If you’re a fan of the Starbucks iced apple crisp chai, you’ll love our recipe for apple brown sugar chai syrup and tea concentrate so you can make your own at home! This is a great way to save some money and have apple chai lattes whenever you like.
Disclosure: this post contains affiliate links.
The past few months, I’ve been on a drink recipe-making spree and I’m so excited to share our newest recipe with you for some apple chai syrup so you can make your own apple crisp chai lattes at home!
I wanted to create a Starbucks copycat recipe for their new apple crisp chai by creating a cross between our apple brown sugar syrup and our chai syrup/tea concentrate.
The result is a delicious apple brown sugar chai syrup that makes a drink very similar to the Starbucks Iced Apple Crisp Nondairy Cream Chai except our recipe has the apple flavor in the chai syrup vs in the Starbucks nondairy apple cream cold foam.
The Starbucks nondairy cold foams have soy protein in them (including the apple cream one), and since we have soy allergies I haven’t been able to try their apple cold foam. So I made up my own version of this recipe so we could enjoy apple chai whenever we wanted, completely soy free.
Why you’ll love this recipe
If you love the Starbucks apple crisp chai, making your own syrup/tea concentrate at home is a great way to save some money on your favorite drink.
Plus if you have multiple allergies, you’ll know exactly what goes into your drink with pretty simple ingredients, giving you peace of mind that you have control over what goes into your recipe.
This recipe is also pretty easy to make, plus since this is a syrup + tea concentrate, it’s a nearly instant drink mix: just add the syrup with oatmilk or water and oatmilk!
When you make this at home, it’s also really easy to customize by adding more or less syrup to create a milder or stronger flavor. Plus you can also double the spices if you want a spicier chai (I’d double the ginger vs the cinnamon in our recipe).
How to make apple brown sugar chai syrup and tea concentrate
Here are the steps to make our apple chai syrup/tea concentrate. This is just an overview of the steps, you can find the full printable recipe card at the end of the post.
- Add the apple cider and water to a 1-quart saucepan and bring to a low boil. Apple cider is pressed and unfiltered apple juice, not vinegar.
- Turn off the heat and add the chai bags to the hot liquid, stirring to make sure all the tea bags are wet and steeping. Steep for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally but don’t dunk. I cut off the strings for the tea bags, it’s easier to stir that way.
- After 15 minutes, squeeze out the tea bags and discard them, whisk the brown sugar and cream of tartar into the apple tea mixture and bring to a boil over medium heat. The cream of tartar helps to prevent sugar crystals from forming in your syrup.
- Reduce the heat a bit to medium-low and simmer for 10 minutes, whisking occasionally.
- After 10 minutes, turn off the heat and whisk in the spices.
- Allow to cool in the pan for about 20 minutes, whisk again and pour into a jar.
- Store in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. The spices will separate a bit while it’s stored, so stir the syrup before using it to mix everything.
I didn’t want the apple flavor to overpower the chai flavors, so I didn’t replace all of the liquid in the syrup with apple cider. However, if you want a stronger apple flavor, you can replace the 2/3 cup water with more apple cider and reduce the brown sugar by 2 Tablespoons.
This recipe uses apple cider, which is pressed and unfiltered apple juice that is typically not from concentrate. This is not the same thing as apple cider vinegar or spiced cider drink packets.
I recommend buying a great-tasting apple cider that has lots of flavor for this recipe. Some brands are rather bland or watery tasting, so a good apple cider will make a difference.
How to make an iced apple crisp oatmilk chai
Once you’ve made your apple chai syrup, you can make an apple crisp chai latte, just mix 2-3 Tablespoons of the syrup into 8 ounces of oatmilk or a 50/50 mix of creamy oatmilk and water (my favorite way to make it).
Using 2 Tablespoons of syrup will be milder, I like using 3 Tablespoons in an 8 ounce drink to have a stronger flavor.
