Iced Cherry Chai Latte {Starbucks Copycat}

The Starbucks Iced Cherry Chai Latte will instantly transport you to a spring sort of mood. And with this easy copycat recipe, you can make the cherry cold foam topped iced tea drink at home!

Jump to:

• 🧋 What is the Iced Cherry Chai Latte?
• 🗒 Ingredients
• 🍒 How to make cherry syrup
• 🥛 How to make cherry cold foam
• 👩‍🍳 How to make drink
• 🎉 Variations on recipe
• ⚡️ Does the drink have caffeine?
• 🫖 How to make drink with tea bags
• 🥣 How to make with cherry powder
• 🍵 More Starbucks iced tea copycats
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

Cherries at Starbucks? Yes, you heard that right! As part of their Spring 2025 drink lineup, Starbucks has launched a new cherry drink... And we have a feeling this will be the first of many.

The launch has added an Iced Cherry Chai Latte to the menu and it's packed with sweet cherry and chai flavors balanced with creamy 2% milk.

But since the drink is made with a cherry powder, you are officially welcome to customize the drink of your choice with the powder, too. Cherry iced coffee, anyone?

I did lots of testing to come up with this Iced Cherry Chai Latte copycat recipe for you. Which means you can enjoy the cherry chai at home any time you want!

🧋 What is the Iced Cherry Chai Latte?

The new Iced Cherry Chai Latte takes the traditional Starbucks Iced Chai Latte and tops it with a sweet cherry cold foam, along with some vanilla cherry crunchies.

That's right; the cherry flavor is only in the cold foam on the drink and not in the chai/milk mixture itself. But it adds a sweet cherry flavor that so far, seems to be getting mixed reviews from customers.

Rather than a syrup, Starbucks uses a cherry powder to make their drink (just like they use a lavender powder for their lavender drinks, like the Iced Lavender Cream Oatmilk Matcha, which is also back in stores for spring!).

When testing this recipe, I initially tested a homemade cherry powder, but unfortunately, it was tough to get a strong enough cherry flavor with it.

Most freeze-dried cherries don't have a ton of flavor and they certainly don't have that candy-like cherry flavor (you know cherry candy flavor is so different than actual cherries!), which Starbucks' drink definitely does.

So, I nixed the powder and decided to use a cherry syrup for this drink instead. You KNOW I like to keep my copycat drink ingredients as close to Starbucks' actual ingredients as possible, but trust me, the cherry powder just wasn't cutting it here.

🗒 Ingredients

Overall, the ingredients for this drink are pretty simple, though the drink does have a few different components to it.

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

• Ice
• 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.
• 2% milk: Starbucks uses 2% milk in their standard iced chai latte, but you can, of course, replace it with the dairy or dairy alternative of your choice
• Cherry cold foam: this can easily be made at home and I share the recipe with you below.
• Freeze-dried cherries and vanilla cookies for topping: Starbucks tops their drink with a "cherry crunch" topping, which is basically cherry powder and vanilla cookie crumbs. I recommend using crushed freeze-dried cherries and vanilla cookies, like Nilla Wafers or golden Oreos.

Here's everything you need for the cherry cold foam:

• 2% milk
• Heavy cream
• Cherry syrup: you can either make your own cherry syrup with the recipe I share here or you can use a store-bought cherry syrup.

If you're making the homemade cherry syrup, here's everything you need:

• Water
• Granulated sugar
• Cherries: I like to use fresh cherries, but you can also use frozen.

🍒 How to make cherry syrup

If you're making your own cherry simple syrup, you'll want to get that started first as it needs time to cool. It's super simple to make!

All you have to do is put all the ingredients (water, sugar, and cherries) in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil.

Once boiling, lower heat and let mixture simmer for about 15 minutes.

At this point, the cherries should be bursting and the mixture will have thickened a bit (it will thicken even more as it cools).

Now, strain the syrup into a bowl, pressing down on the cherries with a wooden spoon or spatula to extract as much juice as possible.

You can either keep the syrup in the bowl or pour it into a mason jar. I like mason jars because they come with covers.

Keep the cherry syrup in the fridge in an airtight container until it's completely cooled.

🥛 How to make cherry cold foam

You'll want to wait to make the cherry cold foam until right before you're ready to enjoy your cherry chai latte.

But you can mix up the ingredients into the "cherry sweet cream" ahead of time if you want.

