Starbucks Copycat Chai Tea Latte Recipe

Starbucks Copycat Chai Tea Latte Recipe

Today we are making a Starbucks Copycat Chai Tea Latte Recipe! This drink is a delicious blend of strong black tea, aromatic spices, creamy milk, and a touch of sweetness. Perfect for those cozy mornings or as an afternoon pick-me-up, this homemade version will rival any store-bought latte.

The Starbucks Chai Tea Latte actually originated from the traditional Indian “Masala Chai,” which has been cherished for centuries as a spiced tea infused with rich history and cultural significance. However, note that chai tea latte actually means tea tea latte, because the word chai means tea in Hindi! Specifically, you’ll want to ask for masala chai if you’re in India.

By preparing this chai at home, you can experience the true essence of the authentic flavors that make up the most popular drink in the country. The combination of black tea and different spices like cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, and ginger creates a mesh of flavors that will transport you to the bustling streets of India!

Why You’ll Love This Starbucks Copycat Chai Tea Latte Recipe

Freshly Made: This masala chai doesn’t use any pre-made syrups or the popular Tazo chai concentrate – which makes it a lot more flavorful than just a Starbucks copycat recipe. Instead, we take fresh spices and boil them all together, letting them steep with the tea bag for a few minutes to infuse the flavor. Then the mixture is strained and served, using all fresh ingredients! Additionally, all of these fresh spices contain numerous health benefits and boost immunity, so it’s great to incorporate these into your daily diet for an immunity boost.

Authentic Indian-Style: Drinking masala chai in India, and with Indian families all over the world, is a daily ritual. It’s like drinking coffee – up to multiple times per day! This easy recipe for masala chai uses all the warm spices that are traditionally used in India, and you can customize it to your liking. For example, my parents prefer not to add cinnamon, cloves or star anise into their tea. However, I occasionally add all the warm chai spices I can find, because I enjoy the depth and the strong chai flavor they provide.

This recipe doesn’t use cinnamon or star anise, because those are not commonly used in restaurant-style Indian chai tea, which is an authentic “tea latte.” However, you can add in ground (or fresh) cinnamon, or star anise for a more licorice flavor.

There’s many different varieties of tea bags, spice combinations, sweetness level, milk and other ways you can customize your chai. Once you make this on the daily, you’ll get a better idea of what flavors you enjoy more, and can customize it as such.

Substitutions: Milk & Sugar

Milk: Oat milk works great in this tea because of its slightly sweet and nutty flavor. However, another kind of milk like cashew milk, almond milk or another plant-based milk may be a substitute. To keep it refined sugar-free, choose your favorite milk of choice that does not contain any added sugar. I don’t recommend soy milk or coconut milk in this recipe, as they provide a stronger flavor when heated as compared to more neutral milks, like oat milk.

Maple Syrup: You can control the amount of sugar as desired in this drink. Some chai drinks prefer completely unsweetened tea, others prefer it with a lot of sugar! Xylitol, agave nectar, cane sugar, brown sugar, coconut sugar or another sweetener of choice can be used. Note that the flavor of individual sugars will change the taste of the chai slightly, and that using brown sugar will not make this recipe refined sugar-free.

Substitutions: Tea Bag

Tea Bag: Starbucks uses a similar version of the Tazo classic chai concentrate in their drink, but since we’re making it fresh without the use of any pre-made mixture, we will be using a tea bag. You can use either a black tea bag, or chai tea bags which can be found at Indian grocery stores, like this brand.

There are many different versions of tea bags, or loose leaf tea, used in India. Assam and Darjeeling black teas are the most popular chai base to use. Tea leaves themselves are made using different methods, but the CTC – Crush, Tear, Curl – processing method produces the best quality black teas to use here. Other options can be to use regular black tea bags such as those sold from Tim Hortons, which are not specifically the quality used for Indian-style tea, but can make a delicious latte nonetheless.

You can also use loose leaf black tea, you can use about 1.5 tsp of loose tea to substitute for one black tea bag.

Substitutions: Spices

Star Anise: Also known as star aniseed, this is actually a sweet, dried fruit from the Asian evergreen tree. It’s flavor is similar to black licorice candy!

Cinnamon Stick: Using a fresh stick of cinnamon adds extra warm spices into the chai. A pinch of cinnamon powder can be used as well, but the flavor of the fresh stick is preferred.

Black Cardamom: The Hindi word for this is also badi elaichi or kali elaichi. It is an Indian spice that is a member of the ginger family and adds a pungent flavor.

Green Cardamom: This is another spice from the ginger family, which has a fruity and spicy flavor. In this recipe we use both green and black cardamom. However, you can omit black cardamom and just use green if desired.

Ginger: Use fresh ginger, not dried ginger powder. You’ll want to use a fine-hole grater to make it as fine as possible.

Cloves: Cloves are a sweet and aromatic spice, which add an extra depth of flavor into the drink. You can omit these if you don’t have them.

Starbucks Copycat Chai Tea Latte Recipe Notes

• Traditionally, Indian masala chai lattes don’t use whipped cream on top. You usually drink it without any toppings, with a biscuit or a snack on the side!
• Add a half to one shot of espresso into the drink to make it a dirty chai latte instead of regular masala chai. Start with a half shot and add more as desired.
• To make this hot drink frothy, use a milk frother after pouring the tea into a mug.
• A mortar & pestle are commonly used to crush the spices for chai. You can substitute this by putting the spices under a cloth or in a Ziploc bag. Then crush the spices with a rolling pin. However, using a spice grinder as in this recipe will make for the best flavor!
• Black cardamom, fresh cinnamon sticks or a small piece of star anise can be added for additional flavor.

More Recipes You’ll Love

Cinnamon Dolce Latte

Cardamom Rose Latte

Chai Hot Chocolate

Iced Black Tea Lemonade

Cardamom Milk (Elaichi Doodh)

Iced Chai Tea Latte

If you make this Starbucks Copycat Chai Tea Latte Recipe, then leave a comment and star rating! Don’t forget to tag your photos @peanut_palate on Instagram. Enjoy!