Make Masala Chai Concentrate at Home: One Pack, 20 Cups
One pack of our masala chai blend makes about 8 cups of chai concentrate. At about 3 oz of concentrate and 5 oz of milk per cup, that’s 20 cups of chai. The boiling and straining happen once; after that, each cup is just concentrate and milk, warmed on the stove. There’s no need to buy concentrate when you can make it fresh at home, as strong and as sweet as you like it.
What one pack makes
How much chai?
20 cups
Each 8 oz cup: 3 oz concentrate + 5 oz milk, warmed together.
About $0.85 a cup before milk.
The math comes straight from the pack: one teaspoon (4 g) of blend makes one 8 oz cup, so the pack’s 20 teaspoons make 20 cups. Brewed as concentrate, the tea and spices for all 20 cups sit in one jar: 8 cups is 64 oz, about 3 oz for each of the 20 cups. Because the concentrate is boiled down a little stronger than a single brewed cup, each cup takes a splash more milk than the pack’s recipe (5 oz instead of 4), with the same 4 g of tea in every cup. Slide to the number of cups you want and pick a strength; the blend, water and concentrate follow.
Why make your own
- Fresh. Assam tea, ginger and cardamom brewed in your kitchen this week, not a carton made to sit on a shelf.
- Your strength. Light, classic or strong: the calculator shows how much blend and water each takes.
- Your sweetness. Many store-bought concentrates come sweetened. Yours starts unsweetened, so everyone in the house sweetens their own cup.
- Your milk. Whole milk, oat milk or any dairy-free milk, added when you pour.
How to make the whole-pack batch
You need the whole pack (20 teaspoons, 80 g), 9 cups of water, a large pot, a fine strainer and clean glass jars.
- Bring 9 cups of water to a rolling boil in a large pot.
- Add all 20 teaspoons of blend and keep it at a rolling boil until the brew turns a deep, dark amber and smells strongly of ginger and cardamom. Go by color, not the clock: it should look darker than a cup of strong black tea.
- Turn off the heat, cover the pot and let it rest for a few minutes so the leaves settle.
- Strain through a fine tea strainer into a jug, pressing the leaves to get every drop.
- Measure it. The boil cooks off some water, so top up with hot water to 8 cups. That keeps every pour the same.
- Cool, then pour into jars and refrigerate.
How to use it
- Hot chai: warm about 3 oz of concentrate with 5 oz of milk in a small pan until it just simmers. Sweeten to taste and pour.
- Iced chai: pour about 3 oz of concentrate over ice and top with 5 oz of cold milk.
- Stronger cup: pick Strong in the calculator next time; it adds blend, so the pour stays the same.
Storing it
Keep the concentrate in sealed glass jars in the fridge and use it within about 5 days. Shake the jar before pouring. Add milk only to the cup you’re about to drink, never to the jar.
If 20 cups is more than you’ll drink in 5 days, slide the calculator down for a smaller batch and brew the rest of the pack another week, or the classic way with our stovetop method. Pick up a pack at our Boston Public Market stall or order online.