This is beyond a hazelnut iced chai latte. It’s bliss.
I’ve been on a homemade coffee and tea kick ever since I made the Caramel Mocha Iced Coffee Concentrate. I loved it so much, I thought there needed to be a few variations. The first thing that came to mind was hazelnut! I knew I wanted the flavor to be from the actual nut itself, so I decided to make it with homemade hazelnut milk. The coffee version is amazing. So amazing, I thought it warranted turning it into a chai latte as well.
The coffee version will be posted soon, too. First, here’s the chai version.
Chai lattes were all the rage when I was in college. Maybe they still are back in Oregon? I remember all the coffee shops used to have Oregon Chai— since I’ve always preferred not sweet, or on the less sweet side, drinks, I really appreciated that Oregon Chai had a slightly sweet version. The “slightly sweet” was actually pretty sweet, in my opinion.
The best part of making things like this at home? (Besides saving tons of money, that is?) — you can customize it to suit your tastes. Add ginger. More dates for more sweet, fewer for less sweet. In fact, if you don’t like hazelnuts (gasp!), you can use cashew or almond milk instead. The hazelnuts are really the star of the show here though.
I like to customize. It’s a huge reason I cook so much. When I go out to eat, I am always thinking of the 10 things I would have done differently to the dish. More spice, less oil, more flavor, less sweet.
The first time I made this, I mixed the hazelnut milk and chai tea together. It was good, but only lasted for 2 days in the fridge. If you keep the hazelnut milk and chai tea separate, you can customize this drink to your own tastes, and it will last 3-4 days in the fridge.
I also have made the hazelnut milk several different ways. First, I made it half almond, half hazelnut. Really good, but not hazel-nutty enough. Then I made it 2/3 hazelnuts, 1/3 almonds, and that was really good. I decided the last time to see if cashews would make it a bit creamier- so 2/3 hazelnuts, 1/3 cashews, and it was creamier. I actually liked all 3 versions, so play around with the nuts and make it with what you have on hand!
Contents
Hazelnut Iced Chai Latte {Dairy-Free}
Ingredients
Chai Tea
- 3 cups water
- 8 white peppercorns
- 8 whole cloves
- 8 cardamom pods (slightly crushed)
- 4 cinnamon sticks
- 3 star anise
- 3 black tea bags (I used English breakfast)
Hazelnut Milk
- 2/3 cup hazelnuts
- 1/3 cup cashews or almonds (both are good!)
- 4-8 small dates (I used 4, but it wasn't very sweet. Add more if you like your drinks sweet.)
- 1 teaspoon alcohol free vanilla
- pinch of sea salt
Instructions
Chai Tea
- Add all the spices to a sauce pan with 3 cups of water. Bring to a low boil, then reduce and let simmer for 5 minutes.
- Turn heat off, and add tea bags. Let steep for 3 minutes, then discard.
- Remove the spices from the tea, and let cool.
Hazelnut Milk
- Soak the nuts and pitted dates in water in the fridge overnight.
- Rinse and drain the nuts and dates, and add them to a blender with 1 cup of water. Process until the nuts are broken down, for 2-3 minutes.
- Add the other 2 cups of water, plus the sea salt and vanilla. Process for another minute.
- Pour the milk through cheesecloth (I use a thin cloth bag that hooks around the edge of a pitcher), and let the milk drain through.
- Squeeze as much liquid out of the nut pulp as possible.
Iced Chai Latte
- Mix the hazelnut milk and chai tea together over ice. I prefer about 1 part tea to 2 parts hazelnut milk, but it's a preference!
Notes
Nutrition
Other Iced Coffee & Tea Beverages:
- Homemade Chai Tea Recipe by Gimme Some Oven
- Chai Iced Tea Cubes by Will Cook for Friends
- Blueberry Iced Green Tea by Closet Cooking
- Nutella Iced Coffee by Miss in the Kitchen
- Caramel Mocha Iced Coffee Concentrate by Vitamin Sunshine
This looks like my kind of summer sipper! Thanks for the link love!
Of course. Your coffee looked amazing!
I love chai lattes! And the hazelnut addition sounds perfect. Love that these are dairy-free, for some reason, dairy products make me cough! So annoying. So a chance to enjoy a yummy drink dairy-free is wonderful =)
I don’t do well with dairy either. I just did without milks for a long time, until I discovered nut milks. They are so much better than regular milks, and can add such fun flavors to drinks.
I could go for one of these iced lattes right now. It looks so perfectly refreshing. I love your recipe for hazelnut milk. I need to try that!
I didn’t like hazelnut milk the first time I tried it from a box. It was too strong for me- but made at home is not only super simple, it’s so much better than premade!
I absolutely love that you make your own chai tea. This might sound weird, but it’s totally inspiring! I’m trying to make more things from scratch, and this is a great place to start.
Doesn’t sound weird at all! In fact, it’s a super sweet comment. When you first start making everything from scratch (I pretty much do!), it’s overwhelming- but then you start to develop routines. There are just normal things I do at certain times of the week, and our favorite things are always in the fridge/freezer.
Thank you so much! I’ve been working a lot on my photography the past couple of months, and it has improved quite a bit. It’s a process! Hazelnuts def have the best flavor– and I’m from Oregon, who produced 80% of the world’s hazelnuts. We used to literally get giant boxes of them free from farms every year- ones that weren’t cracked open by the machines. We always had them around 🙂