Pumpkin Spice Chai Latte

Name: Pumpkin Spice Chai Latte
Ingredients: 3 Tbsp pumpkin puree; 1/2 tsp pumpkin spice; 1/4 tsp cinnamon; 1.5 cup water; 1/2 cup 2% milk; 2 Orange Pekoe Tea bags; 1.5 tsp raw honey

Recipes

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For all you PSL lovers out there, this one is for you! And if you’re wondering what a PSL is, within the context of October, it is the beloved Pumpkin Spice Latte!

It is pretty trendy to be walking around with a $4 seasonal latte in hand. While PSLs are delicious, they are not only pricey but also packed with sugar!

If you were to drink a Tall Pumpkin Spice Latte, you would be drinking:

330 calories
15g of fat
39g of sugar

In case you are not sure what 39g of sugar looks like, it is equivalent to 9.75 teaspoons of sugar! In one drink! Imagine putting almost 10 teaspoons of sugar in your coffee or tea. Crazy, right?

To put things in perspective, the World Health Organization recommends your sugar intake to be less than 10% of your total energy intake, which is about 12 teaspoons per day.

You might use the excuse that PSLs come around once a year so it is a treat to yourself. The thing with this perspective is that there is a specialty latte almost every month (and frappucinno in the summer months). Before you know it, you are downing sugar-filled lattes on a weekly basis.

All I am saying is that it adds up. If you are going to buy a latte, at least acknowledge that it is a dessert, not just a drink.

And if you are like me and must have a PSL during the fall season, this recipe for Pumpkin Spice Chai Latte is for you! I wanted to add in my South Asian flair to a classic PSL by making a PSCL – Pumpkin Spice Chai Latte.

I was never really a chai drinker but these past few months I have been drinking the occasional chai. Not just any chai though! I like mixing tea bag flavours, adding spices, and bringing out the milk foamer to make chai lattes.

If you don’t have a milk frother, I highly recommend you get one. You can find a basic milk frother one for around $10. It is one of my favourite kitchen tools because it makes a simple tea or coffee into a latte.

The traditional way to make a latte is to brew the tea on its own and then add the milk. I like to add in the milk while I am brewing the tea with the pumpkin puree and spices to create a creamier final product. I set aside a small amount of the tea and use the frother to create a desirable foamy milk. I then pour the tea into cups and top it with the foamed milk.

I highly recommend bringing out your fancy tea cups for this – it makes your Pumpkin Spice Chai Latte taste that much better!

As we get ready to say goodbye to October, this concludes my pumpkin series. If you plan on making these PSCL, use the remaining pumpkin puree to make Pumpkin Pie Granola or Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies!