Photo Credits: Toa Heftiba on Unsplash
Chloe Greer, Photo Essay Desk Lead
With the Christmas season officially here, so comes the beloved Gingerbread Chai lattes. Boone has several coffee shops to choose from and Gingerbread Chai Lattes to try, forming the question: “Which ones are the best?” Well, I went ahead and did the hard work for you. I chose three local coffee shops and ordered Gingerbread Chai at each one. I found my favorite, so you can save time and money.
Starting strong with Starbucks, I thought that this one may be my favorite. It had a very prominent cookie flavor, which was delightful at first. But after a while, I realized that it tasted more like cookies than ginger or chai. Since it was more cookie-flavored, it was also sickeningly sweet, lacking the herbal flavor that Starbucks chai lattes usually carry. I didn't think it was terrible, but it wasn’t the best. Overall, I give it a 6/10 since it was too sweet for me.
Hole-Lotta-Donuts, from the same owners as Ambrosia, was the second gingerbread chai I tried. This one resembled a more traditional chai flavor but lacked the “Christmas-y” gingerbread flavor the others so heavily carried. Even though it did have as much of the gingerbread spice as the others, I still really enjoyed this chai. I have had drinks from Hole-Lotta-Donuts before, but this one takes the crown. I gave this one an 8/10, it was delightful.
Higher Grounds has always been my go-to coffee shop, so I was really excited to try their gingerbread chai. At the first sip, this chai had a rich and warm full-bodied flavor. While I was skeptical that the gingerbread might become too sweet like the Starbucks chai, it did not end up that way at all. It seemed like the perfect combination of chai and gingerbread flavors. I give it a 10/10, my favorite out of the three that I tried.
Being a chai connoisseur, I was overjoyed to be able to try all of these different drinks. I would definitely recommend trying the Higher Grounds gingerbread chai latte, but Hole-Lotta-Donuts as a second place option is also a wonderful choice.
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