It was a cool, drizzly day today, and the ceiling was dripping from some newly sprung leak in the roof. It was a day for tea.

My current favourite tea is a homemade chai my husband gave to me at Christmas. I had been making up individual cups of chai for us, plonking various spices into the cup individually, but some days it was too much work to search through the cupboard for all the right spices. Ian’s chai mix makes a cup of chai as easy as a tea bag. A scant spoonful of his mix makes a wonderfully spicy cup to warm up even the wettest of days. The mix includes candied ginger, hot pepper flakes, stick cinnamon, cardamom pods, whole cloves, and star anise. And the best part of it is the spicy Christmas-baking smell it leaves in the house long after the last sip has been drunk.