar for coconut sugar to make it completely refined sugar free. Next I swapped the black tea for caffeine free rooibos tea, and lastly I changed up the spices.
The resulting chai syrup has a deliciously rich flavour while not being too sweet or spicy. To serve it warm as a chai latte, simply add your favourite steamed milk. And to serve it cold either pour it over ice and add your favourite milk, or blend it up to make a chai frappé.
Enjoy!
Spicy Chai Syrup (Low sugar/Caffeine free)
Serves: 20
Prep time: 10 minutes Cook time: 1 hour
4 cups filtered water
1/2 cup coconut sugar (or sweetener of choice e.g. raw honey/pure maple syrup)
10 cm piece fresh ginger, finely grated
2 cinnamon sticks
4 star anise
6 cardamon pods, cracked open
2 tsp whole cloves
2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp pink Himalayan salt
1/4 tsp vanilla powder
pinch cayenne pepper
4 rooibos tea bags
Place all the ingredients except the tea bags into a medium sized pan and bring to a boil. If you’re using raw honey leave this out and add at the end when you take it off the heat.
When the mixture begins to boil, turn the heat down until it’s barely simmering and leave to infuse for 45 minutes to an hour.
Turn of the heat, add the tea bags and leave to infuse until the syrup is cool.
When cool, you can choose to strain the syrup through a piece of muslin, nut milk bag or fine sieve to remove the spices, or transfer the syrup including all the spices straight to a glass bottle so they continue to infuse. If you choose the second option, you’ll want to strain the syrup before you use it.
To make a chai latte: place 30ml of chai syrup into a mug and top with your favourite steamed milk.
To make an iced chai: place 40ml of chai syrup into a blender jug with a handful of ice and 1 cup of milk of your choice, blend until smooth.
To make a chai frappe: fill a glass with ice, pour in 40ml of chai syrup followed by your favourite milk.
