Oat Milk Chai Latte Recipe

If you love chai lattes but really want to break your Starbucks habit, this oat milk chai latte recipe from food stylist and recipe developer Michelle McGlinn is just what you need!

Chai is a spiced tea drink that originates in India. According to Al Jazeera, tea came to India as a byproduct of colonialism. Worried about their trade relationship with the Chinese, the British began cultivating tea in the Assam state of India during the mid-1800s. A first, tea was predominantly exported from India to Europe, but during the Great Depression, the Assam Tea Company began to heavily market tea to Indian consumers. In response to British tea culture, Indians made chai their own, adding spices, milk, and sugar.

This recipe walks you through how to make a chai tea concentrate, and how to use that concentrate to make a delicious, oat milk chai latte. While you can use any kind of milk, according to McGlinn, oat milk is the best option for a non-dairy chai latte. "Oat milk is my favorite milk alternative," she says. "It is dense and creamy. I personally love the 'extra creamy' plain oat milk. I think it is great for cooking and drinking and mimics the density of cow's milk really well!"

To make your chai latte concentrate, you'll need water, maple syrup, whole cloves, cinnamon sticks, star anise, cardamom pods, black peppercorns, nutmeg, orange peel, black tea, and oat milk.

If you don't have one of the above ingredients on hand, it may be tempting to use ground spices instead, but McGlinn doesn't recommend it. "I wouldn't use ground spices for this," she says. "The concentrate will be grainy because the ground spices can't really be strained out."

To make a chai latte with your concentrate, you'll also need oat milk and ground cinnamon.

Whisk the water and maple syrup together in a saucepan over medium heat. Once the maple syrup has completely dissolved, lower the heat to a simmer.

Add the cloves, cinnamon, star anise, cardamom, peppercorns, nutmeg, and orange peel to the water and simmer for 20 minutes. Remove the saucepan from the heat and add the black tea bags. Let the tea bags steep for 10 minutes.

After the tea has finished steeping, strain the concentrate into a jar. To make a chai latte, heat ¾ cup of the chai concentrate with 1¼ cup oat milk.

This ratio can be adjusted depending on your taste. "To make the chai tea stronger, add less milk," McGlinn says. "To make it more creamy, add more milk."

Once the milk and chai concentrate are hot enough, pour the mixture into a mug. Serve the latte with ground cinnamon and frothed oat milk, or just drink it as is. McGlinn also has a few ideas for more adventurous toppings, though. "You can also top with whipped cream (though this won't be dairy-free unless you use coconut whipped cream), chocolate shavings, or shortbread cookies," she says. "And you can always garnish with a star anise — just don't eat that!"