Rise and Shine

Fresh Mint Chai Tea: The Alternative Morning Pick-Me-Up

At Slumbr, we not only love a good night’s rest, but we also love getting up in the morning. We all have morning routines to make the best of the previous night’s slumber and help get our day going. Part of this is what we eat and drink. To kick off Slumbr’s Rise and Shine series, we’re starting with the morning beverage.

We enjoy morning coffee and sometimes start our days with a morning tea. Why tea? It’s full of antioxidants and helps to reduce inflammation. Also tea is known to have less caffeine than coffee - which is especially great for some of us who are sensitive to it. And of course, because tea tastes great!

One of our favorites is Fresh Mint Chai Tea, which includes fresh ginger to give this soothing minty tea a bit of a kick. And in Eastern Medicine, ginger is used to aid digestion, circulation and the immune system.  

Try this tea on a summer morning, or share it with friends over weekend brunch.  

And a friendly reminder: this tea has caffeine, so make sure to have it before 2 pm to prevent it from disrupting your evening sleep if you’re particularly sensitive to caffeine.

FRESH MINT CHAI TEA

Adapted from 1000 Indian Recipes by Neelam Batra

Yields 2 generous cups of tea

Ingredients

  • 2 cups water
  • 1/4 cup fresh mint leaves, coarsely chopped
  • 1 quarter inch size slice fresh ginger, finely chopped
  • 1/2 cup whole milk
  • 1 tsp black tea leaves or one teabag
  • Honey or raw sugar, to taste

Slumbr chai tea recipe mint in milk

Instructions

  1. In a medium saucepan, add the water, mint and ginger over high heat. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to medium to simmer for approximately 1-2 minutes. This extracts the maximum flavors of the mint and ginger.
  2. Pour the milk into the saucepan and increase the heat again to bring the milk to a boil. Add the tea and remove the saucepan from the heat. Cover the saucepan to allow the tea to steep for approximately 3 minutes.
  3. Using a ladle, pour the tea through a tea sieve or fine-mesh strainer into 2 tea cups or a tea pot. Discard the spices and leaves. Serve the tea hot with honey or sugar on the side.

Serving size: 1 generous cup of tea
Calories: 45
Fat: 2g
Sugar: 3g
Protein: 2g

Note: In India, tea is traditionally served with whole milk.  If you prefer a low-fat version, we recommend 2% milk.

Slumbr mint chai tea recipe

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