Re-creating My Favorite Coffee House Drink At Home

By Jessica

I regularly give a good chunk of my money to Starbucks. I know, big chain vs smaller coffee house, help the little guys yada yada ... but unfortunately for me, the only smaller coffee house I had by me closed (and yes, when they were open, they did get my business). Drawback of living in the burbs. Anyway, I am the sort of person that gets obsessed with one particular thing and sticks with it until the end of time, rarely deviating. In the beginning, my drink of choice was a Caramel Macchiato. There are days when I will still get that but now, thanks to a swarthy looking pirate barista, I usually get a Grande Soy Chai Latte with a shot or "Dirty Chai" depending on your barista.

Now friends, I have a choice of several different Starbucks all within a very short radius of me (Louis Black doesn't lie about Houston and its Starbucks craziness) but can we all agree that they should just DELIVER already? I mean seriously. Dragging myself out the door to fetch one of these heavenly drinks is just too much at times, thankfully I figured out how to approximate it at home!

Ingredients

Chai tea bags: qty 2. I currently have their Decaf Sweet Thai Coconut and am also a huge fan of their Mountain Chai (but trying to find that variety in my store is impossible) so go with whatever Chai you have on hand, it has to either be bagged tea or loose, not a mix.

Milk: 8 oz. I used So Delicious Vanilla Coconut milk but I'm sure you could use whatever milk or milk substitute you are used to cooking with, it has to be able to be heated well without getting chalky or funky tasting.

Instant Coffee: 1 tsp. You could use Espresso Powder or whichever brand instant coffee granuals you prefer, I just had this on-hand from making coffee ice cream.

Sweetener to taste: Sugar, agave nectar, honey....whichever and however much you choose. The vanilla coconut milk is already a bit sweet on it's own so it doesn't take much.

Also optional: Whipped cream, ground nutmeg and cinnamon to top it at the end and half and half.

Instructions

Heat 8 oz of your milk in the microwave, in a microwave safe container, (I use a glass measuring cup) until hot. My microwave has a hot water setting and I just use that. Once hot, add tea to steep. (If I want my Chai extra spicy I will add one cinnamon stick and 5 peppercorns to the steeping liquid) Allow tea to steep around 2 minutes or until the milk is a rich deep caramel color. Strain off tea bags and any additional spices. Add 1 tsp of instant coffee granuals into a coffee mug, sweetener if using and pour the hot liquid into the mug, mixing until the coffee is disolved. Add any of your optional items and enjoy!

{Photo credit: me}