What I am missing most during this period of the year is the special flavored drinks at Starbucks.  The Pumpkin Spice Latte and the Toffee or Ginger Mocha, yummy!

Instead of focusing on what they don’t have here (Starbucks Chai Latte for instance), I decided to take advantage of the abundant choice of spices available in the market and to make my own special version of Chai Latte.

I got inspired by few recipes on the web, I gave them a twist and added other flavors.

Here is my recipe:

You will need:

1 strip of orange peel

3  cloves

1 small cinnamon stick (or pinch ground cinnamon)

1 pinch ground nutmeg

1 black tea bag

1 cup milk (Skimmed or whole)

1 cup water

Depending on your taste, you may want to add:

pinch of ginger,

pinch of anise

1 black peppercorn

Preparation:

Boil water in a saucepan with the tea bag and the orange peel. Remove tea bag.  Reduce heat to medium low, add milk and the spices.  Simmer for 15 minutes.  Strain out spices and enjoy. Don’t forget to add sugar, honey or Splenda. I personally prefer honey.

Nutritional Information : this drink is very low in calories, the only calories it contains come from the milk and the sugar. The spices do have calories but too small to mention. I want to add that, according to recent studies(1), Cinnamon, ginger and especially cloves have high antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities which help preventing cancer, aids, allergies, diabetes,  Alzheimer’s, arthritis and many other diseases, most of all it helps your skin stay younger.

Enjoy!

(1) “Forever young” Nicholas Perricone, M.D.