8 Store-Bought Chai Concentrates Ranked Worst To Best

If you're a fan of sweet, warm, and spicy beverages, you probably love a good chai latte. But you likely haven't perfected making a chai latte at home from scratch, so you are probably wondering how you can get your chai fix without having to make a trip to your local coffee shop. Thankfully, there are so many brands that have you covered with chai latte concentrates. Just mix one part water or your preferred milk with one part chai concentrate for a delicious chai latte at home without all the extra fuss.

Not all chai concentrates should be treated equally, though. As an avid chai lover myself, I have found that it is a delicate dance between being too sugar-heavy or too spice-heavy. That's why I set out to rank the best chai concentrates based on just how well-balanced each one was between sugar and spice. I was looking for a chai that had just the right amount of kick from the traditional chai spices like ginger, cardamom, and cinnamon while still delivering that creaminess and sweetness that is most often associated with chai lattes. From store-bands to name-bands, these are the chai concentrates worth stocking your pantry with and the ones we'd recommend skipping.

After looking at the ingredient list for Walmart's store brand Great Value Chai, I didn't have the highest of hopes. To start, it didn't contain any of the traditional chai spices whatsoever. Instead, the concentrate was made up of water, cane sugar, black tea extract, citric acid, and natural flavors. As soon as I saw that there was zero cinnamon, cardamom, and ginger, I was worried about how authentic this chai was going to taste.

And my worries were not unfounded. It honestly didn't taste like chai. I had to take a couple of sips to even begin to wrap my head around what I was tasting. I finally realized the prominent flavor I was picking up was vanilla. Not something I am used to tasting that intensely in my chai. That, combined with the overwhelming sweetness, produced a drink closer to a milky, vanilla steamer than an authentic chai. It was so far from what a chai should be that I had to put it at the bottom of the list.

I also had high expectations of Oregon Chai, considering it is a brand that has been around since 1994. After all, I would think it must be good since it has stayed in business this long and expanded its chai line to include varieties such as Salted Caramel, Slightly Sweet, Spiced, and one with coffee to make dirty chai lattes. But I was unpleasantly surprised when I took my first sip, and I was hit with a wave of sugar rather than spices. In fact, it seemed to get sweeter the more that I drank.

When examining the ingredients list a bit closer, it made more sense as to why. It was made with organic spice extracts (which spices are not specified) as well as natural flavor and organic flavoring. Those are not necessarily the ingredients I hope to see when choosing a high-quality chai. So even though Oregon Chai bore a greater resemblance to an authentic chai than Walmart's Great Value Chai concentrate, its sweetness level was still too great for it to be ranked any higher.

Tazo's Classic Chai concentrate was the first ingredient list that looked promising. While it does have some natural flavors, it was lower on the list and also included real spices such as black pepper, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, and star anise. Compared to the first two chai concentrates, I appreciated that this one wasn't nearly as sweet, but that aspect of the flavor still took center stage — leaving a lot to be desired in the spice department.

Overall, it had a decent chai flavor that was more in line with traditional chai lattes. Unfortunately, it was still too mild for me to give it a higher ranking. I would actually describe it as watered down. Maybe it could have been fixed by adding more concentrate, but that would use up a good amount for what I would think is only a slight improvement. You'd be better off choosing a stronger chai from further down the list.

Sherpa Chai has to be the most traditional and authentic chai on this list in terms of ingredients and brewing methods. I was immediately drawn to the ingredient list of Napali Black tea brewed with Rocky Mountain Water and hand-pressed Peruvian ginger, alongside organic spices like cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and black pepper. And once I learned that the founder of this brand is from Nepal and this chai recipe was his family's, I was even more excited to try what I was expecting to be my favorite chai on the list.

Unfortunately, these amazing ingredients didn't quite translate into the perfect cup of chai. Now, don't get me wrong — it wasn't a bad-tasting chai. It just didn't really taste like much of anything other than the milk I mixed it with. I did see that Sherpa Chai also has a Spicy Chai version that has 60% more ginger than the Traditional Chai that I tried, though, so maybe that would translate into a better overall flavor. So while it lacked in potency of flavor, I could still tell that what flavor it did have was more in line with a traditional chai — not a manufactured sugar bomb like a lot of the other chai concentrates — putting it right in the middle of the list.

We are finally getting to the good stuff with Stash's Double Spice Chai. A straightforward blend of filtered water, sugar, black tea extract, ginger, cinnamon, clove, and natural extracts resulted in a chai that was both sweet and spicy without being too overdone in either aspect. But with that being said, the sweetness that was there was a tad bit syrupy. It was a little hard to get past that, especially when the chai concentrates that did make my top three were so perfectly balanced in all the right ways.

Besides that aspect, though, this chai concentrate was one of the few to actually give off a significant kick from these potent spices. While not everyone wants to be punched in the taste buds with spice, these spices should be easily detected in a chai latte. Instead of being an afterthought, these spices should be front and center in every sip.

Out of the chai concentrates that made the top three, Trader Joe's Spiced Chai was the sweetest of them all. For this reason, I automatically wasn't able to rank it higher, as the other two chai concentrates had a better balance between sugar and spice, but it is still a fantastic choice for traditional chai lovers.

According to the Trader Joe's website, its Spiced Chai specifically highlights ginger among the many other spices it includes, like allspice, cinnamon, cardamom, clove, nutmeg, and a unique addition, rosemary. It even includes extra natural ginger flavor as a way to bring out the ginger from among this robust spice blend. And I do have to say, I could taste the ginger the most out of all the spices, but it still wasn't too strong a ginger taste to be overdone. So even though this was a solid chai concentrate (especially for the price; it's the cheapest option on the list), the chai concentrates that got the number one and number two spots were clearly superior.

To be perfectly honest, I wanted to give Bhakti Chai the number one spot due to my own personal taste preferences, but I knew I had to stick to our methodology. The thing is, I love spice; the more the better. And I'm not necessarily talking about the type of spice that comes with heat, like from peppers. I'm talking about that spice with a bite from ginger. And that's exactly what Bhakti Chai has, as every variety of chai concentrate that it makes contains organic, fresh, cold-pressed ginger.

It was definitely the spiciest chai concentrate of them all, but it still had enough sweetness so it wasn't all bite. I think it tastes the most authentic and fresh out of all of the chai concentrates on this list and it could easily be modified to make it spicier or sweeter by adjusting the suggested 1:1 ratio of milk to concentrate. But with that said, the number one spot needed no adjustment for the perfect cup.

This chai concentrate didn't just taste the best, it also looked the freshest. While a lot of the other chai concentrates on this list had ingredient lists that included various spices, Rishi Masala Chai was the only one where the spices were clearly visible to the naked eye. I chose to heat up my milk and chai concentrate in a pot over the stove, and in doing so, I immediately noticed the spices floating in my chai mix. Now, I don't want you to confuse that with unwanted separation or that it was chunky and had a weird texture — just that it was evident that real spices were present!

I love how Rishi describes it as full-bodied, as that is exactly what it is. The spices are bold and forward without overpowering your senses. It's not an easy thing to achieve this level of spicy depth while still being sweet and easy to drink, and because of this, Rishi has earned a permanent spot on my grocery list and hopefully yours, too.

Not everyone has the same preference when it comes to chai. Some like it on the sweeter side, and some want it to be spicier. So, in order to determine the best chai concentrate for this ranking, I focused on one main thing: how well-balanced each product was between sugar and spice levels (was each more or less equally represented?) while still holding true to that authentic chai flavor from its traditional spices. I then ranked the products accordingly based on that criterion.