Chocolate Chai Latte
Ingredients
o 1 ½ cups milk
o 1 chai teabag
o 1 tbsp unsweetened cacao powder
o ½ tbsp maple syrup (optional)
o whipped cream
o pumpkin pie spice (or cinnamon)
Directions
1. Heat the milk and teabag in a small pot over medium heat.
2. When the milk begins to steam (after ~5 minutes), whisk in the cacao powder and maple syrup if using. Continue to heat and whisk the milk occasionally for 5 more minutes (lower the heat if it’s starting to boil).
3. Remove the teabag (after squeezing out every ounce of flavor).
4. Pour the drink into a mug then top with the whipped cream and sprinkled pumpkin pie spice.
I have “tea time” at 3 pm every day and this has been going on for almost a decade. There is simply nothing better than a warm cup of tea (or hot chocolate) in the mid-afternoon. I go through phases with the teas, for months it could be peppermint tea or earl grey or lemon ginger, but this recipe came out of my chai tea phase. I had sadly stopped making hot chocolate because the store-bought mixes have a staggering amount of sugar and I’ve never been able to successfully make my own at home with cacao powder. But I was making my chai latte one afternoon and thought, why not throw in some cacao powder? And honestly I think this is the best version of hot chocolate. The combination of cacao with the chai spices is heavenly.