Ingredients
Method
- Heat the oven to 200°F and cover a baking sheet with foil.
- Mix the sugar and vanilla extract together in a bowl, then spread the sugar over the prepared baking sheet.
- Leave the sugar in the oven until dry, about 30 minutes. Take it out and let it cool completely, about 15 minutes.
- Once cool, crumble the sugar into a bowl and add the instant tea and all of the ground spices, white pepper included.
- Grind the mixture to a very fine powder in a blender, food processor or coffee/spice grinder, working in small batches of roughly 1 cup. Let the dust settle for a moment before opening the lid.
- Stir the ground batches together and store the mix in an airtight jar.
- To serve, use 2 heaping tablespoons of the mix per 8 ounces of hot liquid: water, dairy milk or nondairy milk. Use a little more or less to taste.
Notes
Leaf tea version: leave the instant tea out of the mix and prepare the rest as written. For each cup, brew a black tea bag, or a tea ball filled with loose leaf tea, for about 5 minutes in a couple of ounces of hot water. Take the tea out, stir in 2 heaping tablespoons of the mix and top up with warm milk.
Sugar substitute: replace the 2 1/2 cups sugar with 2 1/2 cups of a granulated erythritol blend that measures cup-for-cup like sugar, mixed with the vanilla and dried in the oven the same way. Or leave the sugar out (see the next note) and sweeten each cup separately: liquid stevia or monk fruit drops add no sugar, while sugar, honey or agave do. A cup made with milk still contains the milk's natural sugar.
Without sugar the mix is much more concentrated: skip the oven step, add a few drops of vanilla extract to each cup instead, and use about 1 tablespoon of the unsweetened mix per 8 ounces.
Storage: keep the mix airtight in a cool, dry cupboard and use it within 6 months, while the spices are fresh. Scoop it with a dry spoon, because moisture makes it clump.
Inspired by a recipe on Allrecipes.com.