I had a revelation today!

I am not much of a tea drinker - in fact, I find it a rather disappointing drink. However, there are certain specialty teas I enjoy every so often. One of these specialty teas is the chai latte.

I usually never go for specialty drinks, but while I was studying abroad in Uppsala, Sweden, I found myself catching colds left and right. It seemed as though every other week I would have a runny nose or a sore throat, and obviously that was not very fun. There is a coffee franchise in Sweden called "Wayne's Coffee" that reminds me and many other Americans I traveled with of Starbucks. It has quite a few specialty drinks and is on the expensive side.

I walked into town and to a Wayne's Coffee one day while I was feeling under the weather. I had a sore throat for a few days and was in desperate need of something to soothe it. I asked the barista what they would recommend and they told me to try their chai latte. As previously mentioned, I usually do not enjoy tea beverages, but I thought I would give it a try. It turns out it was quite delicious - much sweeter than I would have imagined so I would not dare to eat any sort of pastry with it - and helped my throat massively.

From then on it became a ritual for me, whenever I got a sore throat or felt a cold coming no, I would head into town and order a chai latte from Wayne's. This was a hard habit to break, and as I moved back to the States I decided I should learn to make my own for sick days. I ended up just purchasing instant chai spiced tea. It is much like instant coffee and you can add it to a cup of warm milk or water if you prefer.

Yesterday I unfortunately ran a fever and had a terribly sore throat, so I decided to heat myself up some milk and mix in the spiced chai. However, at the same time, my boyfriend made a pot of coffee. It smelled so good that I was no longer in the mood for my spiced chai, but something more bitter and coffee like.

I ended up compromising and adding both instant coffee and the instant spiced chai to my warm milk. To my surprise, it was extremely delicious and truly the "best of both worlds", so to speak. This is the perfect drink for me when I am sick because it combines flavors that I love, coffee, with ingredients that have some kind of healing power over me and my sore throat, the spiced chai. If I ever open my own shop, I will definitely have this coffee added chai latte on the menu!