October Means Full Chai at Ku Cha House of Tea
The calendar turns to October today, the month of Halloween, the Hunter’s Moon, the Orionids meteor shower, Oktoberfest and National Pizza Month. And for us, October also means it’s time to go full chai. No more just flirting with mugs full of tantalizing spice, as a nod to impending autumn while the outdoor vibes still scream summer. No more chai footsie. We’re all in.
Welcome, chai. We’ve been waiting for you.
Ku Cha’s chai selection covers a lot of ground
We carry close to a dozen chais at Ku Cha House of Tea. Some go big with chile spice, like cayenne, or punch up the formula with black peppercorn. Others convey variations on a theme of “bakery in autumn”—ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, allspice. Turmeric? Cardamom and star anise? Vanilla and saffron? Yep. In India, some even contain ingredients like crushed nuts, salt and yak butter. If only we sold yak butter at Ku Cha House of Tea!
We love how personalized chai can be. Chai variations run rampant across India, and increasingly in the rest of the world. You can freely craft your own chai, in fact, by taking advantage of our “Blend Your Own Tea” platform. This service lets you add everything from fennel seed to rosehips to different kinds of black tea (black tea is the classic base of all chais) from our large list of “blend your own” ingredients. Dream up your own blend, and give it a custom name! Talk about an engaging holiday gift.
Whether you craft your own bespoke chai or choose one of our chai treasures, we encourage everybody to get their chai on! The season begins NOW, and lasts across all the cold months. Some people prefer their chai straight—no addendums. Others adore a dollop of honey and a slug of cream. Whipped cream dusted with cocoa powder and crisscrossed with caramel threads? Go for it!
Chai Season Begins: Bombay Chai
India supports a vast diversity of chai styles, many of them dating back to the early 1900s. Bombay Chai, also known as “cutting chai,” rose in prominence during the 1950s. The city that was then known as Bombay (now Mumbai) became a teeming, fast-paced metropolis, and the “cutting” style emerged within that milieu. “Cutting” means the volume of liquid tea was traditionally cut in half, to satisfy on-the-go city dwellers looking for something cheap and fast. Our Bombay Chai doesn’t need to get cut—in fact, it’s so scrumptious you might prepare for a few cups across your day. The blend is classic and straightforward: black tea, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and anise seed. Brew a pot of Bombay Chai, break out the honey and creamer if you please, and settle in for some chai grandeur.
Chai Season Begins: Masala Chai (Organic)
Masala Chai stands as one of India’s OG styles. After British colonists set up massive black tea plantations in Assam during the 19th century, they began marketing tea to local Indians. In those early days, tea leaves were expensive. So street vendors called chaiwalas started taking cheap tea dust, heavily diluting it with milk, sugar and spices, and began selling it.
Masala chai grew out of chai’s infancy and now can be used as shorthand for chai in general. Our Masala Chai, our house blend, represents a perfect marriage of strong, finely ground black tea and chai spices. For the tea, we leverage strong Irish Breakfast black tea, which offers a sturdy spine with wonderful malty flavors. To that we add cinnamon, ginger, anise, black peppercorn, cardamom, clove and bay leaf. Brighten any day with chai’s OG style—Masala!
Chai Season Begins: Pumpkin Spice Chai
Ah, yes, pumpkin spice fever now begins in earnest. It’s been whispering from corners for weeks. People have started dipping their toes into the cinnamon-spiked waters. But with the arrival of October, there’s no turning back. Pumpkin spice is here, and it’s dear. Does the world need pumpkin spice Spam, mac & cheese and pork rinds (all real products, by the way)? No. The world desires none of those things. But when culinary people find proper vessels for the transmission of pumpkin spice, it sings. And tea, of course, is about as proper as you can get. To our Pumpkin Spice Chai’s black tea base, we add rooibos, cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, real pumpkin and ginger. And people swoon—they order our custom blend over and over again through fall and into winter. Give it a whirl!
Chai Season Begins: Mile High Chai (Organic)
India supports a kaleidoscopic selection of chais. We felt it’s time for regional chais to take hold in the United States. So we came up with Mile High Chai, a delicious and fitting tribute to our mountain-blanketed state. For this blend, the tea is vanilla black. We love the vanilla notes. The rest of the formula includes ginger, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, black peppercorn, fennel seeds, licorice and allspice. A lot of ingredients? Absolutely. And we feel they complement one another. Brew a thermos of this, head into Colorado’s high country, and spend an afternoon walking through fallen aspen leaves. Perfection.
Chai Season Begins: Autumn Chai (Decaf)
Customer enthusiasm and demand made our custom Autumn Chai Ku Cha’s most popular house chai. But the standout style also comes in a decaffeinated version—ideal for those sensitive to caffeine, kids and post-dinner sipping. This glorious chai contains decaffeinated Madagascar vanilla black tea, cinnamon, allspice, ginger and nutmeg. We brew pots of this beguiling elixir every week during the cold months, and particularly during autumn.
