Spice Up Cocktail Hour with Alie & Georgia's Chai Fives

Alie Ward and Georgia Hardstark, a.k.a. Alie & Georgia, host Cooking Channel food-travel series Tripping Out with Alie & Georgia. Visit PEOPLE.com every Thursday for their playful spins on celebrity recipes, cocktails, entertaining ideas—and, of course, lots of laughs!

Let’s be honest: It’s been pumpkin spice latte season since late August. And you’ve already consumed your annual PSL allotment. We get it.

RELATED: Alie & Georgia’s Fall Solution: Serve it in a Pumpkin!

So to help out, we present one of our favorite Fall-ternatives (see what we did there?): the chai latte.

But any woozy autumnophile in a scarf can get a chai from a corner cafe, so we’ve elevated our version into a boozy, spicy creamy chai cocktail. And hey, the days are getting shorter, which means your 4 p.m. caffeine pick me up is no longer day drinking. You’re welcome.

RELATED: Vampires, Beware! Alie & Georgia Have 4 Ways to Get the Most of Your Garlic

Chai Fives

Makes 1 cocktail

This drink is like a chai latte’s evil twin, and that’s exactly why we like it.

6 oz. strongly brewed Chai tea, sweetened to taste or pre-made chai concentrate
2 oz. rum (dark or spiced preferred)
1 oz. cream or half and half

Garnishes
Freshly ground cinnamon
Freshly ground nutmeg
Crack of black pepper
Dash of cayenne pepper

1. Pour brewed chai or chai concentrate into a mug, then add 2 ounces of rum — light rum will work in a pinch, but dark rum will give it a deeper mollassas taste or spiced rum will play up the chai warmth.
2. Lighten it with cream, stir, and finish with some freshly ground cinnamon and nutmeg, or if you want a spicier finish use fresh black pepper and cayenne.
3. Sip, rejoice, repeat.

With that, we hope your march toward winter gets cozier with every ounce.

Chai-ing one on,

Alie & Georgia

RELATED: Hello, Fall! Alie & Georgia’s Caramel-y, Bourbon-Spiked Apple Cider

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