Chai Syrup | Sweet & Spiced Sweetener That’s Perfect For Coffee and Tea

If you love the taste of chai you’ll love this chai syrup recipe. This chai syrup can be added to your choice of milk either hot or cold to create a delicious chai tea latte, a flavored milk cold foam or you can add it to your espresso and some milk to create a dirty chai latte. You can also use this delicious syrup for creating other fun drinks and adding a chai flavor to your desserts or meals such as topping it on pancakes or crepes!

Chai is the perfect combination of sweetness and spiciness to add to any of your favorite things. Just imagine relaxing by the fire on a cold fall night and having your own hot chai tea latte to enjoy and it’s even better knowing you made it yourself!

This Post is all about creating the perfect chai syrup that can be used in chai cold foam, chai lattes, chai frappuccinos, Boba, milk teas, and more!

Commonly Asked Questions For Chai Syrup

What is Chai syrup made of?

Chai simple syrup like any simple syrup is made from sugar and water. The chai flavoring will come from a chai spice mixture, chai tea herbs, or chai tea bags. You can also add extra flavoring such as vanilla extract and use different types of sugar such as white sugar or brown sugar.

What is in Starbucks chai syrup?

Starbucks chai syrup is made from several spices such as star anise, pepper, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and black tea. This mixture is a typical mixture used to create a homemade chai flavoring.

Does Starbucks have Chai Syrup?

Yes, Starbucks calls it a chai concentrate according to their ingredients list under chai tea latte on their website but it’s essentially a chai syrup. This chai syrup is generally added in pumps to your drink like any other Starbucks syrup or concentrate.

What brand of chai syrup does Starbucks use?

Starbucks uses its own Teavana classic chai tea concentrate mixture made from a spice mixture and black tea. Teavana is a tea brand owned by Starbucks so it only makes sense for them to use their own chai syrup. The brand Starbucks used previously however was Tazo, specifically the Tazo classic chai latte concentrate.

How is a chai latte made at Starbucks?

A chai latte at Starbucks can be made hot or iced and is made from a chai tea concentrate and milk. The chai tea concentrate is made from a spice mixture, of black tea, and vanilla. The concentrate is added to the drink in pumps and is pre-sweetened so it can make your drink very sweet. If you don’t like super sweet drinks you’ll have to ask for fewer pumps of chai, the only downside to this is that you lose out on some chai flavoring when you ask for fewer pumps.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• Full of flavor and versatile syrup can be used in a variety of recipes for different purposes such as sweetening tea, creating cold foams, and flavoring boba.
• Non-dairy recipe
• Can be adjusted based on spice preferences, we prefer an authentic spiced chai flavor and thus wanted a stronger taste in ours.
• Syrup can be frozen for a longer lifespan of 3 months, we recommend storing it in a small container and pulling out what you need.

What’s in Spiced Chai Syrup?

Star Anise

Cloves

Cardamon pods

cinnamon sticks – cinnamon is a crucial component of spiced chai and is full of antioxidants and anti-inflammatory ☺️

black tea

black peppercorns

ginger

brown sugar

vanilla extract

water

Spiced Chai Simple Syrup Recipe

Equipment

• Small saucepan
• measuring spoons
• measuring cups
• spoon to stir
• storage jars safe for freezer
• fine strainer or cheesecloth over a mesh strainer

Recipe Calls For

• 1-star anise
• 4 whole cloves
• 4 cardamom pods crushed
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 3 black tea bags
• 1/2 tsp black peppercorns
• .5 inch piece of ginger
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup light brown sugar

How to make it

1. Gather and measure out ingredients.
2. Turn on the stovetop to medium heat.
3. In pan heat water until boiling.
4. Once boiling add cloves, cardamom, star anise, ginger, peppercorns, brown sugar, and cinnamon sticks. Lower heat to medium heat and let simmer for 15 minutes.
5. After 15 minutes remove the pan from heat. While still hot add in black tea bags to brew for 5 minutes and stir in vanilla extract.
6. After 5 minutes remove black tea bags.
7. Strain the syrup through a mesh sieve to remove all spices.
8. Let the syrup cool, as it cools it will thicken.
9. Once cool, store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 weeks or freeze for up to 3 months,

Recipe notes:

• This recipe calls for either homemade or store-bought chai syrup. We highly recommend making homemade syrup as they have a decently long shelf life and you can adjust any and all seasonings and sugar levels to your liking. You can also add any additional
• For the spice level, you can increase or decrease the number of black peppercorns to make the syrup more or less spicy.
• You can also decrease the amount of water if you would like to make a thicker more sauce-like syrup or change the concentration of the flavoring. Less water will mean a thicker more flavorful syrup. While more water will create a thinner more diluted flavoring.
• Play around with the recipe and add other flavorings like pumpkin spice, vanilla, hazelnut, etc.
• This chai syrup can be stored in the fridge for about 3-4 weeks. If you wish to lengthen the shelf life you can freeze the syrup for up to 3 months.

If you love Chai check out our other chai-related recipes below!

Try this Chai syrup recipe and add it to your favorite milk, your favorite dessert, or to flavor your morning coffee. If you try it let us know what you thought of it or what you changed to make it even better!