Make your own Chai Tea at home with real, certified organic, non-irradiated spices. If you buy Chai in a tea-bag form, it is just a chemical flavouring, a food-grade essence with no health benefits what so ever.
This is our immune-booster, heart-warming Chai recipe: 1 litre water, 1 litre milk of your choice, 6 green cardamom pods, 1 teaspoon black peppercorns, 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds, 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger, 4 whole cloves, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon turmeric, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and 4 regular Ceylon tea bags.
Just use what you have. I sometimes just add peppercorns and vanilla to my tea. Bring the water, milk and spices to the boil, simmer for 10 minutes. Add the tea bags and steep for 10 more minutes. Strain and enjoy with honey. It is the most rewarding cup of tea ever!!
In South African culture, in the broadest sense of the word, we are a people who do not ingest enough spices. I am talking culinary, not even medicinally. I once met a Cantonese lady and she referred to the South African braai as “non-innovative cooking – you just add salt.”
Spices are a simple, yet a holistic approach to enhancing your life – to literally and figuratively spice up your life. Turmeric is a powerful, clinically proven anti-depressant, and just 1 tablespoon-full a day can really lift your mood, without the side effects of chemicals. Cinnamon is also a clinically proven blood-sugar stabiliser.
Be careful, some dealers sell the cheaper version, Cassia, as Cinnamon. It is a much weaker substance. If you add Cinnamon to a bit of water, it must just lie at the bottom of the glass as a powder. Cassia is a bit gluey and has a slimy consistency at the bottom of the glass.
Vanilla essence is just a chemical. It has no trace of real vanilla. Vanilla extract is the real vanilla, preserved in alcohol, like a tincture. Just adding 3 drops of real vanilla extract to your cup of coffee, counteracts the stress that the caffeine puts on your adrenal glands and helps to produce normal cortisol levels.
Why buy a whole lot of supplements?
The absorption from spices is so much better, because our bodies recognise spices as actual food. Take out the masses of spice bottles, throw out the ancient, caked bits at the bottom, wash and recycle your glass bottles and be determined to get a lot more REAL spices in. Careful – stay away from MSG – it is carcinogenic. Look for real, actual plants, not mysterious mixes.
