Chai Tea & Kenny G
After a busy stretch, today was a perfect day to have as a “Rhyming Hygge” to unwind with some wonderfully paired Christmas favorites that go together perfectly on a cold winter’s night. Today, we celebrated “Chai Tea and Kenny G.”
We've always enjoyed Kenny G's Christmas songs from his albums "Miracles" and "Faith," but had never realized how popular they've become. “Miracles: The Holiday Album” is the 3rd best-selling Christmas album of all time, surpassing even Bing Crosby, Mannheim Steamroller, and Vince Guaraldi. It's only behind Elvis’ “Elvis’ Christmas Album” and Mariah Carey’s “Merry Christmas.” Since its release in 1994, “Miracles” has sold over eight million copies.
And what better pairing for Kenny G than chai tea? The origins of this spiced black tea go back more than five thousand years, initially being used as a medicinal drink. It was in the mid-1800s that the British popularized the current variation by adding milk and sugar. Chai tea's popularity has grown ever since, with variations including spices like cardamom, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, and black peppercorns, and sometimes vanilla, nutmeg, star anise, or fennel.
We celebrated the day with chai-spiced maple sugar cookies, chai-spiced candied pecans, and chai-spiced pretzels, enjoyed alongside a selection of holiday chai tea and chai nog. All throughout, we listened to Kenny' G’s Christmas album on vinyl and savored the scents of a cinnamon chai woodwick candle.
For fun and games, we played a word CHAIn game, navigating from CHAI to JAZZ and LATTE to FAITH. We also played a “Guess the Kenny G Christmas Carol” and see who could shout out the song that was being played first. The fact that the songs are instrumental and often have unique arrangements from the original carols made the game especially fun.
ACTIVITIES:
Cinnamon Chai Woodwick Candle
Word Chain (CHAI to JAZZ; LATTE to FAITH)
FOOD & DRINK MENU:
Chai Spiced Pretzels
Holiday Chai
INTERESTING READS & CONTEXT:
