What is sticky chai?

Sticky chai is a pre-made chai blend with black tea, spices and a “sticky” ingredient such as honey, agave or maple syrup. Because of the sticky ingredient, spices and tea leaves stick together and have a unique appearance. Sticky chai is usually served with milk, rather than water. It’s the best blend for making a homemade chai or chai latte when you don’t want to make it from a scratch. However, to make a cup of sticky chai, you’ll need to use a lot more tea leaves than for making a cup or regular tea.

What’s in Honey Spice Sticky Chai?

This sticky chai is blended with Australian red gum honey, ginger, black tea, cardamom, clove, cinnamon, star anise, nutmeg, and black pepper. This tea looks really interesting, with all the whole spices and leaves covered in honey. It has a beautiful, intense, and really inviting scent.

If you ever made chai from a scratch, you probably noticed that you’d typically use very little spices. However, when making a cup of sticky chai, the amount of spices per cup is very high. That’s because spices for chai are usually crushed and simmered together with tea leaves until they release lots of flavour. When steeping whole spices for a couple of minutes, you’d need to use more to achieve richer flavour.

What does Honey Spice Sticky Chai taste like?

This chai is best prepared as latte. Steep 15 grams of sticky chai in 50 to 70 ml of water for 3-5 minutes and top up with steamed and frothed milk. Steam the milk, because the tea will have a nicer texture, and feel more authentic. Although milk for a traditional chai is not steamed, it still has a beautiful texture and tiny bubbles because of the pulling method. There’s no need to add any sweeteners as it’s already sweet enough.

It brews into a lightly coloured tea with a beautiful scent. It’s less deep and complex than traditional chai, but the flavour is amazing. A slightly lighter flavour is a result of steeping, rather than simmering. Black tea flavour is lighter than in an ordinary cup of chai tea blend, but it’s perfectly sweet and spiced. Cloves are dominant, there are light notes of cinnamon and cardamom, and then a light spicy touch from ginger and pepper and softness from nutmeg. There’s a lot of flavour coming from such a light-coloured tea.

Honey Spice Sticky Chai is a beautiful blend. The only downside would be you’d need to use a lot of tea leaves. However, it’s the closest you’ll get to the traditional chai without making it from a scratch.

This tea tastes good when made with hot water only too. It’s sweet and well-rounded. If you like to add sugar or honey to tea, you will like it prepared with water only. However, for the full experience, drink it will milk. It’s great for tea drinkers that prefer lighter teas, but very aromatic at the same time. It’s great for daily sipping when you want a cup of chai latte in a matter of minutes, and it tastes closer to traditional chai than most regular chai blends.

Tea Recap

Water or milk? Milk.

Day or night? Day.

Hot or iced? Hot.

Sweetened or pure? Pure.

Caffeine? Yes.

What’s the price? Starting from 9.00 AUD

Where to buy? Get it from Tea Drop Australia.

The post Honey Spice Sticky Chai Tea – Tea Drop appeared first on All That Tea.

How to add condiments to green tea

Not all condiments will go well with all green teas. Some green teas, like Dragon Well, are very light and will taste better with no condiments. However, this doesn’t mean you can’t add any. Choose ingredients that are light and won’t overpower the flavour of the tea. Other teas, such as Chun Mei, Gunpowder, or some Indian green teas, are stronger and deeper. Condiments with stronger flavour and more sweetness will be a perfect match for these teas.

What to add to green tea?

1. Fresh fruits

When you want to add a lot of flavour to green tea, fresh fruits are a brilliant choice. Many of them will add not only sweetness, but a rich, intense flavour too, and you can literally choose any fruit you want. Wash, peel and slice the fruit first, or if you are using berries or small fruits, gently crush them before steeping. Simply add them together with tea leaves and steep for 3 minutes. Because of their natural fresh flavour, fresh fruits are great for both lighter and stronger green teas. If you are adding them to flavoured teas, match the fruit with the flavour of the tea.

Try it with:

• Raspberries – washed and gently crushed
• Strawberries – washed and sliced
• Blueberries – washed and gently crushed
• Apples – washed and sliced

2. Flavour extracts

Adding a drop or two of flavour extract will give a lot of flavour to your tea. There are different flavour extracts. Some are intended for baking and don’t contain a sweetener, and some are for sweetening drinks and contain a sweetener. Both will be great for adding flavour to tea. Start with a drop or two first and add more if needed. Some flavour extract may contain colouring and will change the colour of green tea. Because of their intensity, favour extract may work better with stronger pure teas.

Try it with:

• Almond extract
• Orange extract
• Pistachio extract
• Strawberry extract

3. Fresh vegetables

Steeping tea with vegetables may seem weird and even unappetizing, but it’s actually great for adding flavour and freshness to pure green tea. Many green teas have a naturally fresh and light flavour, and so do many vegetables. That’s exactly why they make a great pair. Always wash vegetables first and peel them if you need to. Choose vegetables that can be eaten raw. Fresh vegetables are great with lighter fruit teas.

Try it with:

• Cucumber – washed and sliced
• Carrot – washed and sliced
• Celery – washed and sliced
• Baby spinach – washed

Get inspired – Is cucumber tea tasty? Steeping 5 different vegetables with green tea.

