Winter warmer: Katherine's Classic Blended Black chai recipe

Corinium Eastern are celebrating black teas throughout November as we launch our own range. We have four brilliant black teas exclusively available through our shop, each with its own distinct character.

Black teas are brilliant for this time of year. They are bold and bright giving them a warming quality. The stronger black teas are also capable of taking on other flavours without losing their identity. For a really warming tea, you can’t beat a chai made with a black tea blend and spices such as cardamom, clove and cinnamon. It warms from the centre then disperses the warmth throughout the body. It will leave you glowing.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon used black tea leaves from pot. 125ml milk 125ml left over tea/water 2-3 cardamom pods 1 pinch cinnamon 1 pinch of ground ginger or 2cm length fresh ginger twist black pepper - adjust to your taste grating of nutmeg - adjust to your taste honey or sugar

Instructions

• Put the tea leaves and any leftover tea/water into a small pan with milk and heat gently.

• Crush the ginger and the cardamom pods, add to the pan with the other spices.

• Sweeten to your taste with honey or sugar and bring to the boil.

• Boil hard until it is a deep, brown and is piping hot.

• Sprinkle with a little nutmeg or pepper, strain and serve.

Which tea to use

I use our CLASSIC BLENDED BLACK TEA (Luxury English Breakfast) blend for making chai. It’s a bold tea with a malty, marmalade flavour and a rich brown colour. It is a lovely morning tea, as the name implies and can be taken on its own or with a dash of milk. After you have drunk the tea keep the leaves and use them to make chai as a second round. Apart from its warmth the great thing about a chai recipe is that it can be adapted to suit the drinker. If you don’t like cloves, simply leave them out or use fewer. I love nutmeg so I always add a grating or two.

Now all you need is the Christmas cake, but you’ll have to wait for that...