Three cups of Tipu chai tea

There are lots of things I LOVE about fall, and one of them is drinking delicious hot drinks while the air has a slight chill.  I drink plain tea all the time, and I am even starting to (gasp) drink more coffee too.
One of my favorite specialty drinks is chai tea.  Spicy, sweet and delicious.  There are many variations of chai, some more sweet, some more spicy.  Some taste authentic, some taste fake or too sweet.  There's a relatively new company, Tipu's chai, that makes some AMAZING chai blends.  Bipin Patel, the founder of Tipu's, knows chai.  He grew up in Uganda with his Indian family, and his grandmother from Gujarat, India made traditional Indian food and masala chai for his family.  He now lives with his own family in Montana and makes chai products based on his grandmother's recipe.

Tipu's chai offers many different kinds of chai that you can order on their website or find a store/coffee shop that sells it.  I tried 3 varieties of Tipu's: Chai now- all you need is water, Chai now-the simple life and Chai now- sweet and spicy.  All 3 were in a powder form that needed just water and/or milk.  One thing that I like about Tipu's is they use organic, quality ingredients.  There are no artificial ingredients, and you can taste the quality.  You can find Tipu's all over the country.  Denver/Boulder peeps- it is sold at Whole Foods and Vitamin Cottage!  Check it out.

Chai Now: All you need is water
This flavor was most like a latte, and very good.  It is made with Indian tea, spices, organic evaporated cane juice and non-GMO soy milk powder.  Since it has soy milk powder, you can still get a latte like consistency even though you only add water.  I thought it was a great blend of sweet and spice!  I think this one was my favorite.

Chai Now: The simple Life
This chai has just Indian microground tea and spices.  There is no sweeteners added.  It is recommended to add to a mix of water and milk with your own sweetener.  I used honey for a sweetener, and I used mostly water with about 2 oz of soy milk for this blend.  For me, this was the least sweet of the 3 flavors.  I personally liked the control of adding my own amount of sweetness and being able to choose what sweetener I wanted.  I want to experiment with stevia or truvia next time to see how sugar free sweeteners work with this blend.

Chai Now: Sweet and Spicy
This is similar to all you need is water flavor, but it doesn't have soy milk powder.  If you are a chai connoisseur and like to blend your own amount of water and milk, this would be a great mix to do this with.  If you want to keep it simple and just use water, chai now all you need is water is the better option.

Health benefits of chai
Chai offers more than just a delicious taste and has awesome some nutrition highlights.  The tea leaves are packed with antioxidants, and may help lower cancer risk.  Spices added like cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and nutmeg have been used for centuries for their health proponents.  They are thought to be beneficial for boosting the immune system and helping with some digestion problems.

Bottoms up to the chai!  Sweet, spicy and healthy.  Note some chai drinks can be high in sugar.  Choosing mixes or drinks that you can add your own sweetener, like Chai Now: the simple life, can cut down on sugar amount.  You can also use less amount of the chai mix and combine with more water/milk than recommended, depending on taste preferences.