If you love tea as much as you love coffee, this is the drink for you. A dirty chai latte is a combination of espresso and chai tea.
You don’t have to worry about it being complicated or time consuming. Making a dirty chai latte takes about the same amount of time as it does to make a regular latte.
As you wait for your espresso to brew in a moka pot, you can prepare the tea. So when you can’t decide between tea or coffee in the morning, you don’t have to choose anymore.
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What is chai tea?
Chai is translated to tea. (So saying chai tea is actually saying tea tea.)
It’s a black tea mixed with various spices like cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and cloves.
You may find different amounts of spices depending on the region or even household. Each family may have their own secret combination of the spices.
What is a latte?
A latte is an espresso based coffee drink. It consists of one shot of espresso with steamed milk and a layer of foam milk on top.
In our dirty chai latte, instead of using plain milk, we steep our chai tea in milk to give the latte its chai flavor.
Read More: A Guide to 20+ Popular Types of Coffee
How to Make a Dirty Chai Latte
A dirty chai latte combines the chai tea and latte.
You can make this in two ways. I prefer steeping the tea directly in the milk. It takes a little longer for the tea to steep, but it’s one less step.
The other way is steeping the tea in water, then adding milk to it.
Dirty Chai Latte Ingredients
- 2 ounces espresso (I used Blue Turaco coffee beans.)
- 1 ½ cups milk
- 1 teaspoon loose leaf chai tea (or two chai tea bags)
- Ground cinnamon
Step 1
Make 1 to 2 ounces of espresso. (I used a moka pot. Find out how to use a moka pot here.)
Meanwhile, heat milk over the stovetop. When the milk starts to simmer, turn off the heat and pour in chai tea. Steep for 15 minutes.
I used loose leaf tea leaves from PMD Tea, you can also use chai tea bags.
Step 2
Strain chai tea milk.
Another method you can do that takes less time is boiling ½ cup of water and steeping tea leaves in the water for 3 minutes. Then heat milk in a milk frother and combine the steeped tea and milk.
Step 3
Combine espresso and chai tea milk.
Step 4
Top with frothed milk and sprinkle ground cinnamon.
(I set aside a little of the chai tea milk and froth it with a milk frother.)
For an iced dirty chai, wait for espresso and milk to cool down before combining. Add coffee ice cubes.
Dirty Chai Latte Recipe
Dirty Chai Latte
Combine espresso with the spices of a chai tea.
Materials
- 2 ounces espresso
- 1 ½ cups milk
- 1 teaspoon loose leaf chai tea
- Ground cinnamon
Instructions
1. Make 1 to 2 ounces of espresso. (I used a moka pot. Find out how to use a moka pot here.)
Meanwhile, heat milk over the stovetop. When the milk starts to simmer, turn off the heat and pour in chai tea. Steep for 15 minutes.
I used loose leaf tea leaves, you can also use chai tea bags.
2. Strain chai tea milk.
Another method you can do that takes less time is boiling ½ cup of water and steeping tea leaves in the water for 3 minutes. Then heat milk in a milk frother and combine the steeped tea and milk.
3. Combine espresso and chai tea milk.
4. Top with frothed milk and sprinkle ground cinnamon.
(I set aside a little of the chai tea milk and froth it with a milk frother.)
For an iced dirty chai, wait for espresso and milk to cool down before combining. Add coffee ice cubes.
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