A rich cup of chai, blended with just the right spices, is a beautiful thing. Learning how to brew chai tea at home with the right balance of black tea, spices, milk and honey gives you the tools to recreate your coffee shop favorites on demand.

The word “chai” just means tea, but for many of us, it evokes a creamy and spiced chai latte. The Yuan Dynasty inspired the modern English and Indian milk tea tradition that grew into the chai latte of today. Should you put milk in chai? Milk tea is nearly as old as tea itself - do what tastes best to you!

Chai is often made with strong-brewed Assam black tea, but we find that malty, chocolatey, and flavorful black teas like Laoshan Black yield rich results. These base teas are paired with spices like cardamom and clove, then mixed with milk and sweetener like honey.

Ready to make your own spice blend for the perfect chai? It’s all about balance!

When you start, every spice has its own smell, but a successful blend comes together to form something new - an integrated sensation that exceeds its parts. The freshness and origin of your spices will make a huge difference to proportion, so take the time to source good ingredients and experiment with proportions!

If you want a caffeine-free chai spice, avoid herbal tisanes like cocoa, guayusa, and more.

After years of working to find the perfect spice blend to complement our favorite chocolatey black tea, we created our Auburn chai spice recipe. Our blend includes over 15 different spices, including unique “secret” additions like saffron and tulsi.

For a basic chai spice, start with the classic spices below and balance them to your liking. They are listed in recommended order from the most to least by weight, so include more of the spices at the top (cinnamon, ginger) and less of the spices at the bottom (peppercorn, clove). 

• • Cinnamon

• • Ginger

• • Cardamom

• • Peppercorn

• • Clove

The best base tea for a spice chai blend needs to taste great on its own! 

For best results, a loose leaf chai tea base should have flavor that stands out even with milk, and it should be rich enough to bring together all the spices. A chai tea base should not be bitter or drying. Blended chai isn’t about covering up your tea; it's about your tea boosting the spices, the milk, and the honey.

Choose teas that have been sourced with care and stored properly.

Some of our favorite teas for chai include:

• • Laoshan Black Tea - malty sweet black tea with chocolatey flavor
  

• • Gong Ting Shu Pu’er - a strong fermented tea from Yunnan

• • Hand-Fired Qianjiazhai Black - with crisp floral notes and big texture

Wondering how long to steep chai tea or how to prepare chai tea with milk? Let’s get brewing! The best way to prepare chai tea helps you keep a rich, strong brew that still comes out creamy and balanced.

Step 1: Prep Ingredients

Before you begin, you’ll need your base tea (we use Laoshan Black), your chai spice (we use the Auburn blend), sweetener and milk. Honey and almond milk work very well, but you can adjust based on your preferences.

You’ll also need a pot, a strainer, a heat proof bowl and a measuring cup to hone your ratios.

Step 2: Get the Chai Cooking

You want your chai tea brewing temperature to be a full boil. Use one cup of water per 12oz mug serving (the rest of the liquid will be milk). Add 5 grams of chai spice for every cup of water.

To brew two 12oz mug servings, heat 2C of water to boiling, then add 10g of chai spice.

Cover and simmer for ten minutes.

Step 3: Add Your Base Tea

Next, add 8 grams of your base chai tea leaves per cup of water.

Allow to simmer gently for two minutes, and remove from heat. Allow the pot to sit for four more minutes while the leaves steep.

To brew two 12oz mug servings, add 15g of tea leaves to the simmering spice mix.

Step 4: Strain Your Tea

Pour the entire mixture through a strainer into another pot or heat proof bowl. 

Depending on the size of your batch, a tea strainer can work as a very fine strainer for this purpose. The best chai tea leaves like Laoshan Black are whole leaves, so they won’t block your strainer.

Step 5: Add Milk and Honey

For an ideal chai tea to milk ratio, add ¼ cup milk per cup of chai base and bring the liquid to a low simmer before serving. Add honey to taste.

• • Almond milk is a tasty dairy alternative

• • Heavy cream makes the most traditional chai

• • Coconut milk is a rich alternative

Want a powerful chai concentrate you can add to other hot drinks, use in baked goods, desserts or even cocktails? With a few adjustments you can make a double-strength concentrate to keep in the refrigerator for all your favorites.

The trick? More tea and spices with longer brew times:

• • Boil 2 cups of water, add 15g of chai spice blend and simmer for 30 minutes

• • Add 15-20g of base tea, simmer with the spice mix for another 4 minutes, allow to infuse off the heat 8 minutes

• • Strain, then add 2 ½ tbs of honey while the concentrate is still warm. Do not add milk

• • Use immediately, refrigerate for later use, or freeze into chai ice cubes

Serve with your favorite milk at a 2:1 ratio milk to concentrate, or use as an ingredient in cocktails and mocktails, poured over ice cream, and more.

Makes two cups of extra strong concentrate. If sealed and refrigerated, use within one week. If frozen, use within one month.

Can you brew chai tea in milk, or do a chai tea cold brew?

Unfortunately, you can’t heat milk as hot for as long as you need to get the most flavor out of your tea and spices - that’s why a concentrate works best. You can definitely cold brew your tea and spices for an iced spiced black tea, but a hot brew creates a more versatile concentrate.

All tea tastes better served out of beautiful tea ware. Half the fun of drinking tea is in the tea set you put together. Maybe it's an antique handed down to you, or simply a favorite mug - just make sure that if you put in the work making great chai, you present it in a way that makes you happy!