Apple Chai Syrup and Starbucks Copycat Apple Crisp Chai Latte

A spoon drizzles dark apple chai syrup from a mason jar on a wooden surface, with an apple and a drink in the background.

Apple Chai Syrup and Starbucks Copycat Apple Crisp Chai Latte

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.

Makes about 1 ¾ cups of syrup, 1 serving is 2-3 Tablespoons

Metric: makes about 510 ml of syrup, serving sizes are 30-45 ml

Course Drinks

Cuisine American, Indian

Keyword apple chai syrup, apple crisp chai

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 15

Cooling time 30

Total Time 1

Servings servings

Calories 76kcal

Author Sarah Jane Parker

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
¼ 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

US Customary - Metric

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

*This is apple cider, not apple cider vinegar. Apple cider is pressed and unfiltered apple juice, usually not from concentrate.

This chai syrup is moderately spiced, if you like your chai strong, you can use more syrup in your drink, double the spices in the syrup, or replace the water in your drink with brewed chai for a double-strength chai latte.

Nutrition estimates are for the syrup only, not for a finished chai latte drink.

Nutrition