Dirty Chai Latte
Dirty chai latte Say DUR-tee CHY LAH-tay
A café chai latte – black tea brewed with spices like cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and cloves, sweetened and topped up with steamed milk – with a shot of espresso added for extra depth and caffeine.
- ServedHot & Iced
- In EnglishSpiced tea latte with espresso
- TastesCreamy, Spiced, Sweet
About Dirty Chai Latte
A dirty chai latte is a chai latte that has been “dirtied” with espresso. The base is café-style chai: black tea with warming spices – usually cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and cloves, sometimes black pepper, star anise or vanilla – sweetened, typically from a concentrate or syrup, and topped up with steamed milk like a latte. A single shot of espresso is added, colouring the drink a darker brown.
The coffee gives the sweet, spicy chai more body and a roasty, slightly bitter edge, while the spices and milk soften the espresso. It’s a good halfway house for people who like both tea and coffee – and it contains caffeine from both.
It’s a Western coffee-shop invention rather than a traditional Indian drink, and is found on menus across North America, the UK, Australia and beyond, hot or over ice, often with oat or other plant milks.
In the cup
- Milk foam 15%
- Steamed milk 35%
- Spiced chai 35%
- Espresso 15%
Ingredients
- Espresso1 shot (≈ 30 ml)
- Chai concentrate (or strong spiced black tea)≈ 60–120 ml
- Milk≈ 180–240 ml
- Ground cinnamon, to dust (optional)a pinch
- Sugar or honey (if the chai is unsweetened)to taste
How to make it
You needEspresso machine (or moka pot), milk steamer or frother, saucepan if brewing chai from scratch, latte cup
RatioAbout 1 espresso shot : 60–120 ml chai concentrate : 180–240 ml milk
-
Prepare the chai: warm a chai concentrate, or simmer black tea with cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and cloves for 5 minutes and strain.
-
Pull a shot of espresso into a large cup.
-
Add the chai to the cup.
-
Steam the milk to about 60–65 °C with a little foam and pour it in.
-
Dust with cinnamon and serve. For iced, pour chai and espresso over ice and top up with cold milk.
Origin & history
The chai latte – a sweetened, spiced tea with steamed milk – spread through Western coffee shops in the 1990s, adapting India’s masala chai to the espresso bar. The dirty chai followed. Its origin isn’t documented: a widely told story says a barista accidentally added a shot of espresso to a traveller’s chai latte in the 1990s and the customer liked it, but there is no evidence behind the tale and versions differ on where it happened.
What is clear is that coffee-shop chains helped popularise it, and the term “dirty” stuck for the coffee’s darkening effect on the drink. It’s now a standard order in cafés in North America, the UK, Australia and elsewhere, often made with plant milks or served iced.
Variations
- Iced dirty chaichai, espresso and cold milk over ice (worldwide)
- Double dirty / filthy chaimade with two espresso shots (worldwide)
- Oat milk dirty chaia popular dairy-free version (worldwide)
- Masala chaithe traditional spiced milk tea, without coffee (India)
Good to know
If it's not on the menu, ask for a chai latte with an added espresso shot.
Chai concentrates are often very sweet; ask for less chai or an unsweetened version if available.
Two shots is sometimes called a “double dirty” or “filthy” chai.
Oat milk works especially well with the spices.
