Iced Apple Crisp Nondairy Cream Chai {Starbucks Copycat}

The Starbucks Iced Apple Crisp Nondairy Cream Chai is made with chai concentrate, oat milk, and a delicious apple crisp cold foam. The drink is perfect for dairy-free fans who want a coffee alternative with lots of festive fall flavor!

Jump to:

• 🍎 What is the Iced Apple Crisp Nondairy Cream Chai?
• 🗒 Ingredients
• 👩‍🍳 How to make apple brown sugar syrup
• ☁️ How to make nondairy apple crisp cold foam
• 🧋 How to make Iced Apple Crisp Chai
• 🎉 Variations on recipe
• ⚡️ Does the drink have caffeine?
• 🍭 How much sugar does the drink have?
• 🍬 How to make the drink with less sugar
• 🥤 What are Starbucks other fall 2024 menu items?
• ☕️ More fall Starbucks copycat recipes
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

Fall may not technically be here, but it may as well be since the first batch of fall 2024 Starbucks drinks are out!

I'll be honest that I'm a little bit disappointed in the new offerings this time around as we're getting just one new drink (a couple more are coming in September) and it's actually quite similar to the new drink we got last fall and others on their menu.

Last year, Starbucks launched the Iced Pumpkin Cream Chai Tea Latte and this year they're giving us the Iced Apple Crisp Nondairy Cream Chai. It's essentially the same thing as the Pumpkin Chai, but made dairy-free with the use of oat milk.

I told you Starbucks was obsessed with oat milk and they're adding it everywhere they can, which is great news for our dairy-free friends.

Of course, I immediately set out to make a copycat Iced Apple Crisp Nondairy Cream Chai so you can make the drink at home whenever you want!

🍎 What is the Iced Apple Crisp Nondairy Cream Chai?

According to Starbucks, the new drink involves "warm chai spices, creamy oatmilk and ice, topped with silky, nondairy cold foam infused with apple brown sugar-flavored syrup to create a unique and cozy fall moment."

They're essentially taking several elements they already have in-store and incorporating them into a new fall drink.

Luckily for us, it's an easy drink to make at home with just a few ingredients.

You may be surprised to know that the only apple flavoring in the drink is in the cold foam and not the actual chai mixture itself (just like with the pumpkin drink). I actually wish the chai had much more of an apple flavor, but that's one of the benefits of making the drink at home- you can adjust it however you want!

🗒 Ingredients

The drink has a couple different elements to it, but they're all easy to make. And you can purchase the apple brown sugar syrup instead of making it if you prefer!

Here's everything you need (but be sure to view the recipe card at the bottom of this post for ingredient amounts and full recipe instructions):

• Chai tea concentrate: Starbucks doesn't sell the chai tea concentrate they use, so I recommend using Tazo Chai Tea Concentrate or simply the brand you like best. If you prefer to make a homemade chai tea with tea bags instead, I share some information on how to do that below.
• Ice
• Oat milk: I recommend barista style or extra creamy if you can find it
• Nondairy apple crisp cold foam: I'll show you how to make it in this post!

Here's what you need for the apple cold foam:

• Soy milk: I use a soy milk and oat milk combo because that's what Starbucks does, but you can stick to one or the other if you want.
• Oat milk: again, I recommend barista style or extra creamy)
• Apple brown sugar syrup: you can either purchase a bottle of it or use the recipe I provide in this post. You can purchase the actual Starbucks apple brown sugar syrup (but it's pricey!) or you can use a plain apple syrup (mix it with some brown sugar syrup for an even closer taste!)
• Soy lecithin powder: this is an optional ingredient that helps the nondairy milks froth up a little better, but the cold foam will still work without it
• Soy protein isolate: this is another optional ingredient that helps

If you want to make your own apple brown sugar syrup, it's super easy to do! Here's what you'll need:

• Water
• Brown sugar: I recommend dark for more caramel flavor, but light will also work
• Sliced apples
• Ground cinnamon

👩‍🍳 How to make apple brown sugar syrup

I make my own flavored simple syrups all the time and they're so easy to do. This apple simple syrup is no exception! Here's the easy step-by-step.

Put sugar, water, sliced apples, and cinnamon in a medium saucepan and bring mixture to a boil.

You can already tell it's going to start smelling really good in your house!

Once boiling, lower the heat and let the mixture simmer for about 15-20 minutes, until it has thickened and the apples have softened.

Strain the mixture into a bowl, being sure to press down on the apples with a wooden spoon or spatula to extract as much juice as possible.

I highly recommend saving those apples for another use, like topping ice cream with. Or just eating. They're so tasty.

Now, keep the syrup in the bowl or pour it into a mason jar and place in the fridge to cool completely before using.

The syrup will continue to thicken as it cools and it should keep fresh for about a month when stored properly in the fridge.

The syrup has SO many uses (see this apple simple syrup post for lots of ideas) and it is necessary for so many fall Starbucks drinks. And it works perfectly in the Iced Apple Crisp Chai!

☁️ How to make nondairy apple crisp cold foam

The apple crisp cold foam is essential to the apple chai drink as it's where all the apple flavor is!

Cold foams are super easy to make at home and always delicious for adding to drinks. You can make them in pretty much any flavor you desire!

It IS a bit more of a challenge to make cold foam with nondairy ingredients as they don't froth up quite as good as dairy milks do. But it's still very possible to do!

I always look at Starbucks' ingredient lists when developing my copycat recipes and for this cold foam, they use more soy milk than oat milk. So, I do that here, as well, but if you only want to use one or the other, I think that would be fine. Try to find barista-style or extra creamy versions of the milk if you can.

