-- Download 10 reasons why you should love poetry as PDF --

From coffee house slams to sidewalk chalk, poetry is booming –  especially in Tucson. In celebration of National Poetry Month and the 32^nd Tucson Poetry Festival, we give you ten reasons to love it. By Gillian Drummond.

Photo courtesy of Words on the Avenue

Ask Tucson poet and DJ Logan Phillips why this city is so poetry-rich and he tells you it’s to do with the desert itself, our other-worldly landscape. It lends itself to introspection, says Logan, and in turn, to words. “It has something about it that causes people to stop and think and look at the sky and question what we are doing here and why things are how they are. There is a lot of silence and a lot of sky.”

There is also a lot of noise, literally and figuratively. “It’s so, so vibrant,” says poet Elizabeth Salper of Tucson’s poetry and literary scene. “Everyone is a collaborator and there’s a real feeling of creating and doing new things.”

Elizabeth does her part by delivering poems to her neighbors’ sidewalks, riding around her midtown neighborhood on a bicycle with a basket full of chalk. Logan does his through spoken word poetry programs that reach into Tucson’s schools and coffee houses. Both are examples of why poetry matters in Tucson, and why Tucson matters in poetry. Here are some more:

Top and above: the UA Poetry Center is impressive for its architecture as well as its poetry collections. Photos by Robert Reck

1. The University of Arizona Poetry Center.  Since opening in 1960 (with a dedication by Robert Frost), the University of Arizona Poetry Center has built a collection of 70,000 items and brings poetry to more than 8,000 Arizona school students every year. It helps teachers with lesson plans and adults with community workshops. Plus, it’s a gorgeous place to visit. The current building, designed by Les Wallach and Line and Space, has won several architectural awards for its use of light, inside/outside spaces and for the overall design,  based on the ‘progression towards solitude’ as it moves from busy public spaces to quiet areas of contemplation.

Logan Phillips, poet and DJ. Photo courtesy of Logan Phillips.

2. It’s hip (and hop). Hip hop has changed the landscape for poetry. The overlap between rap and spoken poetry, and poetry and music, is wide. In Tucson alone there are Ezra Letra, Queens-born and UA-educated poet and rapper, as well as Logan Phillips, who when he’s not writing poetry is DJ-ing as DJ Dirty Verbs. Poetry came first for Logan, whose new poetry book Sonoran Strange came out in January. The DJ-ing came about as a way for Logan and fellow poets to provide entertainment after readings and performances. Logan says being a poet has made him a better DJ, and that the two sometimes combine. “I think I do use the mike more than most DJ’s and try to be conscious of how I’m playing and what I’m playing, just like in a poem.”

3. The Tucson Poetry Festival. This year’s festival is spread over three days at Hotel Congress and will include poets Claudia Rankine and Bob Holman among the speakers. But don’t be shy if you don’t consider yourself a huge poetry fan. Writer, artist and the festival’s executive director Teré Fowler-Chapman says one of her aims is to make the festival accessible to all.  “And hopefully someone will leave a big fan.” More at tucsonpoetryfestival.org

Cafe Passe Words on the Avenue

4. It’s enticing the young folks. And let’s face it, when Tumblr and Snapchat are the competition, holding the attention of our youth is no mean feat. Somehow, though, poetry is doing it. Teens are revitalizing the spoken word through poetry youth slams – where they share their poems, often addressing injustice and politics, through stand-up competitions. Here in Tucson, the favorite venue for poetry slams is Bentley’s House of Coffee and Tea, where members of the Tucson Youth Poetry Slam meet monthly between Fall and Spring. The rules: they must be under 19 and their poem must be no more than three minutes long. (The 5th Annual Tucson Youth Poetry Slam Championship takes place Saturday April 18th).

Why all the interest in poetry among the younger generation? “They want to be heard as an adult and as a people. Poetry gives [them] a good way to do that,” says Tere who, with Logan Phillips, teaches creative writing at Eastpointe High School in Tucson. “The biggest thing young people [want] is to be heard and respected for thoughts. If you can share it through a poem it’s received differently.”

5. It connects us. Logan is also a co-director with Sarah Gonzales of Spoken Futures, Inc., whose after school program Liberation Lyrics uses spoken-word poetry to address social justice issues. He says: “The promise of connections through technology was a false promise in a lot of ways. Technology can connect us to people. The question is, what is the quality of that connection? People are seeking a more genuine human interaction and that is storytelling that has been around for as long as we have been.”

