Dirty Chai Tea Latte Recipe

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Dirty chai tea lattes have been one of my favorite drinks since I discovered them on the Starbucks “secret” menu, and they are a frequent go-to for me. Chai and espresso is the BEST combo. Iced or hot, dirty chai lattes are always a solid choice.

I definitely gravitate towards them a bit more in the fall, since the spices definitely give me all the fall feels. But trust me, its delish year round.

Although I love getting them out at Starbucks, or any coffee shop – and even if it’s not on the menu, trust me, any barista will know what drink to make if you order it!

BUT, it’s obviously much cheaper to make it at home, and it’s SO easy to do so! Explaining below how to make it either with espresso or with brewed coffee, depending on your preference and what you have on hand. Although with coffee I don’t think that is technically a latte, but I won’t tell the coffee police if you won’t.

My personal preference is with espresso because I love the espresso to chai to milk ratio going on, but its a delicious, spicy option either way.

A lot of the ratios are totally based on preference. I’ll explain how I typically make it, but you definitely can customize a lot of this to your preferences.

Dirty Chai Tea Latte Ingredients

Espresso or coffee

Chai concentrate or brewed chai tea

Milk of choice

Sprinkle of spice (cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice) if you’re feeling fancy

all the ingredients you need for a dirty chai latte

The Chai

You can definitely brew your own chai at home, using whichever chai tea is your favorite! If you do this however, you may want to add in some sweetener.

I prefer to use a concentrate so the drink is less watered down. Trader Joe’s is my personal favorite (note – it is strooong). But if you aren’t able to get your hands on that, there are other of chai concentrate options available!

Oregon Chai is what I see most often, typically in the coffee and tea aisle. I like theirs as well, and like that they have a few different options including ones that aren’t as sweet. You can purchase it online here. There are other chai concentrates to choose from here as well, if you’re looking to try something else!

The Espresso

We have a Nespresso that we love and use quite frequently. I think ours is one of the older models, but it’s just a basic version that makes the smaller espresso capsules. It’s been going strong for us for 4+ years!

I love the Nespresso brand capsules (Roma is a fave), but they can be a bit pricey. We’ve found that Peet’s are a good, cheaper option. I’ve found them to be the cheapest at Costco, but not a bad price on Amazon either. I love the Crema capsule, but whatever is your favorite will work great!

Lots of options to choose from for espresso capsules online if you’d like to browse around and see which you might want to try!

Miroco Milk Frother

I personally LOVE this frother. Easily my favorite addition to my coffee bar situation. Creates the most perfect foam for whatever drink you’re making. I love that it can do both cold and hot foam, and warms up your milk if you’re doing the hot foam version. It’s pretty affordable imo too, so you don’t have to break the bank to add it to your coffee situation.

However, if you don’t have a frother. That’s okay! There’s a little trick you can do to get a frothier situation happening. Just take your milk or cream into a jar with a lid, shake shake shake, and your milk will be much more on the frothy side 🙂