When winter punch meets chai, a chai punch is born. This chai gives you all the right punches in all the right places.
The German christmas markets are famous all around the world. As soon as you enter one, you feel the fairy tale vibes: surreal lights, merry go rounds, sweet and savoury treats and small stalls selling handcrafted goodies and food items. Not to miss the sweet smell of winter punch, which you will see everyone holding.
There is an alcoholic (Glühwein) and a non-alcoholic version (Kinderpunsch) of winter punch. As I don’t drink alcohol I have always had the non-alcoholic one which is sweet and tangy in taste and packed with aroma of spices like cinnamon and star anise. To make the kinderpunsch (translates children’s punch) grown up friendly (read: proud parent moment saying “can’t share with you kiddo), I incorporated some black tea (or Indian Chai) and ginger into it. Usually, there are several kinds of juices involved in kinderpunsch, but to keep it simple I only added apple juice. I didn’t add any extra sugar or honey since I prefer my drinks only mildly sweet, and the apple juice just adds enough sweetness. Feel free to add some honey if you prefer it sweeter.
I tried infusing different flavors into the punch but the combination which tasted the best was wild berries and chai (Indian tea). You could use any berry tea bag that you have and it might work with loose black tea too.
other ingredients that you will need are:
Chai Punch
Ingredients
- 500 ml water
- 2-3 orange slices
- 1 star anise
- 1 (3 cm) piece of cinnamon
- 5-7 ginger juliennes
- 1 tea bag wald berries (any other berry) (substitute 1 tsp lemon juice)
- 1 tea bag chai/ black tea (substitute 1/4 tsp loose black tea)
- 250 ml apple juice
Instructions
- Add water to a saucepan, along with orange slices, cinnamon stick, star anise and ginger.
- Bring to a boil and let cook for 5 minutes on low heat.
- Turn off heat and put the tea bags/loose tea into the saucepan. Cover and let steep for 5 minutes.
- Remove tea bags. Add apple juice and warm up until little bubble start to appear on the sides. Serve hot.