Your Starbucks Chai Latte Has More Sugar Than You Think. Here's How To Cut It Down

A chai latte is one of Starbucks' most popular drinks, and we completely understand why. The sweet, spiced beverage is the very definition of cozy, making it a go-to order for countless customers. While its sweetness has attracted plenty of fans, it can be a drawback for people limiting their sugar intake.

Starbucks' grande-sized chai latte contains 42 grams of sugar, which is significantly higher than the 29 grams in the coffee chain's other hot tea lattes. There's no set amount of sugar a person should have per day, but the Dietary Guidelines for Americans caps it at 50 grams for a 2,000-calorie diet and the American Heart Association sets the limit at 36 grams. Either way, a chai latte isn't the best beverage for people watching how much sugar they consume. The high amount stems from the brand's sugar and honey-filled chai concentrate, the ingredient that makes Starbucks chai lattes distinct.

To get the same spiced taste without the extra sugar, order a regular chai tea, instead. It features the same cinnamon, clove, cardamom, and ginger flavors of a chai latte, but with better control over how much sugar you add. You can replicate the creaminess of the chai latte by adding steamed milk or frothed milk and sweetening it to your liking with stevia, honey, or turbinado sugar packets.

Along with adding sugar packets and a splash of frothy milk, there are plenty of ways to make your chai tea taste a little closer to its latte counterpart. To deepen the taste of the tea, try a trick that elevates Starbucks chai latte and add a pump or two of the brown sugar syrup. One pump contains roughly eight grams of sugar, making it the perfect addition to slightly sweeten your chai tea. You can also opt to add in the sugar-free vanilla syrup, or give the drink a nuttier flavor with some hazelnut syrup, which also has about eight grams of sugar per pump.

Starbucks doesn't offer chai as part of its cold tea collection, but you can still replicate the refreshing nature of an iced chai tea latte with another drink. Order an iced black tea with some chai syrup, which has less than 11 grams of sugar per pump. The concentrated chai taste spices up the standard black tea perfectly, and you can make it even better with creamy add-ins. Some vanilla sweet cream brings a silkier mouthfeel to the drink, while brown sugar cream cold foam delivers the frothiness of a classic iced chai latte.