What Is a Chai Latte? (And Why \"Chai Tea\" Is Redundant)

The Short Answer

A chai latte is spiced black tea with steamed milk. There's no coffee in it — but there is caffeine, because black tea has caffeine of its own.

Merriam-Webster defines chai as "a beverage that is a blend of black tea, honey, spices, and milk." Swap the honey for whatever sweetener a given shop uses and that's the drink.

It's the most-ordered non-coffee drink on most coffee shop menus, and it's the one people are least sure how to ask for. So here's the whole thing.

Why "Chai Tea Latte" Is Redundant

You'll see it written that way on menus everywhere, including some very good ones. It's still redundant, and the dictionary is the giveaway.

Merriam-Webster traces *chai* to "Turkish çay & Russian, Persian, Hindi, & Urdu chay," all of which mean tea. So "chai tea" is, literally, "tea tea." The word only entered English in this sense around 1984, which is roughly when the drink started showing up on American coffee menus.

None of which matters at a counter. Order it however it comes out of your mouth — "chai," "chai tea," "chai latte," "chai tea latte" — and any barista will know exactly what you want. This is a piece of trivia, not a correction anyone should be making to you.

What's Actually In One

Four parts, in most versions:

• Black tea — the base, and the reason it has caffeine.
• Spices — commonly cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, cloves, and black pepper, sometimes star anise, fennel, or nutmeg. The blend varies enormously; there is no single correct recipe.
• Sweetener — sugar, honey, or a syrup. Chai is usually sweet by default, which surprises people who expect tea.
• Steamed milk — the "latte" half.

The drink descends from masala chai, the spiced milk tea that's been made across South Asia for a long time, where the tea and spices are typically simmered together with milk rather than assembled from parts. What most American coffee shops serve is a faster cousin of that, not the same thing.

Concentrate vs. Brewed From Scratch

This is the difference that actually determines whether you like a given shop's chai.

Most US coffee shops use a liquid chai concentrate — a pre-sweetened, pre-spiced base that gets combined with steamed milk to order. It's fast and consistent, and because the sweetener is already in the concentrate, the sweetness is largely fixed before your cup exists.

Some shops brew their own, steeping tea and spices themselves. That version tends to taste less sweet and more spice-forward, and it can be adjusted more.

Neither is a mark of quality on its own — plenty of excellent shops use a concentrate. But it explains why one shop's chai tastes like a dessert and another's tastes like a spice cabinet, and why "less sweet" is easier to honor in some places than others. If a chai you tried was cloying, it's worth trying a different shop rather than writing off the drink.

Does a Chai Latte Have Caffeine?

Yes, but less than coffee.

The USDA's FoodData Central lists brewed black tea at 20 mg of caffeine per 100 grams, against 40 mg for brewed coffee — exactly half, volume for volume. An 8-ounce cup of black tea works out to roughly 47 mg, where the same cup of drip coffee is roughly 95 mg.

A chai latte lands lower still, because a good part of the cup is milk rather than tea, and milk contributes no caffeine. How much lower depends on how strong the tea base is and how much of it goes in, which varies by shop — so there's no single honest number to give you. If you want the full picture on how this works across drinks, we broke it down in how much caffeine is in a latte.

The practical version: a chai is a real option if you want something warm and spiced with less of a jolt than an espresso drink — but it is not a caffeine-free drink, so it's not the one to order at 9 PM if caffeine keeps you up.

What's a Dirty Chai?

A chai latte with a shot of espresso in it.

That's the whole definition. A "double dirty chai" gets two shots. It's a genuinely good drink — the espresso cuts the sweetness and adds a bitter edge that plays well against the spices — and it's the natural order for someone who wants chai but also wants the caffeine of a coffee. Adding espresso obviously pushes the caffeine up toward normal coffee territory; our guide to espresso drinks covers what a shot brings to anything it lands in.

Iced Chai

Chai works cold, and iced chai is usually just the concentrate (or brewed tea) with cold milk over ice, no steaming involved.

One thing to know: iced versions often taste sweeter than hot ones, because the cold mutes the spice more than it mutes the sugar. If you like the hot one and find the iced one cloying, ask for less sweetener rather than assuming you don't like iced chai.

How to Order One You'll Like

• Too sweet last time? Ask for it less sweet. At a shop using concentrate there's a limit to how far that can go, but asking costs nothing.
• Want more spice? Ask whether they can add cinnamon or a heavier pour of the base.
• Skipping dairy? Chai takes non-dairy milk well — oat especially, since its sweetness and body suit the spices. We compared the options in oat milk vs almond milk.
• Want it stronger? Order it dirty.
• Want it without caffeine? Chai isn't your drink. Hot chocolate is the better call.

Chai at Revival

Straight answer: our published menu lists tea and hot chocolate for people who aren't drinking coffee, and chai isn't on the printed list — so ask us rather than assume, the same way you would with anything not on the board.

What we can promise is that nobody will blink at the question, and that oat milk, almond milk, and other non-dairy options are on the bar every day for whatever you do end up ordering. If you're a tea drinker working out what to get, our guide to what coffee you should order has a section for exactly that, and the full menu is online.

Come see us at 1251 S. Sherman St. Ste. 112 in Richardson — open 7 AM to 3 PM Monday through Friday, with weekend hours still being finalized.