I love beverages. I would be a lush if I drank. That is if I drank alcoholic beverages. I love to drink fun beverages. I have never loved coffee, but I do love the smell of fresh brewed coffee. I grew up in a home where coffee was brewed everyday in a perkalator coffee maker. Those old fashioned electric coffee brewers. Oh the smell, it still brings back memories and feelings of being a little boy.
I also grew up drinking lipton tea. Black tea. Green tea was unheard of back then. We drank lipton tea by the gallon and if was often brewed in the sun in a gallon jar. KInda like cold brewed coffee is the thing know, sun brewed tea literally took all day in the mountains where I lived to brew. We loved it with lots of sugar over ice.
As I have gotten older I have learned some things about health and wellness and so now I avoid coffee, the smell no, and black teas. Even teas with high caffeine I try to avoid. I enjoy beverages that are good for my body, and offer some sense of enjoyment. Beverages should be an experience. I love creating them and enjoying them all year around. I am always on the look out for good things to drink. Normally I can make them better at home and I enjoy how I can control the sugar that goes into them.
Recently I found a chai beverage that I loved. A ginger tumeric beverage. Wow I bought the store out and could not find it anymore. And it was not cheap at all. So I read the ingredients on the box and went to work in my test kitchen and created my own blend. I have to tell you the first ingredient was sugar. That is what I wanted to avoid. After a few trys I have created my new favorite beverage and its very low in sugar. Also I might add it is about 80% cheaper than what I bought at the store.
I make a concentrate and freeze it. One cup makes one half gallon of heaven in a glass. Sometimes I will top it off with some non dairy creamer and it has only a couple of tablespoons agave for one half gallon.
Ginger Turmeric Chai
3/4 pound fresh ginger root
1/4 pound turmeric
2 tablespoons black pepper corns
2 tablespoons fennel or anise seed
1/2 cup lemon grass
2 quarts water for tea
Brew lemon grass and fennel seeds in hot boiling water. After tea is brewed dump tea with lemon grass and fennel in blender with chopped ginger root and chopped turmeric, not peeled. Add pepper corns and blend until smooth. Strain through a fine mesh strainer. Place in one cup freezer proof containers.
To make Chia
One cup brewed Chai
2 quarts water
desired sweeter I use a small amount of agave
4 Drops lemon grass esssential oil
Place in container and mix well. Serve warm or over ice wth half and half or desired milk.
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