You’ll want to increase the amount of syrup for larger drinks, here’s a chart to help you figure out how much to use:
| Starbucks Size Equivalent | Amount of liquid | Amount of syrup |
| Short (8 oz) | 8 oz = 4 oz water + 4 oz oatmilk | 2-3 Tablespoons |
| Tall (12 oz) | 12 oz = 6 oz water + 6 oz oatmilk | 3-4 Tablespoons |
| Grande (16 oz) | 16 oz = 8 oz water + 8 oz oatmilk | 4-5 Tablespoons |
| Venti (20 oz) | 20 oz = 10 oz water + 10 oz oatmilk | 5-6 Tablespoons |
You can add a little bit more apple flavor to your iced apple chai by topping it with a splash of the Califia caramel apple oat creamer which tastes great on this. It does have sugar in it, so don’t add too much or your drink will be super sweet.
I tried frothing that Califia apple creamer to get a mock cold foam, but it didn’t stay foamy for very long, to make a very good cold foam alternative.
If you’re a fan of really strong chai flavors, you can replace the water in the ratios above with steeped chai for a double-strength chai, or add additional spices into the syrup for a spicier syrup.
Check out our other homemade syrup recipes!
- Starbucks Copycat Chai Syrup
- Apple Brown Sugar Syrup (and Apple Crisp Oatmilk Macchiato)
- Homemade Starbucks Copycat Gingerbread Latte Syrup
Apple Chai Syrup and Starbucks Copycat Apple Crisp Chai Latte
Ingredients
- 1 ⅓ cups apple cider* (aka pressed and unfiltered apple juice, not apple cider vinegar)
- ⅔ cups water
- 10 Tazo chai black tea bags
- 1 cup packed light brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon cream of tartar (this helps prevent sugar crystals from forming)
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ⅛ teaspoon cardamom
Instructions
Apple Chai Syrup
- In a small, 1-quart saucepan, heat the apple cider and water until simmering.
- Turn off the heat and add the 10 Tazo chai tea bags to the hot apple cider mixture and steep for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally to make sure the tea bags are wet and soaking, but don't dunk the bags (this can result in bitterness).
- After 15 minutes, squeeze out the tea bags and discard the bags. If any of the tea bags split, pour through a fine tea strainer to filter out any tea or spice particles. You should end up with around 1 ½ cups of very strong apple chai (apple chai concentrate).
- Leaving the apple chai concentrate in the saucepan, add the packed light brown sugar to it, whisk in the cream of tartar, and cook on medium heat until it comes to a light boil.
- Once this begins to lightly boil, reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 10 minutes (or 15 minutes for a thick syrup), whisking occasionally.
- Once the 10 minutes are up, remove from the heat and whisk in the spices.
- Allow to cool in the saucepan before pouring into a jar. Store in a jar in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. The spices will settle in the bottom of the jar, so stir the syrup before each use.
- For drinks, use about 2-3 Tablespoons syrup for an 8 ounce drink. You can use more syrup for a stronger and sweeter drink.
Apple Crisp Oatmilk Chai:
- For an 8 ounce chai, mix together 2-3 Tablespoons of syrup, using 4 ounces (1/2 cup) water, and 4 ounces (1/2 cup) of oatmilk.
- Use hot water and hot oat milk for a hot drink, or cold water and cold oat milk for an iced drink with a few ice cubes.
- Adjust the amount of syrup for larger drinks (like 12 to 16 ounces).
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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Sarah Jane Parker is the founder, recipe creator, and photographer behind The Fit Cookie. She’s a food allergy mom and allergy friendly food blogger of 12 years based in Wyoming. Sarah is also an ACSM Certified Personal Trainer, ACE Certified Health Coach, Revolution Running certified running coach, and an ACE Certified Fitness Nutrition Specialist
I tried the Apple Chai at Starbucks last week to see if I wanted to make this recipe. Wow!!! Worth the almost $6 (for the small/tall??). Now I can make your recipe “with absolute confidence” (as Wil Yeung from Yeung Man Cooking says).
The apple crisp chai is one of my daughter’s favorites from Starbucks! Come back and let us know what you think after you make this 🙂
I’ve made this syrup several times this season and it has saved me so much starbucks money 😅 such a great recipe, I also use half chai, half decaf (herbal or earl grey) after the 1st batch to limit the caffeine concentrate.
Great idea with the decaf, thank you for sharing that tip!