How to make a chai latte at home, without a syrup

A chai latte is chai with more milk and a foamier top. That is the whole difference. Everything that makes it good or bad happens before the milk — in the decoction.

So the honest version of this article is short: make a strong chai, then treat it as an espresso shot.

The base, once

One level tablespoon of loose leaf — about 5 g — into ½ cup (120 ml) of just-boiled water. Cover it and steep five minutes. Strain. You now have a little under ½ cup of concentrated chai.

If you would rather make a week of it at once, our concentrate method gives you the same thing in a bottle.

Hot

Bring ½ cup (120 ml) of whole milk just to a boil — watch it, it rises fast and catches — then froth it. Pour the chai base into the cup first, then the milk over it.

For foam without a machine: put a third of the warm milk into a jar with a tight lid, shake it hard for fifteen seconds, and spoon the foam on top. A French press works better still — pump the plunger a dozen times. A handheld frother is cheap and is the least effort of the three.

Sweeten the base before the milk goes in, not after. Sugar dissolves properly in hot liquid and sits oddly on top of cold milk.

Iced

Fill a tall glass with ice. Pour in 120 ml of chilled chai base, then 240 ml of cold milk over the top. It will marble for a few seconds, which is the nicest part, then stir.

The base must be cold. Hot base onto ice melts half of it immediately and you have a weak, watery drink before the first sip. Make the base the night before, or cool it fast in a metal bowl over ice.

Better still: freeze some base in an ice tray and use those cubes instead of water ice. The drink strengthens as it sits rather than thinning out.

Dirty

A dirty chai is a chai latte with a shot of espresso. Pull the shot, add it to the base, then the milk. Do not go beyond a single shot in a standard cup — chai's spice and coffee's bitterness compete, and above one shot the coffee simply wins and you have a slightly odd latte.

What makes a home version better than the cafe's

Two things, and they are both about control.

Sweetness. A commercial chai latte is typically built on a sweetened syrup, so the sugar level is decided for you and it is usually high. At home you add sweetness at the end, by the spoon.

Strength. A cafe dilutes to a fixed recipe for consistency. You can make the base as strong as you like, which is the difference between a chai latte that tastes of tea and one that tastes of milk.

What will not work

Steeping a tea bag in hot milk. Milk is already saturated with fat and protein and does not extract tea or spice the way water does — you get a pale, faintly tea-flavored milk. Water first, milk after. Always.