It’s finally starting to feel like winter here which is rather lovely. All we need is snow and I’ll be running about throwing snowballs with glee. Snow is pretty rare here and the fact that forecasters are predicting the white stuff has me all excited and is definitely helping things feel more like the holidays.
The other night we put up our tree and listened to a few of our favorite Christmas records on the hi-fi. To help us get a little more festive, I decided to make a nice hot chai to warm us up and get us in the holiday spirit. Since it was well into the evening and the lighting in our apartment is in a sorry state, I couldn’t get a good photo, so a quick drawing will have to do. Pretend it’s scratch n’ sniff.
I made a very similar tea a couple ago but consider this a tweaked version (although both versions are rad). Instead of using honey, I used piloncillo, which is a Mexican unrefined brown sugar made from sugar cane and shaped into a cone. This is a lovely spicy warm drink that tastes as cozy and sweet as we all should be. Let the holidays begin!
hot spiced tea
3 c water
1 3″ piece of ginger, cut into large discs
4 black tea bags
2 cinnamon sticks
10 whole cloves
5 green cardamom pods, slightly crushed
1/2 t black peppercorns
2 c milk
2-3″ chunk of piloncillo, chopped (or a 2 T honey)In a large covered saucepan, bring the water and ginger to a boil. Lower heat and let simmer for 10 minutes. Add in tea bags, cinnamon, cloves, peppercorns, cardamom pods, and milk and continue to simmer on low heat for 20 minutes until fragrant and dark. Taste. If not strong enough for your liking, let simmer longer. Strain to remove solids and whisk in piloncillo or honey and return to heat so that the sugar melts into the tea. Divide into mugs and serve hot.
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Thanks for the recipe. We are having a blizzard here in North Dakota and I suspect that will be a wonderful treat for tomorrow when I’m all holed up here at home.
Also I love your drawing. How clever.
Have a great weekend.
Sounds so good!! I am a big tea drinker so this is a great way to kick things up a notch! I have never heard of this Mexican sugar before. I’m curious. Now I will have to google it and read all about it 🙂 Enjoy your snowy weather. You can have all of TO’s snow as well ;P
We haven’t got a lot of snow yet in Edmonton, but we’ve got the cold. It was -38 with the windchill today.
Thanks for the tea recipe–with this cold, obviously we can use it. I love the idea of piloncillo. I bet that adds a really interesting flavour.
It’s been feeling like winter here for about a month now – I’M FREEEEEEZING!!! Haha 😉
Thanks for the wonderful tea recipe – I’ll need it to warm up.
Carm, yes, definitely this tea will help you warm up during a blizzard. Yikes!
Bijoux, the sugar worked perfectly. I’m fine with the nice dusting of snow we woke up to this morning. So pretty…but you can keep your snow (tho I heard it’s getting warmer there which would be a nice change).
Hanne, it snowed last night for the first time. It’s very pretty but definitely not that cold. Maybe -3. Minus 38 would be insanity!!
VeggieGirl, well it’s definitely winter here now! This tea will be a snap to make vegan if you want to give it a try 🙂
One of my favorite things about Christmas is that Celestial Seasonings brings out their Nutcracker Sweet Tea for the season…I’ll have to see if this one does the trick for me, so I can enjoy it all year round!
Wow, that sounds delicious. I love tea, so this is a must-try recipe for me! Thanks for sharing!
Sharon, the tea is delicious. Let me know if you try it out 🙂
Hayley, I’ve never tried that tea before. I’ll keep an eye out for it, but in the meantime this will do nicely!
Lydia, the piloncillo was gifted to me from a friend in Austin, TX. You could try a few South American shops on Commercial Drive or that shop on Granville Island. Or I can just give you the rest of mine!
I was googling "buy piloncillo vancouver" and your blog came up. Rad! I hope you get comment notification. Where did you buy it?! I have a few ideas, but this would be easier. There is an amazing recipe for banana ice cream in the Baked cookbook that uses it.
That's really sweet! I was actually going to try those exact 2 places/areas, or ask my mom to bring some back from Mexico, but then I'd have to wait to go to Ontario to pick it up. If I come up empty handed, I'll take you up on your offer.