Making chai ice cream from scratch is not for the faint of heart.

Really good homemade chai requires a rainbow of flavorful and fragrant whole spices–and if you don’t have any of them, the grocery bill is eye-popping. For the tea, I selected Darjeeling 2nd Flush 2006, a tea with quintessential Indian tea flavor.

The spices smelled divine!

Making the ice cream also required a good chunk of free time, ample counter space, more bowls than I have, and four hands. The recipe I used called for heating the milk and spices for an hour, then steeping the tea, straining the mixture, returning it to the saucepan, whisking the eggs, cooking the eggs, straining again, and stirring it in an ice bath until it cools. Well worth it, I tell you. The ice bath step is crucial–you don’t want to put a warm mixture in the fridge to cool because condensation will form inside the bowl. And water in mixture = ICY DEATH for ice cream!

Mmm, smooth and rich!

Perfect on grilled cardamom-scented pineapples!

I bet this would make a killer milkshake too.