I have a dream of growing all my own spices for preserving. Gourmet self sufficiency… So far I have an allspice tree, a clove tree, a cinnamon tree, cardamom plants, lots of ginger and vanilla bean orchids. They are not all producing yet, however they inspired this chai syrup. I make a batch and store in the fridge for a quick and easy chai through the week.

Chai tea syrup

Makes a 1L bottle

Ingredients

6 cups water

1/4 cup rapadura sugar or honey (honey for me considering we just harvested from our Flow hives!)

3 teaspoons green cardamom pods, crushed

3 inch piece of ginger, sliced

3 cinnamon sticks

2 vanilla beans

20 cloves

6 allspice berries

6 tsp black tea leaf

Instructions

1. Place all ingredients aside from the black tea in a large pan. Stir to dissolve sugar.

2. Simmer for 20 minutes.

3. Remove from heat and add the black tea. Leave to steep for 5-10 minutes.

4. Strain and bottle into a sterilised bottle.

5. Store in the refrigerator.

To use, combine a 1/4 -1/2 cup of ‘syrup’ with 3/4 cup hot or cold milk to taste.