Make The Chai Concentrate

1. Make the chai concentrate. Add the black tea, crushed cardamom pods, ginger, salt, and water into a pot. Heat the tea on medium-high heat, and once it’s reached a roiling boil (about 5 minutes), turn the heat off immediately and let the tea steep for 7 minutes or according to package instructions.
2. Sweeten, strain, and store the concentrate. Add the coconut sugar to the bottom of a large jar and then strain the tea into the jar using a fine mesh sieve. Stir the tea until the coconut sugar is dissolved, taste, and adjust the sugar as needed. Keep in mind that once the tea cools, the sweetness and other flavors will be more prominent. On additional note on sweetness, the pumpkin spice syrup is also quite sweet, which I why I recommend using 1/4 cup of sugar, but add more as needed. Store the tea concentrate in a glass jar in the fridge overnight before using. 

Pumpkin Spice Syrup

1. Simmer down the water, sugar, and pumpkin puree together. Pour the water, coconut sugar, pumpkin puree, and salt into a large pan or pot. Bring everything to a boil on high heat, then reduce the heat to medium. Let the syrup simmer for 6-8 minutes until reduced in volume and thickened.
2. Stir in the remaining ingredients, strain, and store the syrup. Remove from the heat and stir in the pumpkin spice, vanilla bean paste, or extract. Cooking vanilla tends to dilute its flavor, which is why I like stirring it in at the end. Additionally, the residual heat from the syrup is just enough to bloom the spices, not burn them. Strain the syrup through a fine mesh sieve or nut milk, then pour it into a glass jar and store it in the fridge until you’re ready to use. Quick note, if you want to be super accurate, after simmering, you should have 305 g of syrup, which is exactly half the total weight you’ll start with. 

Make Your Latte

1. Make your pumpkin spice chai latte. Pour 1/2 cup of the chai concentrate over a cup filled halfway with ice, followed by 1/2 cup of creamy milk and 2 tbsp of the pumpkin spice syrup, mix well and enjoy. 
2. Take the latte a step further and top with pumpkin cold cream. If you want to take this drink a step further, feel free to make a pumpkin cold foam topping. Froth together a 1/4 cup of any creamer with 1 tbsp of pumpkin spice syrup, then pour over top the latte. Quick note, the cold cream tends to dilute the tea flavor and make the drink milky, rather than tea-forward.