Masala rooibos chai latte and concentrate is a perfect winter warmer. Strong spices with a touch of sweetness, and zero caffeine!
Hey happy weekend! Hope you’ve been making the best of the fresh opportunity of the new year. Like I mentioned in my last post, we’ve been going BIG on the KonMari method in our house, and that will be continuing over the next couple days. It already feels so great! It’s a lighter kind of energy that I want to keep going. Other than shipping out a bunch of stuff we don’t need, we’re going to visit some friends for a nice brunch get together, try to stay warm in this DEEP cold, aaaand I might sneak a tiny bit of work in too. Very low key!
I’m having a huge masala chai moment right now, so I’ll be sipping this all weekend too. I can’t get enough of it for some reason! Every time I go out, I make these little detours to get one in my fave reusable cup, sometimes with a lil’ espresso shot added if I’m in the right kinda mood. Of course, masala chai comes from India. If you’re looking to read a bit more about its origins, this little read is great.
This latte habit was proving to be a somewhat spend-y undertaking, and since I know how to brew tea and I have a milk frother, this drink was more than within my grasp. I made this version caffeine free with naturally sweet rooibos tea. It is such a delight with all of the cracked and toasted spices and a frothy little cap of warm plant-based milk (I like cashew or almond for this). I sweeten mine with a bit of maple syrup to make it extra nice. Anyway, hope you enjoy the masala rooibos chai and a few links here too! Catch ya next week.
Another perspective on Marie Kondo’s Tidying Up phenomenon: “Organizing is a potent fantasy because it offers the possibility of control.” Also, another side effect of the massive sparking of joy is an overabundance of used clothing at thrift stores. I can only imagine how much of people’s purged stuff ends up in landfills too :(
A24, the film studio behind Ladybird, Moonlight and others, has a great podcast! This conversation between Jonah Hill and Michael Cera is wonderful.
HOW TO SET BOUNDARIES IN 2019.
A symptom of burnout that you haven’t thought about yet: errand paralysis. I have personally dealt with this in certain phases of my life. Finish developing and photographing a cookbook? Sure! Take on 4 sponsored campaigns in 1 month in addition to other regular content? Got it. Write a 10 minute response to a mundane personal email that’s been festering away in my inbox for months? Impossible. This article argues that millennials aren’t just experiencing this in phases though. Burnout is “the millennial condition. It’s our base temperature. It’s our background music. It’s the way things are. It’s our lives.”
Ayurveda has thoroughly made its way into the mainstream health and wellness world at this point and I’m loving it. This little guide to herbs, roots, and spices commonly found in the ancient health science is a nice introductory primer.
How time savers in the kitchen like the Instant Pot keep women in an endless cycle of efficiency that benefits everyone but themselves. “Even if American moms have achieved maximum productivity, the forces that require them to life-hack ever more clever ways to spend less time caring for themselves are still at work.” I still love my IP, but dang there are some truth bombs here.
Canada’s Food Guide is shifting towards an emphasis on vegetables and plant-based protein and moving away from promoting the consumption of milk products and meat.
Vegan yogurt is in huge demand worldwide, to the tune of 30,000 metric tonnes in sales last year. Greek yogurt juggernaut Chobani is trying to get their own piece of the market too. My personal faves are Anita’s Coconut Yogurt and Forager Project’s Cashewgurt.
Recipes that caught my eye recently: Tomato Lentil Soup, Radicchio Beet & Citrus Salad, and Sunchoke Hash with Tarragon and Chickpeas.
And here’s a piglet eating a noodle. The cutest little grunts! :)
Masala Rooibos Chai Latte & Concentrate
Ingredients
For The Concentrate
- 12 allspice berries
- 10 black peppercorns
- 8 whole cloves
- 6 green cardamom pods
- 4 cinnamon sticks
- 4 cups water
- 3 tablespoons rooibos tea
- 1- inch piece of ginger, sliced
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- pinch of sea salt
- 3 tablespoons maple syrup, or to taste
For 1 Latte
- 8 oz of the masala rooibos chai concentrate
- 8 oz plant-based milk of your choice
Notes
- This is just how I like my spices in masala chai. Feel free to play around and make it your own.
- I use an electric milk frother to heat my plant-based milk that goes with this, but you can just as easily heat it on the stove in a saucepan.
Instructions
- Using the back of a chef’s knife, lightly “crack” the allspice, peppercorns, cloves, and cardamom pods. In a small skillet over medium heat, toast the cracked spices and cinnamon sticks until very fragrant, about 1 minute.
- In a medium saucepan, bring the water up to a boil. Add the toasted spices to the pot along with the rooibos tea and ginger. Lower the heat and let the tea simmer for 18-20 minutes. Remove the rooibos masala chai from the heat and run it through a fine strainer into a bowl. At this point, stir in the vanilla, sea salt, and maple syrup. Let the masala rooibos chai concentrate cool completely before storing in a sealed jar in the fridge for up to a week.
- To make a latte: combine 8oz of the masala rooibos chai concentrate with the plant-based milk and heat using your preferred method–stovetop or microwave. If you have a milk frother, bring the masala rooibos chai concentrate to a boil in a small sauce pan and pour the heated and frothed milk on top.
Thanks for this recipe! I’ve been making a similar “from scratch” masala chai almost daily but am finding I don’t have the time, so the idea of a concentrate is brilliant! I can’t wait to try it!
I don’t put salt in mine currently; is that preference, or purposeful to help it last longer, etc? Also, do you happen to know how many average tea bags the amount of loose tea leaves would be?? Thanks!
I drink chai made with black tea daily but am trying to decrease my caffeine intake. I made this recipe almost as written and used soy milk for the latte. I had no allspice but used some grated nutmeg instead, and I didn’t sweeten it. It is robust, flavourful and versatile and will be a perfect substitute for my usual spiced beverage. I thought 3 tbsp of loose rooibos would be too much, but it isn’t. (Other recipes I looked at had 1-2 tsp of loose rooibos with spices and 4-6 cups of water which would be very weak)
Hmm… Am I the only person here who has never heard of vegan yogurt? Or maybe I’m the only one that asked.
That IP article, man… makes me kinda sad. But also happy that I am lucky enough to have time to cook :)
As always, thanks for sharing, love the links.
Can you add the link to where I could buy that planner? Looks amazing!
This is the link: https://www.breathemagazine.com/portfolio-item/breathe-special-journal-52-week-planner/
They sell it at Chapters/Indigo stores in Canada and Barnes & Noble stores in the US. In the magazine section with all of the mindfulness/philosophy magazines.
-L
Hi there I love chai and as someone who can’t dribk caffeine LOVE this option which will help my bridgehead spending habit I’ve gotten into. To clarify – is it loose rooibos tea you add to the pot? Much thanks!
Hi Kim,
Thank you for this! Yes, it is loose leaf tea.
-L
We’re big chai-makers in this house, and this recipe looks perfect! Thank you! We also like to add a piece of chaga to our brew (we find it a lot growing on birch trees in the woods around here, lucky us!), it gives it a nice deep colour and taste, and of course oodles of health benefits.
Have a beautiful Sunday :)
I love that, Eva! Good for boosting the immune system this time of year :)
-L
Yes to the bounty that feeds our vision and our minds with this round-up. Ever grateful for supporting our piece & your presence in the empowering and cosy corner of the often overwhelming WWW.
Thank you for my weekend beverage, reading, and listening, my friend. Also: I want to make literally everything you’ve posted this week. And thanks for the link love ❤️❤️❤️.
I look forward to your beverage+links posts — thanks for keeping this series going!
So glad that you’re enjoying it Kristin! Thanks for this <3
-L