"I cannot function without my ginger chai, but I'm also very conscious about tea," she says. Acharia points out that most tea bags have plastic and forever chemicals in them. She also prefers to avoid caffeine in her diet. Enter the Clipper Organic Decaf Black Tea ($16), which is unbleached and has everything that she is looking for in a clean tea. "It was actually really hard to find a decaf organic," she says. She travels with these tea bags so that she can always have her go-to tea no matter where she is in the world.
Acharia believes that both Americans and the British do it wrong when it comes to brewing flavorful tea. She steeps her tea in a boiling pot of water for a few minutes, infusing it with spices including cardamom, ginger, cloves, black pepper, and sometimes turmeric. "I was watching 'Bridgeton' once and Simone Ashley, she's coming from India to Britain, and she broke the little cardamoms and she put it in her tea. I was like, 'Yes! Yup! I do that too.'" Acharia also adds in organic walnut milk, and lets it brew and boil until the milk reaches a froth-like texture. Once it's ready, she strains it and enjoys.
Pro Tip: To really give your tea an extra kick, you can grind your whole spices and fresh ginger pieces with a mortar and pestle for a more impactful flavor profile.
