This is a great make ahead beverage. It’s great served hot or cold, so the crock pot is perfect for this recipe. If you have an extra crock pot to use the day of your gathering this would work great. However, if you don’t have an extra crock pot to designate just for a beverage or you want to serve it over ice instead of warm, well, that works too. Here is how I do it:
- 8 cups of water
- 2 family size tea bags (I used a tea bag that has orange pekoe and pekoe cut black tea, but you could use just black pekoe tea too)
- 1/2 – 3/4 cups white granulated sugar
- 16 whole cloves
- 16 whole cardamom seeds, removed from pods
- 5 cinnamon sticks
- 8 – 1/4 inch slices of peeled ginger root
- 1 cup of milk
Pour the water into a 3 – 4 quart crock pot. Add sugar and stir to incorporate. Now put the cloves, cardamom, cinnamon and ginger in too. Stir mixture. Place the tea bags in the water making sure to submerge them. Cook the mixture on high for 2 – 2 1/2 hours or on low for 4 – 5 hours. Remove the tea bags. Strain the mixture in a fine sieve strainer and discard all the solids. Stir the milk into mixture just before serving.
**NOTES**
- You can use 8 small, individual serving tea bags instead of family sized.
- You could put the spices into a cheese cloth and make a bundle out of it for easy removal if you wanted to.
- Before adding the milk you could store the cooked tea mixture in a airtight container in the fridge for 2 – 3 days.
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