#45: Chai
Since I probably won’t be with you in person this week, dear reader, to give you a celebratory Christmas hug (also, touching is gross), consider this my drinkable version of that festive embrace. A steaming hot mug of spicy chai, ready for you to curl your frostbitten (or waterlogged) little fingers around and breathe in the heady aroma of cinnamon that we have all somehow implanted into our minds as a representation of Christmas. I wish you at least one day of tranquility in which you can relax in your home with your fuzziest and least sexy socks on, tell everyone around you to shut it for an hour, and wrap yourself in a mountain of blankets, a mug of homemade chai nestled between your palms. Bonus: no putting up with overly cheery and environmentally disastrous paper Christmas cups when you make the chai yourself!
For your delight and enjoyment today, I present you with (surprise!) a couple renditions of everyone’s favourite non-coffee latte substitute. One, a delightfully witchy brew of steeped ginger, cardamom pods, and cinnamon sticks; the other, a bit of a cheater’s chai entangled with the traditional flavours of nutty Mexican horchata. I will direct you slightly more by letting you know that the horchata version would certainly be the more appropriate choice for a non-dairy crowd, as the traditional chai is chockfull of sweet milky goodness.
Horchaita (get it?!)