Overview:

If you are a chai tea lover (we mostly call it “chai” around here because “chai tea” is basically saying “tea tea”) and you may or may not also love to garden, keep reading! In this blog post, we will cover:

1. The benefits of chai tea during the warmer months of the year
2. Our Favorite Spring & Summer Chai Recipes
3. Gardening with Chai
1. Creating a Chai Compost
2. Keep the bugs away with chai leaves
3. Chai fertilizer
4. Chai for roses
5. Chai for ferns
6. Other chai-loving acidic plants

The Benefits of Chai During the Warmer Months

The spring and summer months are a wonderful time to spend outside more and soak up the warming sun. Some people may think that warming tea is only beneficial during the colder months and they prefer cold chai.. 

On the contrary, while you can cool your Chai Bar chai tea with ice, drinking warm chai during the spring and summer months can actually be very beneficial for your body. 

There are so many chai tea healthy benefits! Warm tea actually aids digestion by boosting your metabolism. These chai ingredients will also keep you hydrated and even cooler! Because the chai spice also contains flavonoids, this will increase your energy and benefit your immune system! Keep your skin glowing as well, because black tea in the chai includes zinc, magnesium and potassium, which are all so beneficial for your skin. 

Summer is also the ideal time to eat cooling foods like melons, fennel, and ginger. Yes, ginger root, despite its spicy taste, is a cooling food.

Our Favorite Spring & Summer Chai Tea Recipes

Speaking of ginger and cooling foods, did you know, The Chai Bar's Sugrisma Summer Masala Chai is made with cooling spices to help you "chill" from within. Packed with good-for-you stuff like pepper, ginger, and fennel, this Chilled Chai Brew is the perfect summer warmer weather pick-me-up. 

Stock up; this seasonal blend won't last long.

The warmer months are a great time to buy chai tea for chai recipies. Arunima, our Citrus Chai, is a refreshing clear black brew. Made using beautiful Kumaon Black Teal Leaves, Lemon and Orange Peels, Ginger, and Marigold. This Chai is for those of us who prefer a crisp drink with a brisk finish. 

This blend has earthy flavors from Chai, zing from the citrus fruit, saffrony notes from Marigold, and a little bit of cooling heat from the spices. This easy to brew blend is a breeze to make. Simply pop it into a steeper, plop it into a jar of chilled water, refrigerate and enjoy. If you’re wondering what Tto add to chai tea for a bit of extra taste and flavor, use this recipe for citrus simple syrup. 

We drink about 2 cups of Chai a day, and at The Chai Bar, we try our very best to be a low to no waste brand. This means we want all our packaging to be reusable, recyclable, and eco-friendly. 

Did you know our blends are packed in beautifully designed tins featuring Warli / Varli folk art? A traditional tribal painting from the Indian state of Maharashtra. Our smaller quantity blends are packed in eco-friendly brown paper bags perfect for retaining freshness without exposing the Chai to bright light. 

Share Your Love for Chai with Your Garden

Gardening season is in full swing. As the temperature is rising, ruby red strawberries are ripening in our berry bed. All the Roses are budding, and the mammoth elephant ears are finally emerging from their bulbs. 

Summer is the perfect time to garden under the cool shade of a large maple tree, enjoying the sweet summer breeze on your face. (this was moved down)

Since we are trying to be zero waste, we share many DIY with Chai ideas with you guys for fun ways to re-use strained Tea leaves as well as tea tins. Find more DIY with Chai ideas HERE. 

This week we are talking about making soil amendments, compost, and other garden-friendly uses for Strained Tea Leaves and other strained Chai. 

Reminder: Do not Include Milk 

First things first, we would recommend using strained leaves from Milk free Chai for garden use. Milk and heat do not mix well and can cause mold in your garden soil. 

That being said, you can also use Strained Kadha (Herbal Immunity Booster) Green Tea or Aprajita Butterfly Blue Brew for your garden. Check out the rest of our lovely, antioxidant-rich herbal blends!

