I’m definitely not a coffee drinker, but tea, tea I do!  I like a hot beverage in the morning especially on a crisp fall morning.  I love the idea of all those cool flavored beverages that all the cool kids order, but I just can’t stomach anything coffee.  So when in doubt, turn to pinterest!  I found a recipe for a home made pumpkin spice syrup that actually turned out pretty good.  Add it to chai and Pinterest Success!!

Step 1:  Start by making the syrup.  Not only does this recipe make a ton it stores in the fridge well and you can use it plenty of other things, like apple cider or coffee.

Pumpkin Spice Syrup orig from Annie’s Eats

• 1½ cups water
• 1½ cups sugar
• 4 cinnamon sticks
• 1 tsp. ground nutmeg
• ½ tsp. ground ginger (or put a little nub of peeled fresh ginger root in the water as it’s cooking)
• 4 whole cloves
• 2 tsp. ginger sugar (if you don’t have any ginger sugar, you can skip this. It just adds a little extra zip to the syrup.)
• 3 tbsp. pumpkin puree

Directions:

1. Combine the water and sugar in a medium saucepan and heat over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has completely dissolved.
2.  Toss in the cinnamon sticks and cloves, then whisk in the remaining spices and the pumpkin puree.
3. Continue to cook for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently, without letting the mixture come to a boil. If you screw up and it does accidentally come to a boil, I don’t think it’s that big of a deal — mine did and the syrup tasted fine!
4. Remove from the heat and allow to cool for 10-15 minutes.
5. Strain the syrup through a fine mesh strainer or cheesecloth and funnel into a bottle or jar.
6. Store in the refrigerator.
7. Sidenote: I like to leave a cinnamon stick in the bottle/jar

Step 2:  After you have your syrup ready, prepare some chai tea.  Any brand will do, I prefer Tazo Classic Chai Tea Bags.  I personally just seep one bag in about 4-6oz of water.  Or use the “small cup” amount on your Keurig.

Step 3:  Prepare equal parts of warm milk.  You basically want half tea half milk, so if you used 4-6oz heat 4-6oz of milk.  Heating the milk separately doesn’t make it get filmy.

Step 4:  Combine tea, warm milk, and 2-3 tablespoons of the pumpkin spice syrup and mix.

And there you go!  A perfectly spicy fall drink to enjoy while lounging in your perfect fall sweater, painting your perfect pumpkin spice mani on a perfect fall day doing basic white girl fall activities!