Time to Roll With the OG Pumpkin Spice—Chai!
Everybody’s crazy for pumpkin spice these days, us included. What’s not to like? Sipping a pumpkin spice latte or nibbling on a cookie flooded with the signature flavors not only thrills the taste buds—it also enhances those fall feels. And we all—at last most of us—adore the return of sweater season.
But let’s be clear: Pumpkin spice is not a distinct set of spices and ingredient ratios. Some formulas lean more heavily into the cinnamon. Others add cardamom. Ginger normally figures into it, but there’s no rule that says it’s required.
In other words, pumpkin spice is whatever you want it to be, within the context of the universe of baking spices.
Chai—the OG!
Which brings us to chai. Old school pumpkin spice!
As with pumpkin spice, any chai requires—in addition to tea—baking spices like cloves, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom and plenty more. But there’s no single recipe for chai. Across India, the birthplace of this grand beverage, different regions and cities craft their own styles, which might add things like cayenne pepper or turmeric to a custom blend of baking spices.
We’ve tasted at least dozens of different chais over the years, and sipped and chomped on myriad different pumpkin spice products. In most cases, we feel that pumpkin spice flavors fall into the broad universe of chai. So while many of us think that the pumpkin spice craze is a fairly new thing, in fact people have gone crazy for these combinations for thousands of years. The first chais in India did not involve tea, but did combine many of the classic spices into a boiled beverage that became important to Ayurvedic medicine.
Either way, now that fall is officially here and temperatures are (inching) toward more crisp and cool—at least here in Colorado—it’s time to expand those pumpkin spice horizons. We carry a dozen bespoke chais—try a few, and too will start adding chai to your pumpkin spice repertoire.
Autumn Vibe Chais: Autumn Chai
This seasonal chai has captivated our customers. It’s simple—just tea, cinnamon, allspice, ginger and nutmeg. Turns out sometimes it’s the straightforward, pared-down things that offer the most satisfaction. Among all of our chais, it also aligns most closely with the range of flavors that people associate with pumpkin spice. This blend skips the black pepper, forsakes the chipotle, bails on the ingredients like star anise that can find their way into chai blends. Our Autumn Chai captures the special season with just four spices. Brew this beauty, add a creamer of some stripe, lace it with a little honey or even maple syrup—you’ll swoon.
Autumn Vibe Chais: Mile High Chai (Organic)
Welcome to the Mile High! Land of 54 peaks rising above 14,000 feet—the most of any state in the Lower 48. Colorado’s got thousands of lions and massive moose, super jocks speeding up and down trails by foot and bike, trout-dense streams and loads of people wading those rivers while whipping fly rods back and forth. There’s nothing dull about our state—and the same goes for its namesake chai. Our Mile High blend contains far more than the stripped-down Autumn Chai detailed above. Ingredients include vanilla black tea, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, black peppercorn, fennel seeds, licorice root sand allspice. Fortunately, it all works—it’s downright orchestral in its ability to meld together disparate ingredients into a harmonious whole.
Autumn Vibe Chais: Sunrise Chai
One thing we champion about both pumpkin spice and chai is their ability to bring about bold deliciousness while also bolstering health. Those tasty spices offer much in the way of benefits, ranging from digestion to heart health and much more. When you buy a back of pumpkin spice cookies from a supermarket, of course, those health advantages vanish amidst the flood of sugar, artificial ingredients and flavors and processed fats. But our teas? They’re profoundly healthy—just spices and tea! This classic blend contains ginger, cinnamon, clove and cardamom, all of which boost health. But we also add super-healthy turmeric to the blend, along with cayenne pepper and black pepper, both of which get used by natural health practitioners to promote health.
