25 Reviews of Awesome (And Economical) Chai Concentrate

From: Mirj

On Oct 2, 2002

Oh wow! I love chai, but can't always drink it since it's inherently dairy, and I try to avoid dairy, at least on weekdays. This stuff was amazing. I make my own copycat sweetened condensed milk with soymilk powder, and there I had it, non-dairy chai. I'm also not to thrilled with the taste of cloves, so I left those out and added vanilla extract. I made my first cup with some green tea, and I was in heaven. It's been about 4 days now, and I keep experimenting with the different teas that I have. My favorite so far is with an almond tea. Sarah, I'm starting to get addicted to your recipes, thanks so much!

From: Cindy Lynn

On Sep 20, 2002

This is supposed to be refrigerated for 24 hours before using, but you know how it is when you're the Chef...I just couldn't let any of that delectible stuff go to waste. I made up a fresh hot cup of strong black tea and used it to 'rinse' the blender--figured there had to be somewhere between 1/2-2 teaspoons left in there. It was superb and I know it's just going to get better! Rather than use a can of boughten sweetened condensed milk, I mixed up a batch from an excellent copycat recipe I have, then added the rest of this recipe to it. I will definitely be keeping this on hand!!! Thank you for sharing! )

From: Mishkapett

On Sep 24, 2002

Thank you, thank you, thank you!! This recipe is soooo easy and very good...I haven't found one that had just the "right" taste..either too strong or you could taste one of the spices more than the others. This one is perfect!! I made this one with the exact ingredients called for, but I am also going to make the next batch with the homemade condensed milk from the Copycat site.

From: Judy-Jude

On Sep 17, 2003

"High Five".....This is awesome, fantastic and so quick and easy!!! I used the sweetened condensed milk and this is not going to last long in my frig., therefore, no ice cubes for me!! I couldn't wait 24 hours to try this, I was licking the spatula, oh..so good. Then made a cup of tea, then another. I also made up a dry batch using 1 cup of powdered Coffee-Mate, french vanilla coffee creamer and 2/3 cup of sugar instead of the sweetened condensed milk because I want to bring this to work to have during breaks. I know it's not going to last long when I share it with the girls tomorrow. It came out very good too. I going to bring both batches I made and let them try it both ways. Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful recipe, it will be used for Christmas gifts this year.

From: princess buttercup

On Nov 22, 2002

Great stuff! I added a dash of pepper (fresh ground black/white/green mix) and a touch of vanilla. Taste great in tea, coffee and hot cocoa. I put it in one of those shaker cups with the slotted disk in the top (a hidden valley ranch shaker if you must know!)Its not gonna last long enough to freeze!

From: rsarahl

On May 23, 2003

Response to Ejnei: I wanted to reply to your comment to let you know that I did not receive any communication from Recipezaar on your behalf. I emailed Gay and Troy and they noted that sometimes these things do not go through for whatever reason. Nonetheless, I did not want you to think that I wasn't responding to your communication. That said, I want to let you know how I calculated the servings and also respond to your comment about the freezing issue. First, there are about 74 teaspoons in 14 ounces or a generous 5 teaspoons per ounce. Each serving, as I noted it in the recipe, is up to 2 teaspoons or .46 of an ounce. So, if each serving is calculated at the maximum you have 30 generous servings. If each is calculated at the minimum, you have 40 or more. Regarding the freezing issue, it sounds like you filled your ice cube trays full instead of in the individual serving sizes of between 1/2 and 2 tsps per ice cube slot. Also, I use the unsweetened condensed milk for this recipe because I cook for a diabetic who needs to use sugar alternatives. I have not had any problems freezing the unsweetened version. However, I did make a batch with the sweetened condensed milk and I agree with your comment that it doesn't freeze well. To solve the problem for the sweetened version, I brewed 1 serving of tea, added my batch of concentrate and poured the frozen brew into the cube trays with good result. The batch of chai that I made using the tea version of the concentrate required 2 cubes instead of one, but the taste was the same as if made the regular way. I hope that you will try the recipe again. Clearly these things are subject to personal preference and it may be that you like your chai spicer than I do. I would encourage you to experiment with using more concentrate until you get the taste you like. Maybe this recipe will only make 10-15 cups of chai for you.... but I do hope they'll be good ones! Thanks for taking the time to post your review, Sarah

From: CASunshine

On Sep 20, 2006

Delicious and easy, what more could you want! I've been enjoying this for the past two days and have plenty for about two weeks worth of single teas! One note: If you use sweetened condensed milk, it may not freeze solid in ice cube trays like mine wouldn't. Unsweetened milk will probably freeze well. Found this out the hard way but I just use a spoon warmed under hot water to scoop the concentrate out of the cube tray then stir into my tea.

From: Blanket Girl

On Jun 28, 2005

These go for 3 bucks a a piece at our local coffee house, so when I saw the recipe I saved it and finally got around to making it tonight. I used Celestial Seasonings Earl Grey tea, (brewed strong as per the other reviews). I, too got to have a cup right after making it by "rinsing" the blender with about 6 oz. of strong black tea. I've never heard of or seen "unsweetened" condensed milk, but I would have used it if I had it since I prefer to sweeten with Splenda. This time I used lowfat sweetened condensed milk and I thought it turned out great. I think this could even be made kid-freindly by stirring the mixture into a glass of hot milk instead of tea!

From: LisaJo Borchers

On Mar 23, 2005

This is better than store bought. I've been putting it in coffee as well as tea. I made my own sweetened and condensed milk using Splenda,as we are an Atkins family. I'm going to start using it in waffles and pancakes. Thank you-- LisaJo

From: janem

On Oct 28, 2005

I've been meaning to try this for months and finally did it. What a treat! As others have suggested, I made my own sweetened condensed milk (recipe 22881) and then follwed instructions for the chai concentrate. I mixed some tea in with the concentrate before freezing, as suggested by Sarah. The cubes did not freeze hard and were a bit sticky, but I scooped them out of the ice tray and put them into a freezer container with sheets of wax paper between layers, so it wasn't a problem. Greast taste and very easy. Thanks so much.