Our Authentic Chyawanprash™ multi-herbal jam incorporates many of the most popular spices found in chai recipes such as cardamom, ginger, cinnamon and pepper, as well as over 30 other healing ingredients including herbs, spices and healthy oils.
While traditionally, Chyawanprash is licked slowly and taken with warm milk or hot water, it can also be dissolved into the warm milk and enjoyed as a delicious Ayurvedic herbal tea that promotes longevity, immunity, and rejuvenation. To enhance the healing properties of the ingredients in our Chyawanprash, we also recommend adding a rice grain size portion of Authentic Shilajit™ to your chai.
Authentic Ayurvedic Chyawanprash Chai Recipe
Ingredients:
- 1 tsp Authentic Chyawanprash™
- ½ cup hot water
- ½ cup warm goat, cow or plant-based milk (almond, coconut or rice)
- 1 rice grain size portion of Authentic Shilajit™ (optional)
Instructions:
- Heat milk and water in a small pot until slowly simmering.
- Turn off heat, pour into a mug.
- Stir in Authentic Chyawanprash™ and Authentic Shilajit™
NOTE: if you want an added kick, feel free to add 1 heaping teaspoon of black tea leaves to water. Bring to a boil, then add milk and reduce to simmer until the tea is golden in color. Immediately turn off heat and strain into mug. Then add additional ingredients to the Ayurvedic herbal tea. Check out best selling author and healthy living expert, Cassandra Bodzak, chatting it up with our founder and President, Johann Helf, while sipping on some of your Authentic Ayurvedic Chyawanprash™ Chai.
A History of Chai
Chai tea lattes, a warm spiced milk drink, are one of the most popular beverages ordered in coffee shops today, but for centuries it has been the most popular drink in India, the country in which it originated. You would be hard pressed to find a household in India that doesn’t drink chai daily or a town without several chaiwalas, that serve warm tea to hundreds of people from a small street cart.
“Chai” or “cha” as it is called in certain regions of India literally translates to “tea.” It comes from the Persian word “chay”, which originated from the Chinese word for tea “chá.”
The original herbal chai tea recipes of ancient India did not include black tea, only herbs and spices. Black tea was not added until the 1830s.
There are many stories and theories on the origins of chai. Some stories trace the origins of chai back to Buddhist monks in China who brought the beverage to India, while other stories say it was an ancient king of India who concocted the healing Ayurvedic herbal tea for its rejuvenating and energizing effects.
Despite their differences, all of these stories mention a specific tea shrub from the northeastern Indian state of Assam.
Assam has one of the richest histories when it comes to tea cultivation and drinking. The Singhpo tribe of Assam have been using wild tea leaves since the 12th century for medicinal purposes and are the earliest known tea drinkers.
In fact, it was the Singpo chief, Bisa Gam, who introduced the assamica variety of tea to the English in 1823. In 1935, the British East India Company began to establish tea plantations across the region, which catapulted the tea industry and tea drinking culture in India.
Some historians believe that the milky chai we know so well today came about as trading increased between the regions of Gujurat, Maharashtra and Bengal. Adding milk helped the workers to sustain their energy as they put in long hours. Masala chai, which included the addition of aromatic spices, soon followed.
As the tea industry grew and new technologies evolved, a tradition that was only accessible to the wealthy and upper classes, soon become popular across all classes in India.
However, just as diverse as the cultures and languages are in India, so are the varieties of Chai that you can find. Each region and even each household will have their own recipe of the popular Ayurvedic herbal tea drink.