As summer’s hot, muggy days slowly get cooler, a slight chill usurps the night air, and a light breeze lifts and twirls a few fallen leaves above the sidewalks. A signature smell wafts from within open coffee shop doors.

It’s the smell of cinnamon, clove, nutmeg and allspice.

It’s the smell of chai tea.

And whether organic, home-brewed, served chilled or hot, this beverage is a favorite at local coffee shops – including Global Village on Hillsborough Street.

“It’s probably the most requested drink after our latte,” Mike Ritchey, owner of the coffee shop and chai tea enthusiast, said. “Some people call it ‘Christmas in a cup.'”

Global Village’s house blend is organic and contains black tea, nutmeg, allspice, clove, ginger, cinnamon, cardamon and black pepper. Ritchey said, though the shop orders it from a “master tea” company, it’s not from concentrate – the shop brews it daily and serves the chai with steamed milk and various flavored syrups.

And one can’t expect the same chai tea everywhere – each version is different, whether it be a dash more cinnamon or no black pepper.

“One of the unique things about a good chai is the combination of ginger and black pepper,” Ritchey said. “The black pepper adds a spiciness and heightens the flavor of the other spices. Most people don’t expect it though.”

Though Ritchey said heavily spiced drinks do tend to be suited to cooler weather, customers don’t necessarily need to be curled up in a sweater to enjoy one. On its menu, the shop includes iced chai tea – a beverage that can help customers battle the unrelenting heat of summer days.

But with two times the strength of regular tea, chai is, according to Ritchey, becoming one substitute to the customary afternoon pick-me-up no matter the season.

“Chai is a fuller-flavored alternative to coffee in the afternoon,” he said. “It really works for people.”

Chai: the components

History

The plant from which tea is made was originally from Western China and the Easternmost parts of India. Chai itself is a combination of the tea culture that has existed in India for about 5,000 years.

“India has always used spices in food, so that makes sense that India was [the first place] chai was first used,” Gabriel Harris, an associate professor of food science, said.

Ingredients

Black teaCinnamonNutmegAllspiceClovesGingerCardamonBlack pepper

Brewed and served with:

Steamed milkHoney, or various flavored syrups

How to prepare it

Chai tea is best prepared with fresh tea leaves and spices. After mixing the spices and tea, add boiling water and strain the whole ingredients from the liquid. Mix tea with steamed milk and honey.

These four main components — black tea, spices, steamed milk and honey — are essential in a chai. However, black pepper is only necessary in that it preserves the taste of the spices.

“Having the peppercorns in there with all the different flavors would give a kind of spicy bite to the tea,” Harris said. “If you took out certain things — cinnamon, cloves, cardamon — you would lose the flavor of chai itself.”

And chai tea won’t be the same without each of these spices.

“There are teas with just ginger and cinnamon,” Harris said. “It’s the combination of those spices that really make a chai. If you left out a couple of those, you would start to lose the special flavor that the chai has.”

How it’s best served

Chai tea tastes best served hot and not in concentrated form. If the tea is prepared ahead of time, some flavor — and smell — will be lost.

“It’s not going to be nearly as good,” Harris said. “So many of those spices have a great aroma. Flavor is made up of taste plus what we can smell. When you’re talking about something that has all these nice smells, when you have a cold drink you really won’t get that much.”

Potential health benefits

Antioxidants

Antioxidants found in black tea and some spices sacrifice themselves in order to guard the body against free radicals — molecules that can damage some cellular components, including DNA. However, these antioxidants are fragile and, when left sitting out or put into a concentrated form, they lose potency.

“The reason [antioxidants] work is that they’re very reactive and are able to inactivate free radicals,” Harris said. “So if you just leave them sitting, it is very possible that a lot of those compounds can be lost. You lose health benefits if you produce concentrate, package it and store it for a month.”

It is best to prepare the tea fresh in order to preserve these beneficial components. Once put into hot water, their strength could be lessened or even lost — antioxidants are susceptible to damage and are destroyed very easily.

“When you by the dry spice, when you buy the dry tea leaves, these compounds are very safe when you store them in a dry place,” Harris said. “They will stay stable and safe for years. But as soon as you put them in hot water, the clock starts ticking — a lot of those chemicals will be gone the next day.”

Reduction in the risks of diseases, cancer

Black tea could, potentially, reduce the risk of heart disease.

Some caffeinated beverages may reduce the risk associated with exposure to sun, slightly reducing the risk of skin cancer.

Cinnamon, one of chai tea’s main spices, appears to have some benefits regulating blood sugar, and may help people — such as those with type-two diabetes — who cannot properly regulate their blood sugar.

Hindering these benefits

However, adding milk to chai tea could potentially reduce some of these health effects.

Drinking the tea from concentrate could also cause the spices and tea to lose beneficial antioxidants.

Sources: Gabriel Harris and Mike Ritchey