4. Fresh herbs

Herbs are super popular for scenting water, and they go well with green tea too. Almost any herb will taste great with tea, and many of them can be used for making pure herbal infusions. What’s great about adding fresh herbs is that they will add a lot of flavour but may provide additional potential benefits as well. Herbs will usually have an intense flavour, so you don’t need to add more than a few leaves only. Depending on their intensity, they can go well with both lighter and stronger pure green teas.

Try it with:

• Rosemary
• Basil
• Mint
• Lemongrass

5. Dried fruits

If you like sweet teas, try steeping green tea with dried fruits. Dried fruits may not add as much fruity flavour as fresh fruits, but many of them they will add a delicious sweetness. To get the most out of dried fruits, chop them up first. Unlike fresh fruits, dried fruits won’t get mushy, so you can even eat them after you finished your tea. Great with stronger pure teas and flavoured blends.

Try it with:

• Prunes
• Dates
• Raisins
• Pineapple chunks

6. Jam or jelly

Jam is not only great for scones but also a great sweetener for tea too. It’s one of those ingredients almost everyone has at home. Adding a teaspoon or two will add flavour and sweetness and make your green tea truly irresistible. Adding jam is a wonderful way of adding more flavour to teas that are naturally more astringent or deep.

Try it with:

• Lemon jam
• Orange jam
• Apricot jam
• Pineapple jam

7. Honey

This condiment may seem obvious, but honey is not only a sweetener – it may also add some amazing flavours to green tea. There are hundreds of different honey out there, each having a different flavour profile. Some are lighter, such as acacia honey, and some may have a distinctive flavour, such as chestnut honey. Lighter honey will be better for lighter green teas, and darker honey may be a wonderful choice for stronger, deeper green teas.

Try it with:

• Eucalyptus honey
• Fir honey
• Chestnut honey
• Orange blossom honey

The post What to Add to Green Tea? 7 Ingredients You Already Have at Home appeared first on All That Tea.

What is a hot toddy?

Hot toddy is an Irish drink, usually made with whiskey, honey, water and lemon. Whiskey can be replaced with other alcohol, such as gin, bourbon, vodka or rum. What makes hot toddy a perfect winter drink is that although it contains alcohol, honey, lemon and water make it lighter and warming. If you love mulled wine or mulled cider, you will love this drink too. Making a hot toddy with tea is not a novelty, though. Tea, especially Earl Grey, is actually a common ingredient in hot toddies.

Ingredients for making an Earl Grey Hot Toddy with gin

To make an Earl Grey hot toddy, you will need 5 ingredients:

• Earl Grey tea – you can use both loose leaf tea and tea bags, but choose tea that is still fresh and aromatic. Don’t over-brew it to avoid bitterness.
• Honey – regular light honey will be great, but experiment with different types if you wish.
• Fresh lemon – you will need up to 1/4 of a whole lemon per serving, and optionally a slice more to garnish your drink
• Gin – use quality original gin without added colourings or flavourings.
• Water – always boil fresh water.

Can I make Earl Grey hot toddy without alcohol?

Yes, you can. Although it won’t taste quite the same. To make it as close to the original as possible, you can use gin, rum or whiskey food flavourings. They don’t contain any alcohol but will make your hot toddy different from a regular cup of hot tea with lemon and honey.

Which tea is the best for making a hot toddy?

Earl grey is one of the best teas to use. It has a citrusy aromatic flavour that blend well with many ingredients. You can also use a slightly spiced black tea, or chai, especially if you are making it with whiskey. Choose teas that are flavourful and would go well with other ingredients you are using. Classic hot toddy is often made with cinnamon and some other spices and herbs such as cloves, ginger, or thyme.

You can try:

• herbs and zesty ingredients with more neutrally flavoured alcohol, such as vodka or gin
• spices that add warming notes with whiskey, bourbon and rum
• apple black tea blends or pure black tea with bourbon, rum and whiskey, especially if you are not adding other ingredients
• fresher citrusy, lemon black tea or orange black tea blends and earl grey teas with vodka and gin

Can I use other sweeteners?

Whichever drink or tea you are making, the final flavour will be a sum of all ingredients. That means even the choice of a sweetener will make a difference. Traditionally, honey is used for sweetening a hot toddy, but the second-best choice is light brown sugar. Both honey and brown sugar have a more complex flavour than regular white granulated sugar. However, you can use a calorie free sugar alternative too, although some may have a distinctive flavour.

Print

Earl Grey Hot Toddy with Gin Recipe

Warming holiday drink with Earl Grey tea and gin

Course Drinks

Keyword Black Tea, Earl Grey, Gin, Honey, Lemon

Prep Time 7 minutes minutes

Servings 1

Equipment

• Measuring cup
• Kettle
• Teapot or a disposable tea filter

Ingredients

• 170 ml of water
• 2 teaspoons of honey
• 4 teaspoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon of earl grey tea (or 1 tea bag)
• 25 ml of gin

Instructions

• Measure 1 teaspoon of tea leaves.
• Bring fresh water to a boil.
• Steep tea in 170 ml of water for 5 minutes, covered.
• Strain into a serving glass or cup.
• Add gin, lemon juice and honey and stir until dissolved.
• Serve hot.

The post Earl Grey Hot Toddy with Gin appeared first on All That Tea.