Chai Syrup

Winter is coming. And tea season. This makes a very nice give away filled in bottles and the preparation makes your home smell absolutely wonderful. The recipe is open to variation of spices/teas and is truly easy. The amount of syrup will be about 250ml and will keep months stored in the fridge. Mix into hot milk (1mug will need about 1 tsp syrup) or add to coffee, cakes, ice cream, ...

• Ready In: 35 mins
• Serves: 1

Ingredients

• 500  ml water
•  black tea (20 teabags)
• 400  g brown sugar
• 2  cm ginger (fresh, in cubes)
• 1  tablespoon clove
• 4 -5  cinnamon sticks
• 1⁄2 vanilla bean (scrapes and pod)
• 1  teaspoon  black peppercorn
• 1  tablespoon cardamom pod (optional)
• 1  tablespoon star anise (optional)

Directions

1. Bring water to a boil and add teabags. Let stand for about 15 minutes.
2. Squeeze out teabags thouroughly.
3. Roast dry spices (apart from ginger and vanilla bean) in a pot until fragrant (do not burn!)
4. Add roasted spices, cubed ginger, vanilla seed, pod and the sugar to the tea and bring to a boil.
5. Let cook/simmer until syrupy (about 20 minutes).
6. Pour into small bottles/jars through a sieve.
7. This will keep months stored in the fridge.