Indulge in a Starbucks Dirty Chai Latte at Home!

I have to admit I’ve never heard of this until last year when I got requested to make one on YouTube (heh, sorry for being late, but better late than never! Please send me your recipe requests and I will get around to it eventually!). Turns out that a dirty chai originated purely by mistake. In the 1990s in England, an American tourist had ordered a chai latte at Convent Garden. However, the barista accidentally added a shot of espresso to the beverage, but the customer agreed to give it a go and it was a hit! Now this latte is popular all over American coffee shops!

As I mentioned, this recipe was a request that I’m finally going to check off my bucket list! If you’ve always wanted to make your own version of this famous latte, then be sure to check it off your bucket list too as part of your Live to Cook one-month challenge! You can get started for free by signing up to my newsletter, plus all of my new recipes will be delivered right to your inbox so you never miss out!

To see how to make this coffee shop favourite, check out the video! If you’re not already, please subscribe to my YouTube channel and don’t forget to hit the bell button to be notified when all of my videos go live! I love sharing the videos to go hand in hand with the written recipes! Let’s get brewing!

This drink is coined “dirty” because adding espresso with the chai changes the chai’s colour. Chai is normally a light pale brown, but then the espresso or coffee makes it a dark muddy brown. No negative connotation against coffee here!

There’s no official listing for the ingredient list of this latte at Starbucks since it’s a secret menu item. However, this is how you order it on the Starbucks app: You choose a typical chai tea latte which by default is made with the following:

• Milk
• Milk foam
• Chai syrup/concentrate
• Water

If we go into the ingredient list of the standard chai latte, this is what we have:

MILK, WATER, CHAI TEA CONCENTRATE [AN INFUSION OF (WATER, BLACK TEA, CARDAMOM, BLACK PEPPER, GINGER, CINNAMON, CLOVES, NATURAL FLAVORS, STAR ANISE), SUGAR, HONEY, GINGER JUICE, NATURAL FLAVORS, VANILLA, CITRIC ACID]

Source: Starbucks.com

So the chai flavouring comes from that chai concentrate, which contains tea, aromatic spices, sweetener, ginger juice, and vanilla.

Then, when you customize your latte, simply add a shot of espresso. I actually did this to test out the drink and I chose the blonde espresso since it has a subtle sweetness, and it really complemented the chai flavour. If you want a “double dirty” chai, you add two shots of espresso.

To order the drink inside a Starbucks location, you can ask the barista for “dirty chai latte” or “double dirty chai latte” - he or she will know what you mean!

Turns out, however, if you want to save some bucks, you should actually order a standard latte and then add your desired number of chai syrup pumps. It seems this hack is only available in the US, as I (among others) don’t have the option to add chai syrup into a caffe latte.

It’s a bit difficult to describe, but I find that this latte is extremely fragrant and warm! You’ve got the best of both worlds - a smooth espresso combined with the warm Indian spices all melded together with rich milk and that amazing milk foam. If you’ve never tried it, I really recommend you do! Perhaps it’ll be your new favourite latte!

I wouldn’t recommend having this drink too close to bedtime for sure. Black tea contains caffeine, with a cup of chai containing about 50 mg of caffeine. Actually, according to Starbucks’ nutrition information for their chai tea latte, a grande (16 fl oz) contains 95 mg of caffeine. Depending on the strength of your espresso, a shot can contain 29-100 mg of caffeine. At Starbucks, a single shot of espresso is 75 mg of caffeine. The recommended limit of caffeine per day is 400 mg, so we’re looking at close to half of that in the chai latte if your espresso is on the stronger side. Depending on your tolerance, maybe this is the only caffeinated drink you want to enjoy today, especially if you’re going to go for a double dirty latte!

To make this drink, I’ll use black tea leaves. Black tea leaves are authentically used when making chai. However, if you already have some tea bags on hand, then feel free to use those. I give more details in my Make Cooking Fun! free guide to explore your potential in the kitchen, you should have an awareness of what’s in your pantry and finish those ingredients before going out of your way to get new things! Feel free to use your tea bags for this recipe if you already have them, but if you’re working with an empty pantry and need to go grocery shopping for this recipe, then I recommend the tea leaves.

As I always do with my latte recipes, I’m going to be using whole milk. Whole milk will give a very creamy and rich base and will get you an incredible milk foam. You can use lower fat milk if you want, but I’ve really mastered my hot drinks by using whole milk. It does make the difference!

For plant-based milk alternatives, my recommendations are coconut milk and soy milk. These milks are on the creamier side and will give you a consistency that’s similar to that of full fat cow’s milk. You can substitute with almond milk (bonus points if you make your own almond milk!)or oat milk if that’s what you have and want to use, but because they are lower in fat, your latte will be thinner. Additionally, I really don’t like oat milk that much because the strong “oat” taste is distracting from the wonderful ginger and spices going on in our chai!

You can use a handheld frother to make the milk foam in your latte, but you don’t need it! Of course, if you have an espresso machine that will froth milk, then lucky you! However, here are some alternative options:

• French Press: Add steamed milk to a French press and simply pump the plunger up and down a couple of times to froth up the milk. You can pick one up for as little $10.
• Electric frother: Handheld frothers, the kind I have, can go for as cheap as $10. On the other hand, electric frothers can go up to $100.
• Whisk: Some elbow grease and a good whisk can really be all you need to make great frothed milk. The cheapest alternative, you can find one for as little as $5.
• Steam Wand: This is the ultimate investment if you are really serious about your coffee. These can range from $100 to $1000 depending on the features of the model.

Without a fancy frother, you can heat the milk in a saucepan or in the microwave. I heated my milk directly in my measuring cup, and frothed the milk with a handheld frother directly in the cup.