Black Tea has several health benefits. Apart from being a source of caffeine, our chai flavor blends are full of beneficial botanicals, herbs, and spices. The Chai Bar's black chai tea blends are free from added colors and flavors. These 100% natural blends are perfect for garden use. 

Chai Compost:

Toss the Tea into your compost pile. If you haven't tried it already, try using your kitchen scraps for composting. It is a great way to fertilize your garden and reduce your waste output. Chai can even speed up composting. Simply make a strong chai (no milk), re-using strained chai leaves, and let this cool; add this drink to your soil dressing compost pile to help speed up the composting process with a nitrogen boost.

Bug Bye Brew: 

Did you know that most pesticides harm our friendly neighborhood bees? And while spider mites suck (trust me, I know), it isn't worth it to harm beneficial insects by using strong and harmful chemicals on our green friends. 

If you are looking for a cleaner, milder way to repel pests, your strained Tea can help you. You can use the Tea as a "dust" for outdoor plants or a spray/ in soil gnat eliminator. We have a recipe for this HERE.

Chai Chow:

If you want to perk up your outdoor garden bed, toss Tea into the soil and mix it in. It improves soil structure; earthworms love it. Adding strained Chai to your garden will increase nitrogen levels in the soil every time you water, making your plants lush green. 

Rose Chai:

We love Astrakadir rose Chai, and roses love Chai too. Sprinkle your strained black Tea around the dripline of your rose bush and work it into the soil. Watch your roses bloom with the chai leaves infusing nutrition into the soil.

FernTea:

Ferns are all the thing right now, and I have a small army of houseplants from fiddle leaf figs to ficus elastica. Ferns are one houseplant that loves acidic soil. You can use strained Tea to lower the pH level and provide your plants with nutrients. First things first, find out if your indoor/ outdoor plants are acid-loving. If so, use Tea. If not, don't. Using wrong soil amendments can hurt plants. 

Here is a shortlist of acid-loving plants to get you started. 

Some Acid-loving plants:

Vegetables: 

sweet corn, cucumbers, beans, broccoli, turnips, squash, onions.

Fruits: 

cranberries, blueberries, huckleberries.

Trees: 

evergreens, beech, willow, oak, dogwood.

Flowering plants: 

azaleas, rhododendrons, hydrangeas, camellias, daffodils.

Always make sure to do your own research. 

For indoor use, brew a mild tea with used strained tea leaves. Add this Tea to your plant pot. 

Green Tea leaves can also be used similarly, in compost, to amend outdoor soil or as an indoor tree tea. Some gardeners recommend steeping strained green Tea in a watering can for up to a week, then tossing the leaves in the trash and using the Tea to water plants. We aren't quite as adventurous and have not tried this yet, but if you have, let us know in the comments below. 

As for our Herbal Immuni'tea boosters, they can all be tossed into compost or used to amend the soil. 

Lastly, did you know that turmeric is a natural remedy for plant wounds due to its natural antiseptic and antibacterial properties? If you make large cuts or trim your rose bushes, trees, etc., slather on some turmeric paste to help the plant heal and keep out bacteria. 

Here’s to a delicious cup of chai tea and a happy garden as well. We hope you enjoy a variety of fresh, flavorful chai teas in the months to come.

Conclusion: In this post we discussed the spiced chai tea benefits for the warmer months and also how to share the benefits of chai tea with your garden in an eco-friendly way.

1. The health benefits of chai tea during the warmer months
2. Our favorite spring & summer chai tea recipes
3. Gardening with chai tea

1. Compost
2. Keep the bugs away
3. Chai fertilizer
4. Chai for roses
5. Chai for ferns
6. Other chai-loving acidic plants

We hope you enjoyed our summer gardening insights. If you’re wondering where to buy chai tea (in our opinion, the best place!), you came to the right place for the best chai tea mix. Visit our Chai tea shop to buy authentic chai mixes (with ingredients sourced exclusively from Indian) and start enjoying it in your home.  

Chai Bye. 

Co-authored By: 

Sargam & Madura.