The Best Chai Concentrate Recipe For When You Need Some Cozy In a Cup

A cozy, warming chai latte is a no-brainer on a blustery day. In fact, you’d be drinking them just about all the time if it weren’t for the hassle of hauling yourself to the closest coffee shop. For those days where you simply refuse to put on pants (some of us have those more than others), you need an at-home chai concentrate recipe that’s going to produce the same — if not a better — cup of masala chai than what you can wrap your hands around from a store.

The best chai concentrate is easier to throw together than it may seem, and it’s something you can make in batches so that you always have some on hand to pour over ice or add to your steamed milk or espresso, depending on how you’re feeling on any given day. A tantalizing mix of cinnamon, clove, ginger, cardamom, and black tea, this DIY chai concentrate is easily customizable depending upon how strong you like your latte, or if there are other flavors that pull you in (think vanilla or orange). Store-bought chai concentrates tend to be really sweet, so learning to make it at home will not only save you some coin but also let you experiment with the exact proportions for your perfect chai latte.

And if you prefer pumpkin spice to chai, well, you can see yourself out. (Actually, both sound pretty good right now.) Follow this chai latte concentrate recipe for the perfect year-round treat that will elevate your at-home barista game beyond your wildest dreams, or at least enough that you can cut down on those daily trips to Starbucks.