For Christmas this year I gave away a lot of homemade gifts. I LOVE homemade gifts — both to give and receive. 🙂 They’re cute, unique and personal, as well as inexpensive. So this year I ordered 24-8oz mason jars and went to work. I ordered my jars from here:
Specifically, the 8 oz. square jar with the rustic lid. I had a vision for these adorably cute Christmas presents, and with a credit card number and click of button, my vision was executed. I tied some striped yarn around the neck of the jar, and added a Christmas tag with the recipe on the back: “Add 2 Tablespoons to 1 cup of hot water. Enjoy!” So fun and cute!
For those who received it, many of you asked for the recipe. Consider this the gift that keeps on giving. This recipe is so super simple — throw it all together in a bowl, stir it up, and then transfer the mix to a food processor or blender to grind it fine.
You can change the spice combination if you want, or add more sugar to make it sweeter. The original recipe I found called for 2 1/2 cups of sugar (a little too sweet for me), had less spices, didn’t include nutmeg and allspice, and had less non-dairy mix. I played around a bit and found what I liked best. But experiment with what you like. This is purely my preference.
One thing to note, ground cardamom is kind of a pricey spice, but in my opinion, it’s the most important. Cardamom is what makes “chai” taste like “chai.”
(Revision 12/4/2015) The flavor of spice is totally a personal preference. I know some of you have commented expressing that you want more this or more that — go for it! I sometimes change it each year I make it too. One thing I do is when I blend up my first cup of the mixture, I also make a small taste test cup. If I think it needs more spice in a particular way, I just add more to the whole batch then. Feel free to play around.
The one batch makes approximately 9 – 8 oz jars of chai mix. Enjoy!
Courtney’s Chai Tea Mix
1 1/2 cups nonfat dry milk powder
1 1/2 cups powdered non-dairy creamer
1 cup Vanilla flavored powdered non-dairy creamer
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 cups unsweetened instant tea (you could use decaf tea too)
2 teaspoons ground ginger
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon allspice
- In a large bowl, combine milk powder, non-dairy creamer, vanilla flavored creamer, sugar and instant tea. Stir in spices. In a blender or food processor, blend 1 cup at a time, until mixture is the consistency of fine powder.
- To serve: Stir 2 heaping tablespoons Chai tea mixture into a mug of hot water.
E + C 
How long do you think this will keep for? Say if you wanted to make them throughout the year to use for the holidays?
I would say 2-3 months. With the creamer and milk powder in there I’ve found that my mix can begin to taste a bit stale if I go longer than that.
I bet you could freeze it and it would last longer.
where would I find instant tea?? I have never heard of that, though I live in northern Ontario so that me be my problem?? Please someone help
I found mine just in the tea aisle at my local grocery store. I think mine is Lipton brand.