The flavors in chai are perfect for the holiday season, with spices like cinnamon, ginger, and cardamom evocative of festive winter favorites like pumpkin pie, eggnog, and mulled wine. Chocolate is a Western addition, but it complements chai’s other flavors and cushions the spiciness of ingredients like black pepper and ginger. What’s more, chocolate is considered an anti-oxidant due to its many cancer and heart disease-fighting flavonoids, so it enhances the tonic nature of chai, used in Ayurvedic cuisine to aid in digestion and circulation.

Chocolate chai mix is a great gift because it lasts for at least a year at room temperature, so there’s no pressure to consume it right away. More importantly, it’s unsweetened. Most of the time when I order chai in a café, it comes from an over-sweetened mix, but here, it’s up to the individual to add as much or as little sweetener as they care to, whether it be honey, maple syrup, or sugar. In addition, chai mix is versatile; it can flavor pancakes, muffins, biscotti, or anything in which you would use cocoa powder.

I grind whole spices into the chai because they have more flavor than those that are pre-ground. Cinnamon and cloves are the only ones I don’t bother grinding because they’re tough to break down. Recently purchased pre-ground spices will work just fine, but I recommend passing them through a sifter in case there are clumps or stray matter.

The chai spice combination is fluid, varying with region, family, and preference. In my search for chai recipes, I found that the essential Indian ingredients include cinnamon, ginger, cloves, cardamom, and black pepper. Beyond that, it’s up to your personal taste. I used as many spices as I could get away with, but using the core five ingredients will bring results that are just as tasty.

There are lots of eco-friendly options for packaging the chai, including a recycled paper bag tied with a ribbon, a reusable glass jar, or a tea tin. In a Japanese market, I found simple tea tins that hold 1¼ cups of tea for $3.50 each. Tied with a ribbon they are spare and elegant. I attach a tag that lists the ingredients, so people can appreciate all of the different spices that went into the mix, and see if they can detect the many flavors. I make the tags from old cards, postcards, and wrapping paper. I simply cut the card to the size I want, fold it in half, and punch a hole in the corner for a string.

Be sure to keep some of this chai mix for yourself. It’s a warming treat for cold bones on a dreary day, and the smell alone will transport you to a fragrant Silk Road garden in bloom.