Sitting here as I am in a breeze that feels more fall than summer to me, I was struck with a craving for some kind of a sweet cinnamony beverage. Raiding our beverage cabinet, I happened upon some International Coffee's Pumpkin Spice Latte, but as I was heating the water to make it, I was put off by the fact that it had crystallized into one solid lump. I was already trying to avoid the fact that its ingredient list read like this:
SUGAR, NONDAIRY CREAMER (PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED COCONUT OIL, CORN SYRUP SOLIDS, SODIUM CASEINATE, DIPOTASSIUM PHOSPHATE, SUGAR, MONO- AND DIGLYCERIDES, PROPYLENE GLYCOL MONOSTEARATE, SALT, SOY LECITHIN, CARRAGEENAN, ARTIFICIAL COLOR, ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR), WHEY MALTODEXTRIN, INSTANT COFFEE, NONFAT MILK, CONTAINS LESS THAN 2% OF CINNAMON, GINGER, COCOA (PROCESSED WITH ALKALI) NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, CELLULOSE GUM, SODIUM CITRATE, SILICON DIOXIDE (FREE FLOW AGENT)
Aaaggh.
So I called to mind a certain comforting beverage I'd concocted before, which contained no unpronounceable ingredients but merely black tea, ground ginger, cloves, sugar, black pepper, water, and milk. I whipped up a batch of chai concentrate (which took literally less than five minutes), and combined it with cold milk for a beverage that was a charming blend of warm (in terms of spiciness) and refreshingly cool, a nod to the fact that it is still summer, even if my basement apartment is currently breezily autumn-ish. Eat your heart out, Starbucks. (But note: we do plan to take advantage of Free Viviannos this weekend!) And International Coffees. You can keep your pricey beverages, your dipotassium phosphates and your silicone dioxides!
I still admit a certain fondness for IC's Cafe Vienna, which has a slightly less bizarre ingredient list than the Pumpkin Spice, but that has more to do with nostalgia--the fact that some of my earliest memories are of my mother drinking it--than anything else. For taste, health, and economical reasons, I'll take homemade chai any day.
SUGAR, NONDAIRY CREAMER (PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED COCONUT OIL, CORN SYRUP SOLIDS, SODIUM CASEINATE, DIPOTASSIUM PHOSPHATE, SUGAR, MONO- AND DIGLYCERIDES, PROPYLENE GLYCOL MONOSTEARATE, SALT, SOY LECITHIN, CARRAGEENAN, ARTIFICIAL COLOR, ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR), WHEY MALTODEXTRIN, INSTANT COFFEE, NONFAT MILK, CONTAINS LESS THAN 2% OF CINNAMON, GINGER, COCOA (PROCESSED WITH ALKALI) NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, CELLULOSE GUM, SODIUM CITRATE, SILICON DIOXIDE (FREE FLOW AGENT)
Aaaggh.
So I called to mind a certain comforting beverage I'd concocted before, which contained no unpronounceable ingredients but merely black tea, ground ginger, cloves, sugar, black pepper, water, and milk. I whipped up a batch of chai concentrate (which took literally less than five minutes), and combined it with cold milk for a beverage that was a charming blend of warm (in terms of spiciness) and refreshingly cool, a nod to the fact that it is still summer, even if my basement apartment is currently breezily autumn-ish. Eat your heart out, Starbucks. (But note: we do plan to take advantage of Free Viviannos this weekend!) And International Coffees. You can keep your pricey beverages, your dipotassium phosphates and your silicone dioxides!
I still admit a certain fondness for IC's Cafe Vienna, which has a slightly less bizarre ingredient list than the Pumpkin Spice, but that has more to do with nostalgia--the fact that some of my earliest memories are of my mother drinking it--than anything else. For taste, health, and economical reasons, I'll take homemade chai any day.
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