Pumpkin Spice Latte (Coffee or Tea)

If you like bits floating around in your tea, you can certainly skip straining the liquid before drinking. I strained it because I didn't want the spices to steep longer than they should. I would caution that you shouldn't drink this at night or before going to bed. These spices, while warming, are also stimulants. First time making this and after tasting, the recipe still needs some tweaking. Recipe can be doubled, as necessary.

Makes 1 cup.

Ingredients

1 cup organic milk (whole cow milk, coconut milk, almond milk, etc.)
1 tbsp organic pumpkin puree
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
1 tsp loose leaf black tea or green tea (instant coffee, instant espresso, or 2 tbsp freshly ground coffee)
sweetener to taste (I used 2 tsp organic sugar)
ground cinnamon for garnish (optional)
organic whipped cream for garnish (optional, only 8 calories per tbsp!)

Directions

Heat milk, pumpkin, and pumpkin pie spice in a small saucepan. Don't let it scald or boil, a gentle simmer until the milk starts to foam. Remove from heat and pour through a mesh strainer into a mug. Stir in vanilla extract and sugar. Enjoy.

A good chai latte

You'd think it would be easy to find loose leaf decaf black tea (or green tea) in any non-asian grocery store, but it's much harder than one would think. I have yet to find a local supply of good quality decaf loose leaf black tea. I may just have to order it or make a special trip to that hole-in-a-wall tea shop on Garvey Avenue in Monterey Park, the one that's across the street from T.S. Emporium. Although, to ask for decaf black tea would be really insulting most tea connoiseurs, so I'll probably just get what I need from the emporium. I started from this recipe, and have since then been trying to replicate the chai spice blend of an instant chai latte mix (of Middle Eastern origins) to something that isn't overly pungent (too much cloves) and has an overall warming effect (from the spices used, e.g., ground ginger, ground cinnamon, etc). I used 2 cups of filtered water and 2 cups of organic whole milk for the tea base. The original recipe was fair and mildly spicy, but it didn't really encourage me to brew the concoction again. It lacked depth. The current blend I'm using is about right, but not quite. There is something still missing but I can't quite figure out what. I'm inclined to say that it's the lack of allspice, an ingredient missing from my spice rack. I've seen allspice used in chai recipes and haven't used it in mine yet. The spice ratio: 1/2 tsp ground cardamom 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg 1/4 tsp ground ginger 1 cinnamon stick 6 cloves 1 teabag (per person) worth of black tea or green tea Any sweetners (sugar, honey, stevia, etc.) used should be placed in the cup. In my experiments, I can recommend that you not use whole cloves and ground cloves together in the same chai recipe. There is a pungent aftertaste and it doesn't taste very good at all. Since I lack plain black tea, I used a Bigelow teabag called "Constant Comment" which imparts an orange citrus flavor to the tea. I suspect the "sweet spices" noted on the bag's ingredients are probably nutmeg, cardamom, mace, and perhaps allspice. I really have no memory map as to what allspice distinctly tastes like, only that it is a key spice in the pumpkin pie spice blend. (Update: 2/27/2008) I have found the "depth" I was seeking in the taste of the chai tea. It's from a combination of honey and the ratio of milk to water. More milk than water and certainly not a half-and-half ratio like noted above. Also, evaporated milk really brought out a little bit of the creaminess I was seeking but it didn't overpower the taste of the tea. Powdered milk (organic and regular) seemed to have little impact on the depth. The next ratio experiment would be to replicate the milk content of evaporated milk with powdered milk seeing how I don't quite have any fresh milk on hand at the moment.