Chai Latte

The dirty chai is a chai latte with espresso added. That is the entire concept, summarized. The interesting parts are why it exists, what makes it different from the chai latte underneath, and why “dirty” is a perfectly normal word for “this drink has had one extra ingredient added to it.” Like a lot of American specialty coffee inventions, the dirty chai is the predictable outcome of a coffee-shop barista being told to make a chai latte while standing in front of an espresso machine that is already on. Someone, somewhere in the Pacific Northwest in the 1990s, asked the obvious question — what if the espresso went into the chai? — and the answer was good enough that it stuck. It is now one of the most-ordered chai variations in U.S. cafés, with a permanent customization slot on Starbucks’s chai tea latte SKU. ...

The iced chai latte is one of the most satisfying cold drinks you can make at home — and it’s dramatically cheaper and fresher than anything you’ll order at a coffee shop. The key is the concentrate. Make it yourself, and you control the sweetness and spice intensity. Use store-bought, and you’re paying for convenience (and a lot of added sugar). Here’s everything you need, including the homemade concentrate recipe and three variations. ...