In India, the streets are packed with chai vendors who peddle this seductively spiced milk and tea concoction. Depending on how sweet you like your chai, you will need to add between 1 and 2 tablespoons of sugar to the milk mixture in step 1. Any type of generic supermarket tea will work here.

Ingredients:

1 1/3 C milk
1 cinnamon stick, broken in half
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. ground cardamon
1/4 tsp. whole black peppercorns
1/4 tsp. whole cloves
2 Tbls. sugar
4 tea bags
3 C boiling water


Directions:

1. Simmer the milk, cinnamon, vanilla, cardamon, peppercorns and cloves in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat for 5 minutes. Off the heat, stir in 1 Tbls. of the sugar until dissolved, adding the remaining sugar to taste and straining out peppercorns and cloves.

2. Meanwhile, steep each tea bag in a large mug with 3/4 cup boiling water for about 5 minutes. Remove the tea bag and pour 1/3 cup of the spiced warm milk into each mug, merging tea with milk mixture in mug. Absolutely delicious!