Spice Tea (Chai adveye) The majority of Iranians prefer black tea with sugar cubes or sugar, especially with their breakfast. However, young Iranians are trying to use more healthy ingredients when making tea.
Any of the following ingredients add flavor to tea: ground cinnamon, ground cloves, ground cardamom, ground ginger, ground rose petals, ground coriander seeds, and ground nutmeg. My family and I have found that all of these ingredients improve the flavor of tea.
In Iran all of these spices are available at reasonable prices. If the ground spices are not available, you can use small pieces of the whole spice. My family members grind these spices and mix them giving more weight to rose petals, in summer and spring, but more weight to cinnamon, cloves, and ginger in winter. Once determined what combination of spices is most pleasing to you, decide how many cups you will be making. For one person, steep one tea spoon of the mixture in a cup or glass of boiling water and let it simmer for ten minutes. At home use a tea pot to simmer the tea. Some of my family members prefer sugar added to tea while others add honey.
Spice tea is relaxing and energizing. Give it a try!