Elizabeth Salper , above and below, with one of her poetry chalkings in a midtown neighborhood of Tucson. Photo by Gillian Drummond

Photo by Gillian Drummond

6. It’s a happy thing. Elizabeth Salper, a Tucson librarian who grew up in a poetry-rich household in Los Angeles (her father Donald has the blog Living with Language), knows how happy poetry makes her feel, how much it can change her mood. “I think sometimes poetry taps into a moment that might change someone’s day. Something alters. That’s what poetry can do, it can alter and lift you up.” That’s why she began her email newsletter The Wednesday Poem, which sends a poem to subscribers each Wednesday for free. And it’s why she recently started chalking poetry in Broadmoor, a Tucson midtown neighborhood. She carries chalk in the basket of her bicycle and print-outs of short poems she finds online – many of them Tweetable lengths. “It’s fun [for neighbors] to chance upon them. It’s unexpected. Everything is so lined up these days that I love the surprise of this,” she says.

7. There’s a Tucson poet laureate. Who knew? Her name is Rebecca Seiferle and she teaches college, as well as holds workshops for middle- and high-school students. Rebecca, who has published her own award-winning poetry, was appointed by the Mayor’s office. Which explains a lot, since…

Tucson’s Mayor Jonathan Rothschild is a poet. Photo by Cybele Knowles

8. … Tucson’s Mayor is a poet. Mayor Jonathan Rothschild is a member of the American Academy of Poets and the Poetry Society of America, and author of The Last Clubhouse Eulogy poetry collection. His love of poetry began with his mother reading to him from Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses. He still reads poetry (although has little time to write it these days), and has read his own at Hotel Congress as part of the Tucson Poetry Festival.

Words on the Avenue is like an open mic night for poets and writers. Photo courtesy of Words on the Avenue

Words on the Avenue takes place at Tucson’s Cafe Passe. Photo courtesy of Words on the Avenue

9. Words on the Avenue. Comedians have open mic night, but what about poets? Thanks to Tere Fowler-Chapman, Words on the Avenue,  gatherings at Café Passé on Tucson’s 4^th Avenue, lets writers share their work. “I’ve seen so many people inspired by it,” says Teré of her project. Further down 4th Avenue, Casa Libre en la Solana also provides a venue for writers to read, as well as a place for workshops, meetings and residencies.

10. It’s portable. Part of National Poetry Month is the Poem in your Pocket Day, which this year happens April 30^th. Launched in New York City, the project is now national and encourages people to carry a favorite poem in their pocket and share it with people. In New York, staff at Poets House hand out pocket-sized poems on the streets to passers-by. For information and print-out poetry designs, visit poets.org.

* Find out more about the Tucson Poetry Festival at tucsonpoetryfestival.org

* Visit the 5th Annual Tucson Youth Poetry Slam Championship at Tucson’s Gallaher Theatre Saturday April 18th.

* Sign up for Elizabeth Salper’s Wednesday Poem here.

More Tucson poetry connections:

* Barbara Kingsolver, author and poet, began her writing career in Tucson, where she lived for two decades.

* Alison Hawthorne Deming, author of four books on poetry, two anthologies and four non-fiction books, lives in Tucson and teaches at the University of Arizona.

* Poet Richard Siken lives in Tucson, where he helps to run Spork Press. His first poetry collection, Crush, wowed critics and won awards. His second, and long-awaited, War of the Foxes, is imminent.

* The Writers Studio, founded by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Philip Schultz, has a location in Tucson, as well as San Francisco, New York and Amsterdam. It encourages poets and writers to “try on voices” until they find theirs. As well as face-to-face and online classes, The Writers Studio is getting ready to branch into middle  schools and high schools.

-- Download The point about Five Points as PDF --

The Five Points area of Tucson is on the up and up, and it’s thanks to a handful of trailblazers. Gillian Drummond reports.

The recently opened Downtown Clifton. Photo by Gillian Drummond

It’s little documented or lauded, a place to pass through rather than end up. Its main claim to fame, geographically and historically, is that it is a gateway to other parts of the city – namely the historic Tucson neighborhoods of Armory Park, Barrio Viejo, Barrio Santa Rosa and Santa Rita Park, and also Tucson’s downtown.

