Simple Chai Tea

This is brilliant for using up older spices that have been lingering in the back of your cupboard — best to use them up, as they won’t be good forever. I’ve been simmering a spoonful of it on the stove (in said home clothes) with a squeeze of honey and creamy non-homogenised Jersey milk. Best served with a Haigh's chocolate frog on the side.

You'll need:

1 cup loose-leaf black tea
1 tbsp of the following spices: ground ginger, fennel seeds, cardamom (whole), black peppercorns (whole), coriander seeds.
1 cinnamon stick (roughly crushed)
4 star anise

Make it:

Put all the whole spices (so everything but the ginger) into a mortar and pestle or a blender and give them a rough blitz just to break them up, not pulverise. Mix everything together and voila.

To make a cup, pop a heaped dessert spoon of the tea in a small saucepan with 300ml of milk (or a mix of milk and water). Bring it to a soft and gentle simmer (not a boil) and keep it there for a couple of minutes. Mix in some honey if you wish and pour it through a strainer into your favourite cup. My favourite cup? That’s here.

‍