Starbucks Soy Chai Latte | THE VERDICT

Hello!

"I am a huge fan of masala in my chai, and this drink definitely had it."

It has been a while since a Starbucks Verdict has been made on BBXO. In fact, the last was in the festive season during the Red Cup phase! Oh, the good ol' days!

The weather in England has been quite confusing, I'm talking very sunny but freezing, and Spring showers occasionally popping into the equation. What more than a Chai Latte to get us through the day?

I am Indian, so if anyone knows what a Chai Latte should taste like, it's us! Let's put it this way: Starbucks did not disappoint. The kick of ginger was incredible, and the warmth of the drink made me feel 10x better! I am a huge fan of masala in my chai, and this drink definitely had it.

So, you may ask: Why the soy milk? Well, I love watching a bit of MissGlamorazzi, a.k.a. Ingrid, on YouTube and remember her raving about the Iced Soy Chai Latte, however, the other day when I ordered, it was pouring down with rain and I couldn't bare to have an iced tea, so went with the warm version. It was incredible. The frothiness of the soy made the drink taste very yummy!

The verdict: Starbucks, you've got it down to the T (T, tea, geddit? Oh the puns!) with your Soy Chai Latte. Nicely done!

If you're a fan of ginger and spice in your tea, get a soy chai latte next time you're in Starbucks - you can thank me later ;)

Have you tried teas in Starbucks? If so, what's your favourite?

Recipe: My FAVOURITE Chai Tea Latte

Hello!

I am OBSESSED with Chai Tea. Not just any chai tea, but MY chai tea latte - with fresh flavours and all authentic-ness!

My family and I have separate teas in the morning - the same type of tea, just made differently. Loads of people find that extremely weird and at first my family did too! There are so many ways of making chai tea lattes - most of which I have not tried such as the Iced Soy Chai Tea Latte from Starbucks or Iced Chai Tea Lattes in general....

My Chai Tea Latte may seem like 'effort' to make but to me its worth it!

Recipe:
- 3/4 cups water
- 1/4 cups milk of choice (personal favourite: Almond milk)
- 1 teaspoon black tea leaves (or 1 teabag)
- little bit of Ginger
- 3 Cloves
- some Cinnamon
- dash Black Pepper
- smaller dash Nutmeg
- some Cardamon

Method:
- add water, boiled to make it quicker, spices (except cardamon) and tea leaves on stove
- let it boil and boil up a little, when it does, add milk
- add cardamon
- keep on stove until it boils up again
- then it's done!

Well, as you can see not all of the ingredients are very precise... that's because I just kind of throw things together - what I really like about this recipe is that it's very flexible. If I feel like having more cinnamon then I'll add more cinnamon, if I want more ginger, I'll add more ginger! It's very good that way (just make sure you don't add too much nutmeg and black pepper, it can go terribly wrong)!

You may find this not nice at all but I love it. To be honest, I don't use these exact measurements as I'm quite cheeky and make 2 cups out of this... yes, 2 cups JUST FOR ME! I love this and recently have been having it at least once a day (technically twice a day as I make it yield 2 cups - but I have 2 cups at once, so once a day? This is all way too confusing!). The way I make it 2 cups is by adding more water and milk but leaving the spices the same.


Anyway, now that it's autumn and the weather is colder, it feels even better to sip on this!

The way my family makes chai tea latte with 1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup milk (cow's milk), 1 tsp tea leaves, 2 tsp sugar per cup (as well as a pinch of ground chai tea spice)! If you want to try that, its nice too - mine's just a little extra and has a lot of spices!

What's your favourite morning drink? Are you a coffee or tea drinker?
Leave a comment!

Weekly Roundup #3

Hello!

Welcome to the THIRD of the series of Weekly Roundup, where I roundup my week for YOU. Does that remind you of all of the lawyer shows out there when they say 'We'll fight for YOU.' anyway...

This week was quite eventful in the kitchen for me... I made a bunch of things I had never made before such as Chili Con Carne, Cheese and Onion Pasties and.... *drumroll*

GRANOLA! I really like oatmeal/porridge but in the summer I tend not to lean towards it but more towards the cold cereals, granola includes a range of dried fruit, nuts and seeds as well as cooked oats. The way I made this was by layering oats and some nuts and seeds in the oven and 'stirring'/mixing it around every couple of minutes until the oats turned a golden brown. I then added some honey and let to cool. It turned out quite nicely, but next time I think I'll add the honey first. I actually received the idea from the Sorted Food boys, who are so fun to watch on YouTube! This granola included pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, almonds, peanuts, dry dates, raisins and cashews - a range of vitamins and minerals which is great for your body. As well as that, there were no added sugars other than the natural sweetness of honey - unlike shop bought granola, this is very healthy for you. If you would like a full post on this, let me know!

Speaking of health benefits, I was scrolling through my twitter feed and found this image:

Image from HERE

It lists the benefits of certain types of teas! I LOVE chai tea lattes - which is Black Tea with spices - I had no idea that it is great for those with diabetes! This may seem a little weird but I am SO interested in diabetes, production of insulin and all that, although nobody in my immediate family is diabetic, other than my uncle, who I don't see everyday. Come to think of it, he does drink black tea 3-4 times a day, hmm, maybe that's why! Anyway, I have been having my chai tea latte fix almost everyday this week, maybe I should have feautred that in this weeks roundup! Oh well, maybe next time? If you haven't tried Chai tea latte, you should! Honestly, you will not regret it! It also has a range of health benefits from various spices as well as the black tea base itself. I've heard the Starbucks Chai Tea Latte with soy milk is good!

Finally this is me with a face mask on.

I haven't done a face mask in a VERY long time, and oddly enough, I decided to do one at 2am in the morning. Basically we went to a party and I came home at 2am but wasn't sleepy. So when I went to do my usual face routine, instead of putting on my moisturiser, I put on this face mask and left it on while I read my book. It was quite relaxing yet very odd of me to do so at that time of day - well, night. Anyway, it was fun! haha!

Well, that was my weekly roundup - don't forget to check out last weeks roundup featuring cute animals, moustaches and yummy food/treats!

Keep blooming, berries!
xoxo, BerryBloomXO