For Autumn, Dig Into These Fallbulous Teas!
Our love of traditional Camellia sinensis tea—the oolongs, blacks, greens, whites and puerhs of the world—served as the spark behind our decision to open Ku Cha House of Tea. People always say “follow your passion” for work, and that’s precisely what we did. We wish they also would have said, “Prepare for many high hurdles, rough road bumps and cliffs along the way!”
Shortly after turning that passion into careers, began exploring tea blends with more purpose. While some, like green tea infused with jasmine blossoms, were familiar, many were alien to us.
Chai, for example. We of course knew what it was. But it wasn’t a style of tea that we spent a lot of time brewing and sipping. But as we expanded the store’s inventory, we had to try every tea before agreeing to carry it—flavor, after all, is both king and queen. And our dalliances with chai quickly persuaded us that this wide-ranging style of tea offers a host of pleasures and benefits.
For example, few teas warm us up on a cold day like a hot mug of chai. In addition, when slightly sweetened and softened with cream, chai’s flavors reward sippers with complexity and immense satisfaction. The tea can flirt with dessert, but if the sweetener is kept in check it instead just tastes like beverage treasure, with notes of spice and sweet and an enviable texture. Chai figures easily into baking—if you’ve had chai cupcakes or chai scones, now is the time!
Chai embraces flavor diversity
It’s also important to note that chai is not one uniform blend of botanicals. Instead, today there’s thousands of chai styles. At Ku Cha House of Tea, for example, we carry 10 chai styles. Some offer the kind of tongue-testing heat that comes with chile peppers. Others lean into turmeric. There’s chais that capture nothing but classic baking spices, and chais that focus more on single spices, like cardamom.
In fact, it’s reasonable to characterize any blend that broadcasts certain characteristics, such as certain spices, as a kind of chai. With autumn right around the corner (come on, fall weather!), we turned to team members in our stores to find out what autumnal, chai-like DIY blends they savor. And they offered great recipes and ideas!
It’s not here, but autumn is just weeks away. In Colorado, the aspens start turning yellow next month. Now is the time to start experimenting with chais and chai-like DIY blends. Before you know it, apples will weigh down farmers market stands, nights will require warm jackets and yep—those glorious aspens will turn gold.
Autumn Blends: Pumpkin Cold Brew
Alika and River from our Park Meadows store dreamed up this beauty of a blend. The fall-appropriate elixir includes Ku Ding Cha, a tea made from a variety of botanicals that people in China’s Sichuan Province widely consume to address a variety of health conditions. Ku Ding is quite bitter, but when brewed with caution yields wonderful tea. Along with Ku Ding, this brew has Roasted Mate. The mate, from the South American shrub that people in Argentina and other countries embrace with passion (and is increasingly popular in the United States), adds herbal notes, and caffeine, to the brew. And then it includes our Pumpkin Rooibos, a tea blend based on the famous South African shrub rooibos that incorporates cinnamon, cardamom, pumpkin, coriander and clove.
This is the a beautiful chai-style blend that turns Alika and River’s tea into something special.
To make it, add three sticks of Ku Ding cha, three scoops of roasted mate and one scoop of pumpkin rooibos into a teapot and steep for two minutes. Strain it into a shaker with milk and sugar as needed, and plenty of ice. Shake it 30 seconds or so. Serve.
Autumn Blends: Smoky Dragon
We associate fall with bonfires, blazes in fireplaces and sitting around fire pits sipping tea. This DIY blend, crafted by Hannah from our Park Meadows store, leans into the season’s smoke quotient. One sip, and you’ll get transported to a campfire.
The smoke notes from from Lapsang Souchong, a unique Chinese tea that tea artisans since the Qing Dynasty in the 17th century have been crafting by drying tea leaves over pine smoke. The blend also involves Black Dragon Pearl, a novel tea from China’s Yunnan Province. There, tea workers harvest tea leaves and then roll them into pearl shapes. It broadcasts malty notes, along with cacao and spice. When combined with Lapsang Souchong, it’s even more gorgeous.
To make Smoky Dragon, combine equal parts of Lapsang Souchong with Black Dragon Pearl, and steep for two minutes.
Autumn Teas: Sweet Pumpkin Pie
The flavors of fall tend to celebrate baking spices, and this blend dives right in, with the Pumpkin Rooibos we explored in the Pumpkin Cold Brew tea. But this blend, invented by our Denver Pavilions team member Andrew, turns to Toasted Almond Fruit tea to take it in a different direction.
Our popular Toasted Almond Fruit tea combines apple pieces and almonds with cinnamon for a taste sensation that honors autumn. It also includes beetroot pieces, for vivid color.
If early summer means strawberries and the heart of summer conjures fantasies of fresh peaches, then autumn is all about apples. In addition, fall also involves a fair bit of baking with almonds. The mixture of this apple-forward, almond-studded tea with Pumpkin Rooibos translates into an ambrosial brew.
To make it, combine equal parts of the two teas and brew for three to five minutes, depending on how intense of a flavor you seek. As it does not contain Camellia sinensis, it can handle longer brew times.
Autumn Teas: Spiced Chocolate
Kitty from our Denver Pavilions store devised this delicious tea blend, which champions several fantastic flavors: chocolate, orange and spices.
The tea rests on a foundation of our Chocolate Mate, a rich, sweet elixir that is dotted with peppercorns and cumin, contains two kinds of mate (regular and roasted mate), and incorporates cacao nibs and chocolate chips into the blend.
This DIY blend then involves our Hot Cinnamon black tea, which in addition to excellent black tea includes three varieties of cinnamon, orange peel and cloves.
Once brewed, it’s absolutely spectacular.
To make this tea, combine two parts of chocolate mate with one part of hot cinnamon black tea. Brew for two minutes, and serve.
