What is a chai latte?
A chai latte is black tea brewed strong with warming spices, then stretched with hot, frothed milk. The cafe version is usually built from a sweet syrup, but when you make it at home with real loose leaf chai you get something richer: actual tea, actual spices and no mystery ingredients. It takes about fifteen minutes, most of which is the pan doing its own work.
What you need
The stovetop method below suits any good loose leaf chai. Our Smooth Chai blends black tea with cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, ginger and nutmeg, while our Wet Chai teams Ruhuna black loose leaf tea with star anise, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and cloves, all infused with organic Australian honey. Either works well. The wet chai is already moist and honeyed, so it sweetens the pan on its own; the smooth chai leaves the sugar level entirely in your hands.
The stovetop method
This makes two generous mugs.
- Bring two cups of water to the boil in a small saucepan.
- Add two heaped teaspoons of loose leaf chai and turn the heat down to a steady simmer. Let it bubble gently for four to five minutes so the spices open up. For wet chai, three to four minutes is plenty.
- Pour in one cup of milk and return to a gentle simmer, watching the pan so it does not boil over.
- Simmer for another two to three minutes, stirring now and then, until the latte is the colour and strength you like.
- Sweeten to taste if the chai is unsweetened, then strain into mugs through a fine sieve.
That is the whole technique: strong tea, spices given time, milk added near the end. Once you have made it twice you will not need to measure anything.
How strong should it be?
Because milk dilutes everything, chai needs to start stronger than an ordinary cup of tea. If your first attempt tastes thin, add more leaf rather than more simmering time; a long, hard boil pulls bitterness out of the tea without adding spice. The colour is a decent guide too. You are looking for a deep tan rather than a pale beige, closer to the colour of the finished latte in a good cafe than to a cup of milk with a hint of tea.
The quick mug method
No time for a saucepan? Steep a very concentrated cup instead. Use two teaspoons of leaf in about half a cup of hot water and let it sit for five to seven minutes, so you get a strong, almost syrupy base. Warm and froth half a cup of milk, then pour it over the strained tea. You lose some of the depth that simmering brings, but it is a fair trade on a busy morning.
Iced chai latte
Chai lattes are just as good cold. Brew the stovetop version, let it cool, then pour it over a tall glass of ice and top with cold milk. Because ice dilutes the drink as it melts, brew the base a little stronger than usual or start with slightly less water. The base keeps in the fridge for a day, so you can make a double batch in the morning and pour iced lattes all afternoon.
Choosing your milk
- Whole milk gives the classic creamy result and froths well.
- Oat milk is the easiest plant milk to substitute; it is naturally sweet and handles the pan well.
- Almond milk works but stays a little thin, so use less water to compensate.
- Soy milk froths nicely but can curdle if the pan boils hard, so keep the heat gentle.
Common mistakes
- Boiling the tea too hard. A rolling boil for a long time pulls out tannin and the latte turns bitter. Keep the simmer gentle.
- Rushing the spices. Those first four or five minutes of simmering are what turn spiced tea into chai.
- Using too little leaf. The milk asks a lot of the brew, so be generous.
- Sweetening only at the table. Sugar dissolves better while the pan is warm, though honey stirred in at the end is lovely too.
A homemade chai latte takes fifteen minutes and tastes better than most cafe versions, because you chose the tea and the spices yourself. Put the kettle on, find a small saucepan, and give one Saturday morning over to it.