This Spiced Chai Cocktail is made with spicy chai, sweet homemade chai simple syrup, and dark rum. All the warming spices make this the perfect cocktail for the cold fall and winter months, especially the holidays! Try it this Thanksgiving or Christmas, I promise you won't be disappointed!
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What is Chai?
Chai is a type of tea that originated in India. It's made by brewing black tea leaves with various spices. The spices tend to vary based on where the tea is from or what brand you buy. You can either buy it as a loose tea or as tea bags. The most common spices in chai are cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, cloves, and black pepper.
Why You'll Love This Chai Cocktail
Full of warm spices - Chai is warm, comforting, and full of delicious spices perfect for fall and winter. The combination of black tea, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, and cloves goes really well with the smooth flavor of dark rum.
Perfect for the holidays - If you want to make a fun new drink to impress, make this for your family or a party during the holidays! The warm spices in chai combined with dark rum make this the perfect drink for fall and winter.
Easy to make - The recipe calls for homemade chai syrup but it's still super easy to make. The ingredients are simple and the drink comes together in just a few minutes. If you're in a pinch, you can also use maple syrup or plain simple syrup to sweeten the cocktail.
Ingredients
- Chai tea - You can either use strongly brewed chai (water and chai teabags) or chai concentrate. If you use a concentrate you need less of it because it's stronger. Keep in mind that a concentrate is also often sweetened.
- Dark rum - I went with dark rum because the flavor goes really well with chai. You can also use spiced rum but I wanted the chai flavor to really stand out.
- Lemon juice - The rum and bitter black tea has to be balanced with the acidity from lemon. Freshly squeezed lemon will give you the best flavor.
- Chai syrup - If you want to make your own Chai Simple Syrup to up the chai flavor even more, you totally can! If you don't have time for this, plain simple syrup or even maple syrup works just as well.
- Vanilla extract - This is optional but a little bit of vanilla extract balances all the other flavors beautifully. Vanilla paste or vanilla powder also work.
Variations and Substitutions
- A different syrup - I highly recommend making your own simple syrup for this cocktail. There are many options! Cinnamon Simple Syrup, Brown Sugar Simple Syrup, or even this Apple Brown Sugar Syrup.
- Whiskey - If you don't like rum, this drink would also be delicious with whiskey or bourbon. I also have this Chai Old Fashioned you can try!
- Non-alcoholic version - You can turn this into a mocktail by using a non-alcoholic spirit that mimics the flavor of dark rum or you can skip it altogether. This drink doesn't really need much else. Just top it up with a little more sparkling water and add an extra squeeze of lemon!
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Add dark rum and chilled chai to a cocktail shaker. If you're using brewed chai and not a chai concentrate, I recommend making it ahead of time so it's chilled when you're making the cocktail.
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- Add chai syrup and freshly squeezed lemon juice.
- Add a handful of ice and shake vigorously for a few seconds until chilled.
- Fill a double old-fashioned glass with ice and strain the cocktail over ice.
- Top up the drink with sparkling water and garnish with a cinnamon stick and a lemon slice if desired. Enjoy!
Storing and Make Ahead Options
Fresh chai: If you're brewing your own chai for this cocktail, I highly recommend doing this ahead of time. This way it's cool when you add it to the shaker and won't water down the drink. You can brew the chai 1-2 days ahead.
Chai syrup: A homemade simple syrup lasts 2 weeks in the fridge so it's great to make that ahead of time as well. Every simple syrup is also freezer-friendly so if you don't use it all in time, you can freeze it so you always have it on hand. Because of the high sugar content, it defrosts super quickly!
FAQs
Rum, spiced rum, or whiskey are the best options for this chai cocktail.
Using a concentrate is much faster because it's already ready. A concentrate is just a very very strong tea, perfect for chai lattes. Most concentrates are high in sugar so some like to make strong chai at home instead.
Other Chai Cocktails
Are you looking for other chai cocktails? Try the three below! They have similar flavors but all have different spirits. The espresso martini is my favorite but they're all amazing! To see all the latest ones, head over to Cocktails.
📖 Recipe
Spiced Chai Cocktail
- Prep Time: 5 mins
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: 1 1x
- Category: Cocktail
- Method: No Cook
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This Chai Cocktail is made with spicy chai and dark rum. All the warming spices make this the perfect cocktail for fall, winter, and the holidays!
Ingredients
- 1 ½ oz dark rum
- 2 oz strong chai, chilled (or 1 oz chai concentrate)
- 1 oz freshly squeezed lemon juice
- ½-1 oz Chai Simple Syrup (or any other simple syrup)
- Ice
- Sparkling water (optional)
- Garnish: a cinnamon stick, star anise, a lemon slice (optional)
Instructions
- Add dark rum, chai, lemon juice, chai syrup, and a handful of ice to a cocktail shaker.
- Shake vigorously for a few seconds until chilled.
- Fill a short glass with ice and strain the cocktail over ice.
- Top up with sparkling water and garnish with a cinnamon stick and a lemon slice if desired.
Notes
Strong chai: Steep 4 chai tea bags in 1 cup of hot water for 5-10 minutes
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Veronika Sykorova says
The double chai flavor is perfect with dark rum and great for anytime during winter, not just the holidays! I'd love to hear from you if you like it too! :)