Arrogant and Dirty!

Today I went to The Arrogant Texan for a break between two appointments. I got my favorite table, right by the window where I can enjoy the sunshine. One of the guys working there had just read the blog this morning and we were chatting about it. I got the Coffee Almond Fudge Swirl ice cream, which was fabulous!!!!!! (I would put more exclamation points, but that gets annoying) I decided to try their Spicy Chai Latte and I was given the option to get it "dirty." I had recently heard of this so I knew what it meant, but he explained it because I hesitated. I wasn't sure if I wanted a shot of espresso in my chai, but I decided to go for it. All I can say, is wow!! The first thing I did after I sat down with my drink and ice cream, was to take off the lid and smell the chai. It had a completely unique spice profile, like I've never smelled before. I could see spices floating on the foam and I just knew that this wasn't the same-old-same-old chai. It smelled absolutely amazing (actually more like aaaaah-mazing)! I wasn't sure if I would like it with the shot of espresso. I thought it would end up kind of like using coffee instead of hot water to brew your tea (which my dad actually did one time when he was tired, but we didn't drink it!!!). Instead it just punched up the taste, similar to how bakers put coffee in chocolate desserts to make the chocolate taste more chocolatey (with no real coffee flavor carry-over). Between the amazing spice profile and espresso shot, the flavor was (to use a Guy Fieri term) "off the hook"!! It was like being instantly transported to some exotic location where the air itself is heavy and spiced. One little piece of Arrogant Texan whimsy that I mentioned previously was the expressions on the sleeves that go on the cups, which I discovered today are pre-printed at the beginning of the day (my favorite is "don't drop it like it's hawt"). By chance, I got the sleeve that says "Legendary!" and the sleeve was right, that dirty chai was legendary!!!.