Homemade Iced Chai Latte

Looking to recreate the Starbucks iced chai latte? This homemade iced chai latte is so much better and will make you swear off Starbucks for good. It’s flavorful, lightly sweet, and packed with all the aromatic notes of a traditional masala chai. 

And unlike Starbucks, this iced chai latte recipe is refined sugar-free, dairy-free, and made with better-for-you ingredients. 

Side note, I do want to point out that this iced chai latte isn’t made the traditional way. Instead of brewing the chai in milk, I like to make a batch of chai concentrate to mix with my vanilla cashew milk whenever I want a chai latte. This method works best for plant-based milk, so the milk doesn’t separate when brewing. 

Sidenote, the cups in these images are the Everyday Cups from the first release of my capsule kitchen collection, MWM at Home. Linking them here! 

But First, What is Chai? 

Essentially, chai is made by brewing black tea in milk and then sweetening it with sugar. My dad taught us the traditional way to make it (will share that recipe soon), however, my brother and I have found that steeping the tea in water to make a concentrate works better for making iced chai. 

Most chai is traditionally made with no spices, just milk and sugar. But the most popular variation is masala chai (aka spiced tea). I like my chai with whole cardamom, a tiny pinch of ginger, and salt (which is not traditional, but it amplifies the flavors). 

Iced Chai Latte Ingredients

Here’s everything you’ll need to make this homemade iced chai latte recipe. 

• Loose leaf black tea: Going in-depth into black tea recommendations here. 
• Coconut sugar: Granulated cane sugar or date sugar both work well as a substitute. 
• Whole cardamom: Whole cardamom pods add so much more flavor to the chai than ground cardamom (which is usually stale anyway). 
• Ginger powder 
• Kosher salt: Just a small pinch of salt amplifies the flavor in the chai so much. 
• Any creamy milk, like cashew, almond, regular milk, etc.

A Few Important Notes 

Just a few tips to make the best-iced chai latte ever!

• Use good quality loose-leaf black tea. The black tea you use is super important and not all of them are created equal. I highly recommend using Darjeeling loose-leaf tea; linking a good brand here. Darjeeling has the best full-bodied flavor which is perfect for an iced chai latte. However, if you can’t find Darjeeling, I’d recommend any English Breakfast loose-leaf tea. Quick note, don’t use Early Grey as it’s flavored with bergamot and will ruin the overall flavor of the chai. 
• Steep the tea according to the package instructions. Black tea, just like green tea, will start to become bitter and release tannins into the water if steeped too long. The tea I use recommends 7 minutes of steeping time and no more. This will vary depending on which tea you use, but 6-7 minutes is a good benchmark for how long to steep your tea.
• Don’t use store-bought milk, instead make my vanilla cashew milk. Most chai lattes use whole milk or half-n-half, which is why they taste so creamy and good. That said, you won’t achieve that creamy texture with store-bought plant milk. It’s just too watery! That said, my cashew milk and almond milk comes very close to the creamy texture of whole milk and will give your chai latte the same mouthfeel. 

Can’t wait for you to make this iced chai latte. If you make this recipe, please leave a review and rating below. And if you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below or send me a DM on Instagram. 

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