Chai Tea Mix is a unique homemade food gift for those who love Chai Tea! Use the mix to whip up everything from lattes to milkshakes, and include a free printable tag with directions for gift giving!
So raise your hand if you like to make homemade food gifts for friends and neighbors during the holidays or throughout the year? (I do! I do!) However, as much as I enjoy baking and sharing Christmas cookies and quick breads, there's something I especially enjoy about food gifts that can be packaged up in a jar. In that past, I've made big holiday batches of candied nuts, flavored coffee syrup, caramel sauce, and even savory Marinated Cheese & Olives. But this year, I thought it would be fun to put together a little treat for the chai lovers in my life...Chai Tea Mix!
How to Enjoy Chai Tea Mix
Chai Tea Mix is a unique, versatile, powdered drink mix that can be stirred into warm milk for a homemade Chai Tea Latte.
Or you can chill it and serve over ice for an Iced Chai Tea Latte.
Or you can add some finely chopped semisweet or white chocolate to turn it into a Chocolate (or White Chocolate) Chai Tea Latte.
And you can even blend with vanilla ice cream for a Chai Tea Shake!
See what I mean? Versatile. 😉
What Is Chai Tea?
For those of you unfamiliar with the wonders of chai, the American version of this Indian-inspired drink typically combines black tea, aromatic spices, and milk. The resulting beverage is a lightly sweet, warmly spiced, creamy blend of tea and milk.
And today's Chai Tea Mix recipe gives you the satisfaction of drinking chai almost instantly...without the hassle (or cost) of a trip to Starbucks!
How to Make It
This mix is so easy to put together that my toddler helped me assemble it. In fact, it only took a few minutes from start to finish...as long as you exclude the time it took me to clean up the broken spice bottle of ginger. My daughter often acts about 12 years old, which is why I sometimes forget that she's still 2 and not to be trusted with glass receptacles quite yet. 😉
Anyway, after (unsuccessfully) stacking the spice bottles, she helped press the button on the food processor to quickly incorporate the mixture of instant tea, powdered milk, powdered creamers, and spices. Let me just warn you that blending this mix will make your house smell like chai potpourri for the rest of the day...but that's not at all a bad thing.
Perfect for Gift Giving
You might choose to make a batch of Chai Tea Mix to enjoy all to yourself. But if you plan on using it for gift giving, I've created some printable gift tags with directions for how to make various drinks using this mix. Simply scroll down past the recipe at the bottom of this post to download and print the tags!
There's also a coordinating Christmas or holiday gift tag that you can layer on top of the Chai Tea directions. I shared it the other day in a Cinnamon Bread post, so click over to find that "Wishing You a Sweet Christmas" or "Wishing You a Sweet Holiday Season" printable HERE!
And that's it! A super easy, super yummy drink mix that's currently all the rage. Not only would this make a fun, unique, homemade food gift this holiday season, but it just might become your new drink-o-choice on a cold winter's day. 😉
More Holiday Food Gifts
Chai Tea Mix
Ingredients
- 2 ½ teaspoons ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ¾ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¾ teaspoon ground cardamom, optional
- 1 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 ½ cups unsweetened instant tea, regular or decaf, a powdered mix that's sometimes called "unsweetened iced tea"
- 1 ¾ cups sugar
- 1 cup nonfat dry milk powder
- 1 cup powdered nondairy creamer
- 1 cup French vanilla-flavored powdered nondairy creamer
Instructions
To Make Chai Tea Mix:
- Measure all dry ingredients into a blender or food processor. Pulse or puree until well-combined and mixture becomes a fine powder. Transfer to an air-tight jar or container or spoon into gift jars.
To Use Chai Tea Mix:
- Stir 2 heaping tablespoons of mix into a mug of hot milk or boiling water.
Notes
Adapted from Southern Living Ultimate Christmas Cookbook
To download Printable Chai Tea Mix Directions Tags <<< click here!
These tags print four to a page. Print on cardstock for heavier tags, cut out, and punch a hole at the top. Please be patient if these take a moment to load. For personal use only, please. Enjoy!
Post originally published on December 14, 2014
Jane
I made this for my co-workers as a holiday gift. They loved it and said its the best chai tea they have ever had! Thank you for such a simple but great recipe AND the cute printable tags!!!
Mary Ellen Van Bommel n Bommel
This recipe makes a wonderful chai tea. I made the first batch with out cardamom and another batch with cardamom. Hands down for me was without cardamom. The flavor took over of cardamom completely took over the flavor. Its a nice drink before bed or a short afternoon break. I love it!
Dianne
Thank you for the great recipe and the printable tags!
Bobbie B
This recipe is exactly what I was looking for! The flavor balance is perfect. The smoothness is spot-on! I did make one adjustment. I used 1 c. sugar instead of 1 3/4 c. sugar. I will be making this recipe a lot! Thank you for sharing this deliciousness.
Will
Thank you for the recipe. FYI, chai means tea in Hindi. So, chai tea is tea, tea. The term for spiced tea is "masala chai." I just learned this also.
Samantha Skaggs
Thank you for explaining that, Will...I had no idea! I probably have to keep the title as it is since that's the term the majority of people search for when looking for this recipe, but I do appreciate the education. 🙂
Dianne
Kind of like scampi is Italian for shrimp. So Scampi shrimp is saying shrimp shrimp, LOL