Homemade Chai Tea Latte Mix Recipe

This chai tea latte mix is a dry, spoonable powder: unsweetened instant tea, vanilla-scented sugar and seven ground spices, from cinnamon, ginger and cardamom to a little white pepper. Chai is black tea flavored with warm spices, and a powdered mix puts all of it in one jar so a cup takes nothing more than hot liquid and a spoon.

The one unusual step is the sugar. Vanilla extract is worked into it, then the sugar is dried on a foil-lined sheet in a 200°F oven for 30 minutes so the finished mix stays powdery. After that everything is ground to a very fine powder in small batches of roughly 1 cup. The finished jar holds about 5 cups, enough for about 25 servings.

The recipe adapts easily. The instant tea can be left out and replaced by a freshly steeped tea bag at serving time, and the sugar can be replaced with a granulated erythritol blend or left out so each cup is sweetened to taste.

Homemade Chai Tea Latte Mix

A finely ground chai latte powder of instant tea, oven-dried vanilla sugar and ground spices. Makes about 5 cups; two heaping tablespoons make an 8-ounce cup with hot water or milk.

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

Cooling time 15 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr

Servings: 25 servings (about 5 cups mix)

Course: Beverage, Pantry Staple

Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

  

• 1 1/2 cups unsweetened instant tea regular or decaffeinated
• 2 1/2 cups white granulated sugar or substitute of choice
• 2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 4 teaspoons ground ginger
• 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons ground cloves
• 2 teaspoons ground cardamom
• 2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
• 2 teaspoons ground allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper

Method

 

1. Heat the oven to 200°F and cover a baking sheet with foil.
2. Mix the sugar and vanilla extract together in a bowl, then spread the sugar over the prepared baking sheet.
3. Leave the sugar in the oven until dry, about 30 minutes. Take it out and let it cool completely, about 15 minutes.
4. Once cool, crumble the sugar into a bowl and add the instant tea and all of the ground spices, white pepper included.
5. Grind the mixture to a very fine powder in a blender, food processor or coffee/spice grinder, working in small batches of roughly 1 cup. Let the dust settle for a moment before opening the lid.
6. Stir the ground batches together and store the mix in an airtight jar.
7. To serve, use 2 heaping tablespoons of the mix per 8 ounces of hot liquid: water, dairy milk or nondairy milk. Use a little more or less to taste.

Notes

Leaf tea version: leave the instant tea out of the mix and prepare the rest as written. For each cup, brew a black tea bag, or a tea ball filled with loose leaf tea, for about 5 minutes in a couple of ounces of hot water. Take the tea out, stir in 2 heaping tablespoons of the mix and top up with warm milk.

Sugar substitute: replace the 2 1/2 cups sugar with 2 1/2 cups of a granulated erythritol blend that measures cup-for-cup like sugar, mixed with the vanilla and dried in the oven the same way. Or leave the sugar out (see the next note) and sweeten each cup separately: liquid stevia or monk fruit drops add no sugar, while sugar, honey or agave do. A cup made with milk still contains the milk’s natural sugar.

Without sugar the mix is much more concentrated: skip the oven step, add a few drops of vanilla extract to each cup instead, and use about 1 tablespoon of the unsweetened mix per 8 ounces.

Storage: keep the mix airtight in a cool, dry cupboard and use it within 6 months, while the spices are fresh. Scoop it with a dry spoon, because moisture makes it clump.

Inspired by a recipe on Allrecipes.com.