The area of Tucson known as Five Points – the junction around West 18th Street, Stone Avenue and South Sixth Avenue, and the strips north and south of it – has been somewhat invisible. Until now.

The main junction at Five Points, which brings five Tucson neighborhoods together. Photo by Gillian Drummond

“It really is this overlooked, neglected, unloved little area. It’s an area people have somewhat ignored,” says Moniqua Lane, who lives in nearby Armory Park.

Moniqua didn’t ignore it though. In fact, she coveted it. It has been her walking route for years and she says simply: “I have a crush on it.”

Inside the Downtown Clifton. Photo by Colleen Loomis.

She also has plans for it. Moniqua, a former lawyer who has turned her attention to property development, wants to help make Tucson “the best place it can be”.  A native Tucsonan, she gets tired of two things: seeing “interesting, intelligent, community-minded people” leave Tucson for places like Portland and Austin; and people coming to Tucson and calling it the next Portland or Austin. “I want Tucson to be what it is,” she says. And it seems, to her, that Five Points is a great place to start.

Moniqua has put her first stamp on the Five Points district with the recently opened Downtown Clifton hotel on South Stone Avenue, a place she co-owns with partners Phil Lipman and Clif Taylor. Clif used to live across the road on Kennedy Street two decades ago, and saw the building go through various states of disrepair. (It was formerly an apartment building and possibly a motel. Historic records on the 1948 building are sparse, says Moniqua.)

Inside the Downtown Clifton. Photo courtesy of The Downtown Clifton

Inside the building was “like a little treasure box”, says Moniqua: ceilings intact, concrete floors in need of just a polish, immaculate original bathroom tile. The exterior, though, was bland. “It was one of those buildings that just had no personality. So we decided to up the ante a bit and give it personality,” says Clif. If one were to describe that personality, it would be someone who loves the downtown scene but can never hang up his cowboy boots or his Stetson. A partyer and a cowpoke. An urban cowboy. In other words, Clif himself.

A mural by Tucson artist Danny Martin at the Downtown Clifton. Photo courtesy of Downtown Clifton

Clif took the property’s mid-century bones and ran with it. His vision seems to have been years – decades, even – in the making. An artist, filmmaker and musician who often performs under the name Chick Cashman, Clif grew up on “a pretty insane piece of ranch property” here, and that was the feel he was going for with the hotel. “It’s definitely got that little dude ranch in the middle of the city feel, without going too far. I didn’t want it to be precious and kitschy. I wanted to have it be this funky little outpost.” The ten rooms keep things simple, a mix of western and vintage, with Navajo-style blankets and mid-century modern furniture and accessories. On its website are the words “amigo friendly, rascal ready”. And, yes, the hotel is named after Clif.

Inside the new Bon boutique. Photo by Gillian Drummond

Much as she has had her eye on the Five Points area, Moniqua says firmly: “We are not pioneers.” The pioneers, the ones who saw the potential of the area several years ago, were Beth Jones, her sister Brooke Molla and Brooke’s husband Tellahoun Molla. Together they bought the building on the corner of Stone Avenue and West 18th Street that has been responsible for making Five Points a destination rather than a route. At the time, 2005, the building, a former rag factory, was condemned. Brooke and Tellahoun opened Ethiopian eatery Cafe Desta in 2008. It now also houses 5 Points Market and Restaurant and Bon boutique.

“It was a very cool building,” says Beth, a real estate agent who lives just down the alley from it. “And I knew it was a matter of time before this part of the city became what it is today.” But it took time for their vision to unfold. There was remodeling needed, and a search for just the right tenants. Taking their time was deliberate. “We had the luxury of really making sure that whatever we put in would benefit the building and the neighborhood.”

The opening of 5 Points Market and Restaurant has created a buzz. Photo by Gillian Drummond.

Beth showed the property to Brian Haskins and Jasper Ludwig, who had moved here from the Pacific Northwest. They were initially interested in opening their own restaurant, then got cold feet. “We had just bought our house and I’d never bought a house before. I felt like stability was important,” says Brian.

Photo courtesy of 5 Points Market & Restaurant

Then came a boat trip in the Grand Canyon. Brian and Jasper came back re-energized and newly ambitious. “We were like ‘We should do cool things with our lives, we should strive to be who we want to be’,” says Brian. 5 Points Market and Restaurant happened a matter of months later. Not only has it got visitors salivating over its brunches and googly-eyed over its stark but inviting interior of wood, steel and exposed brick, but it’s created a buzz. Two of 5 Points’ regulars, Crystal Flynt and her mother Bonnie, loved this street corner so much they recently relocated their Bon boutique to a spot just two doors away. Bon was formerly in Broadway Village. The same weekend as Bon opened, The Downtown Clifton had its opening party.

