Me, Myself & Chai

Let's talk about chai tea for like five seconds. Have you tried it? No? Then please leave this for later and go grab some. If yes, please continue. I hadn't tried chai tea ever before until a coworker turned me on to it. Starbucks' Iced Oprah Cinnamon Chai Tea Latte to be expact, although the vanilla one is equally as delicious. Like all things I fall in love with, I became invested in this tea. I found that at the grocery store they sell chai concentrate which you just mix with milk and serve hot or over ice. So I decided I should invest in this product. I found that it's only $2.99 at my local grocery store! That's less than what you would pay for a single latte at Starbucks. Out of the entire carton of concentrate I made five large (24 oz.) iced lattes, five for three bucks?! That's $0.60 a piece!
In my obsessive Pinterest searching on the topic I found that you can make your own chai tea concentrate right in your own kitchen. I was intrigued and completely willing to try it. So I went to the store in search of the necessary spices and tea.
I'm going to begin by saying when you're looking to buy spices and teas Target probably isn't the best place to look. I learned this by spending about twenty minutes in the tea and spice isle (conveniently together thank god) and probably still not getting what I really needed. The recipe called for roobois or darjeeling tea and from experience of drinking roobois I know I didn't want that flavorful tea in my chai because I believe the only thing roobois needs is a tiny bit of honey. With Target lacking anything with the name darjeeling on it I decided to go with a plain black tea (what another recipe had said to use). I got home and combined all my ingredients and and cracked the necessary ones placed it all in a pot with water and six of the tea bags and allowed for it to boil and then steep for 30 minutes. It smelled wonderful. After it steeped I strained it into a pitcher and allowed for it to cool before placing it in the fridge. My thoughts on this homemade chai: I could have used a lot less cinnamon. I don't like cinnamon that much so that's just my preference. But by no means am I giving up on the chai. I think next time I'm going to add some anise stars and cut back on the cinnamon sticks, maybe add more vanilla too. Another thing I want to fix is the straining. I don't know if my fine strainer is just not that fine or what but it almost seems like it needs to be strained through cloth, it has a sediment taste to it, but that also might be the cinnamon...
Anyway here is the recipe and I encourage you to try it and tweak it as you like. Let me know what changes you make and what you think of this!

Homemade Chai Tea Concentrate

6 cinnamon sticks

1 tsp allspice (original called for 15 allspice berries)

1 tsp cardamom (original called for 5 cardamom pods)

1 tsp cloves (original called for 15 whole cloves)

a few pinches of freshly ground black pepper

2 tsp ground ginger (original called for dried ginger)

1 tsp nutmeg

6 black tea bags (next time I'm going to get darjeeling)

1 tbsp vanilla

1/4 sugar (you can use any sweetener)

Combine all the ingredients (excluding sugar and vanilla) in a pot with 6 cups of water. If you're using the berries/pods these need to be cracked before boiling. Bring the water to a boil and allow to simmer for 30 minutes, stronger if you like darker tea. Next strain your tea and add the vanilla and sweetener. Allow to cool before placing in the fridge. 

I suggest serving with equal parts milk. This can be served over ice or hot, both would be delightful. 

I will be sure to keep you updated on my future chai changes, the next one won't be anything but better! Also keep your eyes on the look out in the near future for a few new blog posts. I'm currently working on some homemade "goodies" and I have a review or two to still post! 

Sources:
The Elliot Homestead
Picture found on Gimme Some Oven

Happy Hour at Mitchell's Fish Market

Mitchell's Fish Market

Monday - Thursday 11 am - 11 pm

Friday & Saturday 11 am - 12 am

Sunday 11 am - 10 pm

Happy Hour Sunday - Friday 4 pm - 7 pm

(sn: the website says that Happy Hour is now EVERYDAY)

Often I have found myself with friends in Winter Park around 5 o'clock in the evening and as always, we're usually hungry. One of the places I can never say no to is Mitchell's Fish Market. Tucked in a little corner just a block away from The Cheesecake Factory and Brio is this little gem of a seafood restaurant. I have never been to Mitchell's when it wasn't happy hour so I cannot comment on their normal menu anything other than two things: the menu changes daily (so there's always something new), but they're also quite pricey! I would very much recommend going between 4 and 7. I can't say that I've ever spent more than $30 there including food and alcohol. 

One of the things that is the most intriguing to me is the value of their drink selection! They have eight drinks that are all $5. You can also get select draft beers for $3. I've tried every specialty drink on the happy hour menu and let me tell you, none of them disappoint. My personal favorite is the Vermont Apple Martini-- although in my opinion it's more of a spin on a cosmo but we won't go there. This martini gets its apple-li-ness from the Absolut Apple Ginger flavored vodka and then it's shaken with cranberry juice (cosmo anyone?), ginger syrup, and fresh mint. It's garnished with pieces of crisp, green apple. I could drink these by the pitcher, but I guess that's not advised since they're basically vodka. My second favorite is the FM Mojito but there's nothing special about this one besides the $5 price tag and the absence of sour mix (that's a win, right?); I may be biased here when you take into consideration that a mojito is one of my "go to" drinks. 

The food at Mitchell's is something to note for sure! I am a complete snob when it comes to fish tacos, they have to be made perfectly. The only other grilled tacos I have liked as much as these are the ones you can find at Rocco's Tacos. Almost every time I go I must have the tacos, this time though I opted for more of a new variety. I hate to say that I wasn't thrilled with our choices. I chose the Lettuce Wraps and the Conch Fritters. My friend ordered the Fried Zucchini and the Shrimp Dumplings. My choices were flavorful, I just wasn't crazy about the peanuts on the wraps, it gave it a flavor I'm not too fond of, but it was a good healthy option. Of course in contrast to my healthy lettuce wraps I got something fried. The conch fritters were just okay. I think they could've had more flavor and I didn't like the sauce they were served with. My friend wasn't pleased with her food at all. The dumplings were... well, dumpling-y. I personally know I don't like dumplings of any kind, so I can't really give an opinion on them; she gave them a chance though. The zucchini fries were good, but she said they could've used more flavor. Our bartender also scared her by saying some of the "green ones" were jalapenos. This confused us because zucchini is green and none of them were particularly spicy. 

Like their regular menu, the Happy Hour menu changes frequently. The items we ordered were new to me, so they may not even be on the menu now. A few things that I always see though are things that are definitely worth your while and money. The warm pretzel bread is wonderful! Little soft pretzel nuggets served along side beer cheese. Yes, beer cheese. This cheese is so wonderful and it goes perfectly with the pretzel nuggets (or whatever else you have to put it on). The Spinach & Artichoke dip also never disappoints anyone, it's warm and flavorful, it's sure to leave you scraping the dish. The Spicy Crispy Shrimp is good (sort of bang-bang style), they also put it on tacos, so if you like shrimp tacos I would suggest that! Last but not least the Blackened Fish Tacos. These tacos are simple but flavorful. They have a mango salsa on top as well as a lime sour cream, two items I love on top of my favorite kind of taco!

So Mitchell's Fish Market is always winning in my day planner despite some bad menu choices. Their happy hour is reasonably priced and it provides quite the drink selection. I would give it a try if you've never been and I would go back if you have.