Unsweetened Iced Spiced Chai

A café chai latte can carry 30 grams of added sugar or more in a single cup — most of it from a pre-made, pre-sweetened chai concentrate, not from the spices themselves. The spices are doing very little of the flavor work in that version. Here, they do all of it: real cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, and fresh ginger, simmered properly, with nothing added to sweeten it.

Method

1. Combine the water, cloves, cardamom pods, cinnamon stick, and ginger in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
2. Remove from heat, add the tea bags, and steep for 4 minutes.
3. Remove the tea bags and strain out the whole spices. Let the concentrate cool to room temperature, or refrigerate until cold.
4. To serve, fill a glass with ice, pour in the spiced tea concentrate, and top with milk to taste.

The concentrate keeps well in the fridge for up to 4 days, so it’s worth making a double batch if this becomes a regular thing.

Where the added sugar number comes from

Zero. Black tea, whole spices, fresh ginger, and unsweetened milk contain no added sugar. If you’re used to a sweetened version and find this genuinely too plain at first, that’s real — chai concentrate almost always ships pre-sweetened, so this may taste noticeably more “spice-forward” and less sweet than what you’re used to. If you do want to sweeten it, adding your own honey or sugar to taste means you know exactly how much you’re adding, rather than however much came pre-mixed into a bottle.