Photo courtesy of 5 Points Market & Restaurant

Crystal Flynt says neighbors have been popping in daily to thank them for moving here. “It’s definitely a great spot. It’s so diverse and it just feels very exciting,” she says of Five Points.

“When I was living here 20 years ago I always felt like this area was going to do something. It always looked like something could happen,” says Clif of the Five Points area. He witnessed two or three restaurants open and close and “a bunch of failed dreams”. But he felt like there was a will for it to succeed. He credits Café Desta and 5 Points Market and Restaurant with being catalysts. “5 Points Market and Restaurant is a very big reason why. 5 Points is so young. It really let people know you can let stuff happen here.”

Bon boutique moved to Five Points from Broadway Village. Photo by Gillian Drummond

You can bet that Moniqua Lane will be behind much of the stuff that happens. She and Phil also own a lot adjacent to their new hotel, on which they plan to build single family housing. And she wants to expand further up and down this Five Points strip.

Businesses in the area say neighbors have been mainly positive, although there have been some complaints about parking. Work is underway through the City of Tucson to improve sidewalks and pedestrian lighting at the Five Points intersection, and a $400,000 public art project has been approved. Clearly, the area is on its way.

Corky Poster, an architect and historic conservationist and principal of Poster Frost Mirto in Tucson, has been working on mixed income housing projects in the area and is helping 5 Points Market and Restaurant, Bon and Cafe Desta to transition into urban business parking zoning. “I think people are looking for another sub-center outside of downtown that becomes an extension of downtown,” says Corky. “Plus the land values are lower. There’s still going to be lots of small-scale neighborhood-friendly new development north of 18th Street on Stone and south on Sixth Avenue,” he predicts. “It’s the  beginning of some substantial growth.”

Photo by Gillian Drummond.

-- Download Growdown lowdown as PDF --

In the annual Growdown! competition, landscape designers compete to create a new space in 24 hours. Our gardening columnist Darbi Davis meets the finalists and finds out what’s new this year. (Scroll to the bottom for the winners.) Cover photo courtesy of Scott Calhoun

The finished space of a previous Growdown! winner, Zona Gardens. Photo courtesy of Scott Calhoun.

Growdown!, the 3^rd annual 24-hour garden design competition, breaks ground at the Tucson Botanical Gardens bright and early March 18^th, where three design groups – this year, all women – will wrangle for best in show. They have 24 hours over the course of three days to transform a 15’ x 20’ naked plot into a fashionable pocket garden.

Darbi Davis. Photo by Jen Long Photography

“We’re very excited about this year’s competition. Construction of our new visitor center forced us to relocate the event, which turned out to be a great change,” says Melissa D’Auria, TBG’s director of marketing. The designers will build their gardens in a shady ramada area called the “Sycamore Lot” – an added bonus for spectators viewing Growdown! construction and behind-the-scenes production at the gardens.

Growdown! 2015 is marked with change. Not only will it cultivate inspiration for your own outdoor space and offer some great designs, but there will also be garden art, water harvesting and mini-sessions where the finalists demonstrate techniques and DIY tips to take away. This not-to-be-missed forum begins promptly at 11 am each day (see details at below). We suggest arriving around 10:30 am to beat the crowds. Friday around 2pm marks the last hour of installation, when the air will be tense as they race to finish.

And finally, while the professionals are trenching the caliche, be sure to peruse the next generation of landscape architects in the student competition, also new this year. The dueling rivals  –  University of Arizona and Arizona State University –  have put their differences aside in honor of design in the desert. The top ten submissions will be represented in Growdown! and their final designs will be displayed for your viewing pleasure – right alongside the professionals.

Meet the Designers

This year’s competition is a battle of a seasoned suite of talented women who are used to transforming our Southern Arizona topography, from the High Desert Dragoon Mountains to the Sonoran Santa Cruz River.

Sonya Becker, Residential Landscape Design Supervisor at Northwest Landscaping, is a Tucson native who has been practicing landscape design for 16 years. Her favorite outdoors place to frequent is the Tucson Mountains. She hikes while studying natural desert forms, which are then reflected in her landscape designs.

