Starbucks Chai Latte

The Starbucks Chai Latte carries 181 calories in a Grande and 52.4mg of caffeine, which comes from black tea rather than espresso. Spiced chai concentrate is mixed with steamed milk, and the spice blend behind it runs to cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, clove and black pepper.

The concentrate is already sweetened, which is why the drink tastes the way it does and why the sugar figure lands where it does. Cinnamon and ginger sit at the front, the cardamom comes through in the middle, and the black pepper is what leaves a faint warmth at the back of the throat afterwards. Milk rounds all of it. The result is sweeter and smoother than a chai made from loose spices at home, and much less astringent than plain black tea.

Starbucks UK does not publish a delivery price for this one, so no figure appears above rather than a guess. Calories run 89 in a Short, 129 in a Tall, 181 in a Grande and 227 in a Venti. Sugar in a Grande is 29.3g out of 29.4g of carbohydrate, so all but a fraction of it. Caffeine climbs with the cup, from 26.2mg in a Short to 65.5mg in a Venti, because more concentrate means more tea.

The spice blend is where the argument about this drink sits. Anyone used to chai made at home from whole spices finds the Starbucks version sweeter and rounder, because the concentrate is built for consistency across 1,378 stores rather than for the sharp edges a fresh brew has. Cinnamon leads in a way it would not in a South Asian masala chai, and the black pepper is dialled well back. Judged as its own drink rather than as a copy, it holds up.

At roughly a third of the caffeine of a Grande latte, it is a reasonable afternoon drink for anyone who still wants something warm and does not want to be awake at midnight. Fewer pumps of concentrate is the standard way to cut the sugar, though it thins the spice with it. The Classic Hot Chocolate is the caffeine free alternative, and the Caffè Latte is the coffee equivalent at 151 calories in a Grande.