The Starbucks Chai Tea Hack To Know Before You Hit The Drive-Thru

As delicious as homemade oat milk chai tea lattes are, Starbucks' versions just hit different — and there's a good reason why. The chain uses a specific chai tea concentrate in all of its drinks with this flavor, which includes black tea, classic spices like cardamom, black pepper, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and star anise, sugar, honey, ginger juice, vanilla, and citric acid. However, a venti Iced Chai Latte from Starbucks can set you back $5.95, before adding on syrups or sauces.

If you're a chai fanatic but don't want to dish out that much dough each time the craving hits, there's a shortcut you can take to save a little cash. Instead of getting the regular venti drink, which comes with six pumps of chai, order a version with 12 pumps instead. Doubling the amount of flavor won't affect the price of your drink, but you'll essentially be stocking up on the concentrate so that you can make your own iced chai lattes at home. To make sure your cup isn't diluted with water, request no ice as well.

A grande Iced Chai Latte from Starbucks comes with four pumps of the concentrate, while a tall comes with three. So if you request 12 pumps in your venti, you can essentially get two ventis, three grandes, or four tall iced tea lattes from just one order. All you have to do is store your cup in the fridge and dilute your concentrate with milk at home. You may want to get your Starbucks order with the same type of milk you have at home — and you can choose from any of the chain's options, which include 2%, whole, almond, and coconut. If you prefer your chai lattes to have a bold flavor upgrade like mocha, brown sugar, or pumpkin, feel free to add syrup or sauce pumps in here as well, although this will bump up the cost a bit.

Price-wise, this hack also works for the hot Chai Lattes at Starbucks. A venti with the regular number of pumps of chai costs the same as a venti with 12 pumps. However, this gets a little trickier because this drink is also made with water, steamed milk, and milk foam, which may not hold up so well in the fridge. You can opt for no milk foam and for warm milk instead of steamed — but since you'll be chilling your cup anyway, we'd advise sticking with the iced beverage for this hack.