Dara Widner, landscape designer and Beverly Wilson, landscape architect,  met while earning their Masters in Landscape Architecture from the University of Arizona. They have been friends ever since. Independently, they own design firms – Widner owns Stellaria in Green Valley and Wilson owns Mountain Oak Design in Cochise County.  They teamed up for Growdown! to demonstrate high desert design right here in the heart of Tucson (modified for our low desert canvas). Ask them their favorite outdoor designs and they both go for old favorites. Beverly has a heart for the Garrett Eckbo-designed space around the Tucson Convention Center while Dara enjoys our local designated arboretum, the University of Arizona Campus.

Margaret Joplin is a landscape architect, public art consultant and principal of Design Collaborations, where she mixes standard materials and simple form with desert flora and her signature handmade glass accents. Margaret is reluctant to say what her own favorite outdoors place is. She says she finds it hard to choose one, there are so many!

* Growdown! 2015 is at the Tucson Botanical Gardens at 2150 N. Alvernon Way Wednesday, March 18^th through Friday, March 20^th from 7am – 3pm. Judging, awards and designer/student forum will be held Saturday, March 21^st. The designs will be up through April 2015.

* Each of the three landscape designers competing for the 2015 Growdown! title will give a 30-minute presentation on one of the techniques they are using in their design. Wednesday, March 18 at 11 a.m: Sonya Becker shares some creative methods for designing interesting and beautiful passive water harvesting elements for your home garden; Thursday, March 19 at 11 a.m: Dara Widner demonstrates using pebble mosaic; Friday, March 20 at 11 a.m: Margaret Joplin reveals techniques for creating imaginative garden art from found items and industrial materials.

* Find out more about Darbi Davis at redbarkdesign.com

Added March 25th:

And the winners are…

1st Place and People’s Choice for Best Water Harvesting Feature: Sonya Becker, Northwest Landscaping

Photo by Jon D’Auria

People’s Choice for Best Garden Art: Beverly Wilson, RLA & Dara Widner

Photo by Jon D’Auria

Best Student Submission: Leslie Minervini and Sophia Essian (no photo available.)

-- Download Tucson tea party as PDF --

From peddling chai tea at a farmer’s market to a brand new manufacturing plant, Manish Shah and his Maya Tea Company have barely stood still. And with a stake in a new tea shop chain, there’s more to come. By Gillian Drummond. Cover photo courtesy of Maya Tea Company

Photo courtesy of Maya Tea Company

An Indian man selling tea in the Arizona desert. Manish Shah smiles at the incongruity of it.

But even though Maya Tea Company has its roots in Tucson, and even though its products are a familiar sight in the city’s restaurants and coffee shops, today Tucson serves as a base for something much bigger. The Maya Tea blends and concentrates are transported to around 40 states and more than 1000 restaurants.

Manish Shah. Photo by Jocelyn Warner-Brokamp

Demand is so high that the company just opened an 8,000 sq ft manufacturing and packing plant on the west side of Tucson – an expansion of an old warehouse building and a place that smells more delicious than possibly any business warehouse in existence. There’s plenty of empty space in the plant, and that’s deliberate. Manish has high hopes. He says he overbuilt because he’s anticipating even more demand.

One of his major clients is Tea2Go, a chain of restaurants he supplies with private-label loose leaf tea. The Lubbock, Texas based firm is growing mainly through franchises, with 13 stores open, 24 under construction and plans to be in 58 cities. A Tempe location will open this week, marking the company’s first move into Arizona. A Phoenix location opens in May and two Tucson locations in June (a third will follow on the University of Arizona campus in September).

Manish will have a stake in the first of the Tea2Go locations in Tucson, which will be corporate-owned rather than franchises. And with Maya Tea Company close by, the Tucson locations will be test beds for new products, says Tea2Go president Jeff Hunt. “We plan to try out our new Christmas line first, also some summer teas, like pomegranate,” says Jeff.

If the idea of Texans and Arizonans championing a cup of tea seems odd, Jeff points out that his company’s biggest seller is not hot tea but iced. “Iced tea in Texas is a huge deal.”

Photo by Gillian Drummond

It’s a huge deal in and around Tucson too, where temperatures are above 80 degrees seven months of the year, and hover around 100 degrees for three of them. Maya Tea Company’s second biggest seller is traditional black iced tea, which is big in restaurants. Its best seller, though, is the Maya Chai concentrate that helped launch him on his journey.

