Snow Blues: With Home-made Chai Tea you never loose

This is an idea that may not have crossed your mind.  On such a snowy day, don't go out to Starbucks' or anywhere else for that matter.  Any cold, snowy day is a perfect day to bring sunshine indoors by making your own Chai Tea.  I have two websites you can visit and their contents are cited here.  The first is:   http://www.instructables.com/id/Homemade_Chai_Tea/    and here is that recipe:  step 1Your Ingredients
To make this, you'll need:

-3 black tea bags (i used some decaf earl grey that was around, use what you want.)
-1 stick of cinnamon
-around 8 cloves
-2 teaspoons vanilla extract
-2 cups water
-about 3/4 cups* honey
-about 3/4 cups* sugar
-teaspoon ginger#
-dash nutmeg#

*it can vary, but the honey and sugar should add up to about 1 1/2 cups.
#you can add these if you want. some people can tell if they're there or not, but I tend not to use these.

step 2Brew!
Here's where the action is. There are 2 ways to do this. I used the first.

WAY ONE
Boil your water. WAIT FOR IT TO BOIL!
When you're boiling, drop in your three tea bags, along with your stick of cinnamon, cloves, vanilla, and optional spices. Stir it until you get the ugly color in the picture below, then add your sugar and honey. Stir, and you're done brewing!

WAY TWO ***
Use a coffee maker! Pour in your water like you'd usually do. Chop your cinnamon stick into small slices, and slice open your tea bags. Then put your ingredients into a coffee filter. Then, it brews.

***For this way, you'll need a 6-inch slice of vanilla bean instead of vanilla extract.

step 3If you used the first way...
Which is kind of inconvenient, some say, but I like being involved.

So, your tea is all brewed and beautiful, but how are you going to get it out?

Elementary, my dear Watson.

Place a large bowl in the sink. Pour your concoction through a strainer into your bowl. Then get rid of the used solid ingredients.

step 4Enjoying your tea.
Need a hot drink? Fill a mug 1/3 with tea, and the rest with milk. The milk was probably in the fridge, so it's cold now, but you can heat it in the microwave for about 20 seconds.

Need a cold drink? Put a few ice cubes in a tall glass, and fill it a little less than 1/2 of the way with chai, then the rest milk. Use a straw to stir and suck upon.

Need it for later? Ladle your tea into a Tupperware container, and stick it in the fridge.

Another Great Site you probably already know about -- but just haven't thought of Chai Tea is:  ALL RECIPES.COM  

HERE IS THEIR RECIPE:

Ingredients
1 cup nonfat dry milk powder
1 cup powdered non-dairy creamer
1 cup French vanilla flavored powdered non-dairy creamer
2 1/2 cups white sugar
1 1/2 cups unsweetened instant tea
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
Directions
1.In a large bowl, combine milk powder, non-dairy creamer, vanilla flavored creamer, sugar and instant tea. Stir in ginger, cinnamon, cloves and cardamom. In a blender or food processor, blend 1 cup at a time, until mixture is the consistency of fine powder.
2.To serve: Stir 2 heaping tablespoons Chai tea mixture into a mug of hot water.
Footnotes

FOOTNOTE
You may choose to omit the French vanilla creamer, and use 2 teaspoons vanilla extract instead. To do so, mix the vanilla into the sugar, let it dry, then break the sugar into small lumps. Follow the same procedure as above.