October 9: Coconut Chai Pumpkin Spice Latte

Hold all calls, Ms. McGill! I've got a good one for you today. While you wait, can I get you anything? Cawfee? Tea? Me? 

That’ll be all, Cynthia. 

Working Girl references aside, let’s talk about tea today. Specifically, chai tea. Even more specifically, coconut chai pumpkin spice lattes. That you make at home. In your kitchen. That don’t cost $5.25 each.

Now I know I’ve got your attention.

So remember that can of pumpkin puree I was trying to use up the other day? Well, today’s recipe was my third (and fourth and fifth!) use of it. 

In my search of recipes featuring pumpkin, I saw a recipe for a pumpkin chai latte. Another day, I’d seen a recipe for a coconut chai tea that looked amazing. 

Both of those options hit me in all the feels. Coconut is my everything. I love me some chai. Tea has my heart (though, ok, so does coffee. But tea was my first love so it’s my best love.) Lattes, as a rule, are yum. Pumpkin spice is "in" right now. 

So I thought, Coconut chai…pumpkin latte…coconut chai…pumpkin latte…coconut chai pumpkin latte! Then I hooked up with the inspiration recipe below. So now here we are. If that doesn’t sound magic to you, well, get your bony ass out of my sight! (For those of you not up on your Working Girl scene knowledge, you really must get on it.)   

I used this Cookie and Kate recipe as my inspiration and made modifications to suit my own tastes and combine those two fab concepts as outlined above. Here’s what I did: 

Coconut Chai Pumpkin Spice Latte

Yield: 1

Ingredients:

1 coconut chai teabag (I used this Celestial Seasonings Decaf Coconut Chai as my base)

1/3 cup Almond Breeze Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Coconut Milk

2 Tablespoons 2% milk

2 Tablespoons real pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)

½ - 1 Tablespoon honey (I used more the first time, and less the second; they were both delicious)

¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

¼ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Whipped cream (for top)

Directions:

1.     In small pan, bring ½ cup water just to a boil. Remove from heat, add tea bag, and steep 4 minutes. (Make sure you squeeze out all the water before discarding the tea bag. You want every drop of tea flavor out of there.)

2.     Pour milks, pumpkin, honey, vanilla, and spices into a mini food processor/Ninja/stand blender. Add steeped tea. Blend for 30 seconds-1 minute until creamy and combined.

3.     Pour mixture back into pan and heat to desired temperature, whisking occasionally as needed.

4.     Pour heated latte into mug and top with whipped cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar, if desired.

This was so delicious.

I wondered if I could use the same method with coffee. I tried it later by simply swapping out the tea for the same amount of strong coffee. It was also very good, though I preferred the spice of the tea working in conjunction with the pumpkin pie flavoring. 

As a dessert-y type drink or even a bridge over the mid-afternoon slump, it’s lovely all on its own. Though you’d get no judgment from me if you chose to pair it with a couple pumpkin pie biscotti, too. 

In fact, go ahead and order it all. You’ll take coffee, tea, AND bis-cot-ti! 

That’ll be all, Cynthia.

**I have no affiliation or relationship with any of the brands mentioned or linked in this post. All opinions and experiences expressed herein are my own.**