Homemade Chai Tea

All I have to say is that this recipe is OFF THE CHAIN! I made my first crockpot full of this delicious yumminess the other day for Halloween.  Besides this being one of the tastiest beverages you will EVER have, the AROMA that fills your house as it cooks is just so.....practically pleasant:).  Don't make the same mistake I made, though, and have about 7 cups while trick-or-treating with your kids.  Let's just say that I did not sleep AT ALL that night and was a complete zombie at church the next morning. This recipe makes a ton and would be plenty for a medium sized party or enough to store in refrigerator for a few days.  Making a bigger batch and freezing it would also give you some serious homemaker brownie points.  So here goes....

~Homemade Chai Tea~

Ingredients:

12 Cups water

12 Black English tea bags (cut off tag but leave enough string to keep tea bag intact)

1 1/2 Cups of Sweetener (plain white sugar, brown sugar, agave, whatever you love to use is fine)

20 WHOLE cloves

1 TBS of Ground Cardamom

10 whole cinnamon sticks

12 slices of fresh ginger

Half and Half for serving (or any substitute you would prefer)

Directions:

Place all ingredients (except half and half) into a crockpot and set to high for about 2-3 hours or low for about 3-4 hours or until ingredients are boiling hot and flavors have entered into a blissful marriage.  Strain mixture into a bowl (or just do what I do and scoop tea straight out of the crockpot and try to dodge the floating tea bags and whole cloves) and serve with half and half and additional cinnamon sticks! (I like to fill about a 1/4 of a mug with half and half and then slowly pour spoonfuls of tea over the cream until mug is full.  It slowly warms the half and half and seems to be the perfect ratio of cream to tea!)

If you want to up the fancy factor, perhaps for a dinner party or just because you are feeling fancy, serve the tea in glass mugs and add a dollop of whip cream on top! AND you could also serve this over ice for a scrumptious iced Chai Tea! Enjoy!