Almond Caramel Chai

Is what I’ve called my latest creation.

I used up the rest of my President’s Choice Masala Chai today, however, in order to make it stretch, I needed to add about a half a tablespoon of another tea. I chose Great Wall’s caramel black, and I’m glad I did. In the future, I think I’ll switch the recipe to fifty-fifty–a tablespoon of chai, a tablespoon of caramel, but I had a tablespoon and a half of chai left, and I wanted to use it up this time.

But where did the almond come from? Well, after adding the net two tablespoons of tea to my two cups of boiling water, I let it simmer for about ten minutes. I’ve recently made the jump from regular milk to almond milk. I’ve never been much of a fan of dairy milk–I dislike the aftertaste, and rather the taste overall, but it’s still rather good in chai (not to mention it controls the bitterness you get from steeping over heat for ten minutes). This’ the first time I’ve tried chai with almond milk, and I am impressed and delighted. It doesn’t mask the tea as much as regular milk does, and so it’s got a stronger bite than I remember (even though I used less chai in lieu of caramel). I don’t drink sweetened almond milk (although it’s vanilla flavoured), because if I want to sweeten something I’d rather do it on my own. I usually add a touch of light agave nectar afterwards, which I did.

The caramel is stronger in the smell than the taste, and the almond taste isn’t that strong either, but I still find it overall to be delicious.