Just put ¾ cup 2% milk, ¼ cup heavy cream, and 2 tablespoons cherry syrup in a large jar and shake really well to combine.

If you don't have a large jar, you can stir all the ingredients together in a bowl and then transfer to an airtight container.

Keep the cherry sweet cream in the fridge until you're ready to use it.

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

To turn the sweet cream into a cold foam, you can either use an electric frother, hand mixer, or blender.

Simply add the sweet cream to your appliance and froth, mix, or blend until the mixture turns into a foam.

If you don't have any of these small appliances, you can keep the mixture in the mason jar and shake it really, really well until it's frothy.

👩‍🍳 How to make drink

Now that all the components of your drink are made, you're ready to assemble it and start sipping!

Just add the chai tea concentrate to an ice-filled glass. Pour the milk into the glass, too.

Top your drink with cherry cold foam.

And sprinkle crushed freeze-dried cherries and vanilla cookie crumbs over the top.

How gorgeous??

I've never considered adding cherry to chai tea before, but there's something about it that really works, especially just in time for spring!

I think part of the reason the drink works really well is because the cherry flavor is only in the cold foam and topping and it's subtle instead of over-powering.

I have seen some critics say the Iced Cherry Chai tastes medicinal, but I definitely don't get that at all.

I'm very curious to see if Starbucks will start incorporating the cherry powder into coffee drinks, too.

I think the powder would be a delicious addition to the Pink Drink and I also want to try it in a matcha latte.

🎉 Variations on recipe

If you want the drink as is just like Starbucks serves it, you should make it how I describe. However, lots of people who are enjoying the Iced Cherry Chai Latte are adding all kinds of extra deliciousness to it.

Here are some ideas:

• Make it a dirty cherry chai by adding a shot or two of espresso.
  
• Make it with the dairy or dairy alternative of your choice instead of 2% milk. Try oat milk, coconut milk, or almond milk... Just note that changing the dairy will slightly change the flavor of the drink.

• For more cherry flavor, add a little syrup into the chai concentrate/milk mixture. Or add another syrup flavor of your choice, like vanilla, cinnamon dolce, or brown sugar syrup.

• Add mocha sauce to make the drink into a chocolate cherry chai! Or top the drink with mini chocolate chips.

• Add a little white mocha sauce for a sweeter and even prettier drink.

• If you don't want to purchase freeze-dried cherries just for topping the drink, you can always use crushed cherry Jolly Rancher candies or another cherry candy.

• Use decaf chai tea concentrate or use low-sugar chai tea concentrate. You can also make the drink with chai tea bags with the information I provide below.

⚡️ 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 Cherry Chai Latte has 95 mg of caffeine.

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

If you prefer, you can use a decaf chai tea concentrate to make this drink

🫖 How to make drink with tea bags

If you want a lower sugar drink or just a more "natural" chai flavor, you can make your chai tea with actual tea bags. I recommend using a couple tea bags per cup of water so you still have a concentrated flavor to the drink.

I like these chai tea bags best.

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.

Another option 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.

🥣 How to make with cherry powder

If you really want to use cherry powder (like Starbucks does) to make this drink, you certainly can! Just note that the cold foam won't have that same candy-like cherry flavor; it will be more of a natural cherry flavor.

Here's what I recommend using:

• ¼ cup freeze-dried cherries
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• Pinch salt
• ½ teaspoon soy lecithin powder: this is an optional ingredient, but it will help the cherry powder blend better in drinks.

To make, put the freeze-dried cherries in a spice or coffee grinder and grind into a fine powder. Transfer to small bowl.

Whisk sugar, salt, and soy lecithin (if using) into ground cherries.

Transfer mixture back to grinder (you may have to work in batches) and process until entire mixture is a fine powder.

Store cherry powder in an airtight container at room temperature until ready to use. to work in batches) and process until entire mixture is a fine powder.

When mixing the powder into cold foam, you'll also need to use a simple syrup (I recommend 2 tablespoon syrup and 1 tablespoon powder). Starbucks uses vanilla syrup in their cherry cold foam.

For lots more coffee and non-coffee based drinks, be sure to check out all my Starbucks drink recipes.

I'm thrilled with the new cherry addition at Starbucks and I can't wait to continue experimenting with using it in all sorts of ways!

What fruity flavor do you hope Starbucks will introduce next?

📖 Recipe