Whether from a local coffee shop, from Starbucks, or simply homemade, pumpkin spice chai lattes are the drink of the fall season.
One of the various places fans can get chai during the fall season is Starbucks. The Starbucks pumpkin chai is called the Iced Pumpkin Cream Chai Latte. The drink includes an iced chai base with pumpkin spice flavoring and is topped with pumpkin cream cold foam and pumpkin spice powder. Out of all the chais I tried, it was the sweetest. The pumpkin flavoring was artificial but tasted like the classic pumpkin spice flavoring. The drink was more on the expensive side costing nearly $7. All in all I would rate this chai an 8/10, it is definitely a classic, and nobody can wrong with an Iced Pumpkin Cream Chai Latte although it is a bit of a splurge when it comes to cost.
The second place I tried a chai was Fresh Pots Coffee Bar on Main Street in downtown Greenwood. This chai did not have a specific name, but I ordered a chai latte with pumpkin spice flavoring and pumpkin spice cold foam. Fresh Pot’s chai was not as sweet as Starbucks but had a more organic spicy taste, the pumpkin flavoring was more natural and I could tell it was not nearly as artificial as the chai latte from Starbucks. Overall, the latte tasted really good, and my total came out to only $5.50, which was much cheaper compared to the Starbucks latte and was really comparable. Overall tasting I would rate this latte an 8.5/10 because it was a good price and was less artificial than Starbucks.
The last chai I reviewed was the Tazo Chai Tea Latte concentrate available at most grocery stores. For this chai, I had to make it at home, but it was worth the work I put into it. The Tazo Chai Tea Latte Concentrate requires adding one cup of milk to one cup concentrate and then adding ice. I personally made a pumpkin cold foam using a tablespoon of pumpkin pie filling, three tablespoons of powdered sugar and three tablespoons of heavy whipping cream. Overall, the chai was somewhat artificial tasting but not as artificial as Starbucks. The chai was creamy and sweet and was a really good alternative for people looking to save money because it was only $4.5 for approximately six servings of chai. Overall, I would rate this chai a 7.5/10 because it did not taste as good as the coffee shop chai’s but was much more affordable.
Overall, my favorite chai was probably Fresh Pots Coffee Bar because of the affordability and overall taste. For me, it was the right amount of sweetness without being overly sweet. However, there is no way to go wrong with a pumpkin spice chai, they are the perfect fall drink.
