Since I just pulled out the rest of the ham from Thanksgiving out of the freezer brewing up a pumpkin chai just somehow seemed appropriate. Especially when you consider the fact that the dry blend really does smell like pumpkin pie. I was really surprised when I took a look at all the ingredients as I never would have guessed. Visually I could locate the ginger, cinnamon and cloves but this blend actually consists of black tea, rooibos, hibiscus, sunflower and calendula petals, apple, rosehip, almond, cinnamon, orange, ginger and cinnamon pieces. Coriander, cloves, cardamon, black pepper, nut oil and natural flavors.
Since I do tend to drink my chais with cream and sugar, I decided to make up the brew a little stronger using 2 1/2 tablespoons of blend to 5 cups of water. I set the water temp at 212 degrees and a steep time of 8 minutes. The resulting brew is a lighter brown with rings of orange around the top of the cup. The pumpkin aroma does fade out once brewed however the aroma is very warming with the scents of cinnamon, cardamon and cloves.
I first tried it straight and I was able to pick up hints of the pumpkin along with the lighter spice load of a classic chai tea. However to my disappointment added the cream and sugar almost completely overpowered the flavors. This is not a chai that I would pick up for my own personal use for that exact reason. For folks that prefer to drink their chai straight, this might just be the perfect chai.
