What a crazy year!!

Welcome to Kerikeri Organic’s Blog Post. We have made it this far despite lockdowns, social distancing and wild weather!

Kerikeri Organic has been busy with new and exciting things and we wanted to give you a sneek peek in to some upcoming things… but more on that at the end of the post.

Firstly, we have some fantastic new products in store so make sure you pop in to take a look, but I wanted to let you know about the range of bulk spices we now have. Becky has done an amazing job at creating beautiful pots to put them in.

Each pot has its own scoop so now you can buy as much or as little of each spice as you need. This can help tremendously to reduce wastage in the kitchen and prevent spices from going off when you have to buy too much for your needs.

Here’s a fantastic way to use some spices, and there’s nothing better than to curl up with a hot spicy Chai tea. You can make up a good batch size, store it in the fridge and heat it up as you need it . Below is how to make it cup by cup. To make a concentrate, just add the spices to water, heat until boiling and simmer until the mix boils down and becomes concentrated.

How to Make Chai Tea at Home

A “recipe” is not really necessary; it’s really the method that matters.

You’ll need roughly one part milk to two parts water, lots of tea leaves or tea bags, strong infusion, plenty of sugar, and optional addition of sweet spices.

Here’s how to make a traditional Indian chai tea at home:

1. Bring water, milk and chai spices to a simmer in a small saucepan on the stove.
2. Reduce heat and add in black tea.
3. Wait for tea to steep.
4. Strain the warm spiced mixture into a mug; this will hold back the whole spices and tea leaves.
5. Stir sugar into your chai and sweeten to taste.

Scale the measurements below to the number of servings you need.

Chai Tea Spices

Some of the most common spices (masala) used in Indian chai include:

• cinnamon
• ginger
• cloves
• cardamom
• star anise
• fennel

My personal favourites include fresh ginger root, whole cardamom pods, cinnamon sticks, star Anise, and fennel. You can use any or all of them to make your own flavour. I typically just toss in whatever spices im feeling on the day. Warming and delicious.

What I love so much about it is that the tea is actually brewed in milk and water in a saucepan on the stove – so it stays piping hot until ready to be drunk, rather than cooling down as it steeps in a teapot.

Store changes

You may have noticed that we are making a few changes around the shop and a big one is having a fully-functioning website created. It’s not quite finished but once it is you will be able to order online, have you order delivered, or picked ready for you to pick up.

This is an exciting expansion happening along with others in the pipe-works to make Kerikeri Organic a wonderful place, and a community hub for all sorts of things.

So have a look and let us know what you think in the comments below – and don’t forget to check out our new Facebook page where updates are happening all the time.

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