I'd like to make chai tea lattes for my wife. Almost all the "recipes" online use either a syrup squirted into milk, recommend boiling the milk and tea together, or don't account for the home user having an espresso machine capable of making microfoam.

Is there a good way to make a tea concentrate that i can pour steamed milk into? I tried steeping one chai tea bag in 2oz of boiling water, but it came out very bitter and really not that flavorful when I added the milk.

Any recipes appreciated!

I have made london fog, not the chai tea latte but a tea based drink, but this maybe useful: I just brew the tea as you would for one person and then do the microfoam in it. I had to play with concentrations to get it right but i found if i do a cup of tea as if you were drinking it normally it turns out best just a tad bit lighter so you can concentrate it yourself if you would like.

If chai is leaf or bag based should be similar, perhaps give it a go? Unless i am missing a component of the chai latte !

It doesn't lose the latte milk quality? I'd assume the 8oz of water would just thin the microfoam milk to nothing.

Guests usually ask for it, i have had it once it was ok. If i remember correctly it wasn't the same texture as an espresso based drink but it wasn't terrible either it was less viscous but foam was still there. Actually i will make it this weekend and update it here.

If you want to enjoy the tea with or without milk, I suggest using loose leaves. In bags, you have them cut to small pieces (CTC) that release a lot of tannin when steeped (in addition to rumors that low quality tea remains are used), so if you want to make a strong tea with the bag, it will be overly bitter. Pyramidal bags are supposed to be an exception, but I would check inside to be sure

Anyway, I made a few chai lattes with steamed milk, making stronger tea (more tea and usual steeping time around 3 min), but it's not like latte with coffee. There is no espresso crema for the microfoam to mix with, nor tea has the body of espresso, so you essentially get just a tea with foamed milk

I don't need it to look like a coffee latte, just prefer to not simply pour my milk into a large cup of hot water. I'll look into a loose tea too. I might try 2-3 of these chai tea bags in 4oz or 6oz of water to get a more concentrated tea. Then using just 2oz of that.

Saw one video where he steams the milk and the loose tea together - up to 180F, but that I assume would make the milk taste bad. Then everything else is just a syrup....

I would try steaming 8 oz of milk to around 160 and pour it over the tea/tea bag and sweetener in a preheated cup, steeping the tea in the frothed milk. At the end of the 3-5 minutes, it will still be hot and not watery.

If you want to get serious, you can always make your own masala blend.

Green cardamom pods((must), cinnamon (recommend not ground) , a little bit of black pepper, with some sugar (brown is better) , and a black tea bag is going to get you in the right direction.

to get serious, add in vanilla extract, smashed whole nutmeg (not ground), a small piece of fresh ginger, allspice, fennel seed and you got something mighty tasty.