For a guy who began by peddling a loose-leaf chai tea blend at the Oro Valley Farmers’ Market  just north of Tucson, the growth of Maya Tea Company is impressive. So what’s Manish’s secret? “I think we do a good job of crafting teas that are real approachable. We use good ingredients. I think we’re just nice to deal with. We do business the right way.” Maya Tea’s slogan is “Serious tea for not-so-serious people”. He scoffs a little at how seriously other tea companies treat the product. “It’s just tea, chill out,” he says.

A collection of ingredients at Maya Tea’s new manufacturing plant. Photo by Gillian Drummond

That’s not to say Manish is chilled out, however. At the Tucson headquarters of Maya Tea, a blink-and-you-miss-it converted house on the city’s north side, he is polite, amenable and frank. He’s also busy. He may be sitting still behind a desk, but you can practically see the wheels turning in that entrepreneurial head. Much as he loves tea, Manish admits it’s business that he really loves. “I always thought I’d be in business in general. I would do this if it was something else [other than tea],” says the man who is also co-executive director of Heirloom Farmers Markets in Tucson.  Apparently it runs in the family. He shares his office with his father and brother, both investors. Next door is the bright blue retro motel that is Paul’s Hide-A-Way Lodge, formerly owned by Manish’s father and the place where Manish and his family grew up.

Mixing an apricot blend at Maya Tea’s new plant. Photo by Gillian Drummond

Three miles to the north of Maya Tea is Tucson Mall and the Dillards department store where Manish used to sell Ralph Lauren polo shirts and, during his down times, daydream about possible business launches and do a lot of sums on his calculator. He was still employed by Dillards when he began selling his tea at that first farmer’s market. The year was 1996 and chai tea was coming into vogue in the USA. Making a  good pot of chai was second nature to this child of Indian parents. During his childhood in Manhattan, he was preparing tea at an early age for a family who would consume three or four pots a day. Then came the family’s move to Tucson, a degree in psychology for Manish, a flirtation with coffee, then a renewed love affair with tea. He now favors oolong, which he makes simply by boiling a pot of water on a stove.

Matcha green tea powder. Photo courtesy of Maya Tea Co.

When Manish put together his first blend of chai – using ginger, cinnamon, vanilla, cloves, cardamom and black pepper – it wasn’t great at all, he says. “But people loved it. The second [batch] I fixed and improved, and by the third batch I got to where it was really good.” People at the farmer’s market began asking for more, and he added other blends.

Meanwhile, his day job wasn’t going well. “It was was 2001. We had 9/11. Business tanked. I was a little mouthy. I said a few things I shouldn’t have [at Dillards].” A financial gift from his family helped him pay off his mortgage and give him some breathing room to grow his company. For a while, he had another company manufacturing and packing his tea, but with the new facility in Tucson he’s bringing production back home.

Photo courtesy of Maya Tea Co.

Another successful blend for Maya Tea Co. is Prickly Pear, despite Manish’s initial opposition. He held firm on going the fruity tea route for a long time but his staff wore him down. “I thought it was gross. I don’t like my teas prettied up,” he says. He was also conscious about not getting too cliched: a southwest company providing a typically southwestern-style tea. Prickly pear is now one of their most popular products.

Maya Tea has been approached by another major tea shop chain to be a supplier. This one is in India. If it happens and Manish finds himself taking his tea product back to his home country, he’ll have even more to smile about.

* For more about Maya Tea Company, including recipes, products and accessories, visit mayatea.com

As we head into spring, find more ways to enjoy your tea with these recipes.

Chai Frappé – for day

Maya Tea Company shot glass, mayatea.com. Photo courtesy of Maya Tea Co.

1 oz  Maya or Devi Chai Concentrate

11 oz coconut milk, regular milk, soy milk, half and half
(or any combination of the above)

Blend with ice in a blender until smooth.

 and for night . . .

Chaitini 

2 oz Maya Chai or Devi Chai Concentrate

1 oz Baileys

1/2 oz Frangelico

Photo courtesy of Maya Tea Co.

1/2 oz Kahlua

1/2 oz vanilla vodka

1 oz half & half

Combine in a cocktail shaker with ice and shake vigorously. Strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with cinnamon ground or stick, vanilla bean or chocolate shavings.

(Source for Chaitini recipe: mayachai.com)