Starbucks also adds soy lecithin and soy isolate protein to their mixture as these ingredients enhance the frothing and stability of nondairy milks. In my testing, I found that they do indeed help, but that you can still get a decent froth without them.

Add soy milk, oat milk, apple brown sugar syrup, and soy lecithin and soy isolate protein if using to a mason jar and shake to combine.

If you don't have a jar, you can simply stir all the ingredients together in a bowl.

If you're not using this right away, you can keep it in an airtight container in your fridge. This is your nondairy apple crisp sweet cream and you can use it as is in coffee, tea, etc. if you want.

I recommend turning it into a cold foam right before you're ready to enjoy your drink.

To turn it into a cold foam, you can either use an electric frother, hand mixer, or blender. I love my electric frother.

Just add the sweet cream and froth, mix, or blend until the mixture turns into a foam. Alternatively, you can shake the mixture in a mason jar until it's frothy.

🧋 How to make Iced Apple Crisp Chai

Now that you have the elements needed for the drink, you're ready to whip it up. And I mean that; this drink takes just minutes to make.

Simply add the chai tea concentrate to an ice-filled glass.

Pour oat milk into glass. I love how it swirls.

Top the drink with your nondairy apple crisp cold foam.

Hello, fall. I love that Starbucks started making so many of their apple drinks with oat milk as apple and oats feel like the perfect fall combo. Add in chai flavors and it's the ultimate iced autumn drink.

The nondairy cold foam is so delicate, but plays so well with the balance of the drink.

As I mentioned, I do wish the drink had more apple flavor as the chai flavors are definitely more prominent here. But that's an easy fix! Just add a little of the apple brown sugar syrup to the glass when you add the chai concentrate.

You can also order the drink with the addition when you get it in-store.

🎉 Variations on recipe

I like to make Starbucks drinks exactly the way Starbucks intended them the first time I make them (which is why I follow their ingredient lists so closely), but once I have that perfected, I love playing around with variations!

The Iced Apple Crisp Nondairy Cream Chai is delicious as is, but there's also so much you can do to it to make it even better.

Here are some ideas for variations:

• If you're not dairy-free, you can make this drink with regular dairy milk if you prefer. You can use my standard cold foam recipe, but with apple brown sugar syrup instead of vanilla. I also recommend adding an extra Tbsp of syrup for more apple flavor impact.

• Even if you are dairy-free, you can make this drink with any kind of dairy alternative you want, though I really do think oat milk is the tastiest!

• If you don't want to use both soy milk and oat milk in the cold foam, you can just pick one. I like to make my recipes as close to Starbucks as possible and they use both, but the foam should still work with just one milk alternative.

• I was a bit surprised Starbucks didn't add any toppings to the iced chai and think this would be awesome with a little ground cinnamon.

• As I mentioned, I love the idea of adding a little syrup into the chai mixture to give the drink more apple flavor.

• Line the cup with caramel sauce or give the drink a caramel syrup drizzle to make this an even more decadent fall drink.

• Add a shot or two of espresso to make this a dirty apple chai!

⚡️ Does the drink have caffeine?

Because chai tea is a black tea, it does have a little bit of caffeine in it. According to Starbucks, a grande Iced Apple Crisp Nondairy Cream Chai has 95 mg of caffeine.

For reference, a grande iced coffee at Starbucks has 165 mg of caffeine.

If you want a caffeine-free drink, you can simply replace the chai concentrate with decaf chai concentrate!

🍭 How much sugar does the drink have?

You should note that the Iced Apple Crisp Chai is not a low-sugar drink. The grande version in the store has about 46 grams of sugar.

For comparison's sake, a grande Iced Pumpkin Cream Chai has 66 grams of sugar, so the apple version does have slightly less. A grande Iced Matcha Tea Latte has 28 grams of sugar.

If you choose to add additional syrups to this drink, it will add more grams of sugar to it.

🍬 How to make the drink with less sugar

The amount sugar in this drink is in large part due to the chai concentrate. But there are a couple solutions you can use to lower the sugar.

First, you can make your chai tea with actual tea bags. I recommend using a couple tea bags (I like these chai tea bags) per cup of water so you still have a concentrated flavor to the drink.

When making the drink, you'll want to use more of the tea than you would of the concentrate. Then you can add simple syrup, honey, agave, or maple syrup until you reach the sweetness level you like. You can even use the apple brown sugar simple syrup here.

Another way to cut down on the sugar is to use a lower sugar chai tea concentrate. You can also use less of the regular chai concentrate if you want, but you don't want to lessen the chai flavor too much.

🥤 What are Starbucks other fall 2024 menu items?

The Iced Apple Crisp Nondairy Cream Chai is the only brand new drink out at Starbucks in August 2024. In addition to the new drink, the Pumpkin Spice Latte is back, along with the Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew and Iced Pumpkin Cream Chai Tea. The Apple Crisp Oatmilk Shaken Espresso is also returning with the Apple Crisp Oatmilk Macchiato and hot Apple Crisp Macchiato.

In September, the Iced Pecan Crunch Latte (with oat milk) will launch, along with Salted Pecan Cold Cream Foam.

I also think all of the fall drink menu items would be delicious with a breakfast of Hawaiian Roll French Toast.

I'm excited that Starbucks continues adding more apple drinks to their menu and I think the Iced Apple Crisp Nondairy Cream Chai is going to be a hit with customers! I hope you'll try my make-at-home version, too.

Are you more of an apple or pumpkin fan when it comes to fall drinks?

📖 Recipe