Dirty chocolate chai recipe

This vegan drink recipe was born from my own tastebud schizophrenia. I love hot chocolate, coffee, and chai tea and couldn't tell which one to make for my afternoon drink. Then I thought... well, why not all 3? And this recipe came to fruition. It's a busy drink for sure: your mouth doesn't know to which flavor to pay attention per sip. But it's goood.

Serves 1

Ingredients 

2 tsp of instant coffee

2 tsp of sugar

1 heaping, giant tsp of cocoa powder

1.5 cups of hot water 

1 chai tea bag

2 drops of vanilla extract OR 5 cm sliced vanilla pod (length of your thumbnail)

Pinch of salt

1/2 cup of Cappuccino flavor soy milk

-Place the instant coffee, sugar, and cocoa powder into your mug of awesomeness (mine is the one my ceramics guru sister made me). 

-Pour 1.5 cups of boiling water into your concoction and stir. Add the chai tea bag and let it sit for 5 minutes. Steep longer if you can't get enough chai taste. 

-Remove the tea bag and add 2 drops of vanilla extract or drop the sliced vanilla pod into the brew. Add the salt, too.

-Add 1/2 cup of the soy milk and stir. The drink should be cool enough thanks to the soy milk to enjoy straight away. 

Cooking Addendums

If you don't have instant coffee powder or prefer to use regular coffee, then just add 1.5 cups of hot coffee in lieu of the boiling water. Simple.

Any flavor of soy milk (or non dairy beverage of your choice) works fine. In fact, chocolate is a fine substitute if you can't find this flavor of soy milk. 

If you find the flavor too bitter, reduce the cocoa powder and/or add more sugar. If too sweet, add less sugar and increase the cocoa powder. If too strong, steep the chai for less time.

Should you like your beverages piping hot (I don't), boil water on the stove and add the ingredients to the pot, as this will enable you to continue heating it when you add the soy milk near the end.

A few drops of vanilla go a loooong way. 

Some people meticulously scrape the black stuff from the vanilla. Me? I'm not patient enough for that. I slice open the pod horizontally, open it, then drop the whole pod into the mug. Also, fresh vanilla is super-cheap: a pod costs $4.00 in the States, and just 40 cents (20 rs) here in India. If you've not had fresh vanilla, it's infinitely better than the extract.