Iced Gingerbread Oatmilk Chai Latte {Starbucks Copycat}

It doesn't feel like the holiday season until you have your first Starbucks' holiday drink and the new Iced Gingerbread Oatmilk Chai Latte will give you an instant burst of holiday cheer! With this easy copycat recipe, you can make the gingerbread chai drink at home all season long.

Jump to:

• 🥤 What is the Iced Gingerbread Oatmilk Chai Latte?
• ❤️ Why you'll love this recipe
• 🗒 Ingredients
• 🥣 How to make gingerbread syrup
• 🧋 How to make Iced Gingerbread Oatmilk Chai Latte
• 🎉 Customization ideas
• ⚡️ Does the drink have caffeine?
• 🍬 How much sugar does the drink have?
• 🍭 How to make this drink lower sugar
• 🎄 What are Starbucks' other holiday menu items?
• ☕️ More Starbucks winter drink copycat recipes
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

When does the holiday season officially begin for you? Two days after Halloween may seem too early for some, but that's what we're going with around here.

Because that's when the Starbucks holiday drinks are out this year and with the drinks comes immediate holiday spirit vibes.

After the huge success of Starbucks' new fall 2023 drink the Iced Pumpkin Cream Chai Tea Latte, I'm not at all surprised they decided to launch another chai-based drink for the 2023 winter season.

This time around, it's the Iced Gingerbread Oatmilk Chai Latte and I have to tell you it's absolutely perfect. And I'm so excited to be sharing my copycat recipe with you!

🥤 What is the Iced Gingerbread Oatmilk Chai Latte?

After I enjoyed the pumpkin chai drink this fall, I already had a great idea of what the gingerbread chai would be like before the official ingredients list was published.

And now that it's out and I've tried the actual drink, I've been able to make a copycat version that tastes just like it!

So, what exactly goes into the new chai drink at Starbucks? The company says about the drink, "Warm gingerbread notes, a cozy blend of chai spices and creamy oatmilk come together in a Tea Latte to create a unique, festive, feel-good moment."

It's made with gingerbread syrup, a chai tea concentrate, and oat milk. The surprising part for me when I saw the ingredients list is that the drink is topped off with pumpkin pie spice. But trust me, it works with the drink.

Another interesting new twist for Starbucks? Instead of topping the chai with a cold foam, they opted to keep the drink dairy-free and froth some of the oatmilk for the top of the drink.

Similarly to how the pumpkin sauce is incorporated into the cold foam in the pumpkin chai, the gingerbread syrup is incorporated into the oat milk froth in this drink and isn't actually mixed into the drink itself.

Oat milk doesn't really froth up well, especially when syrup is added to it, so I've already seen a lot of people complaining about this, including baristas who have to deal with unhappy customers. So, I'm giving you a few options with this drink.

Of course, you can get any customizations you want to turn it into your ideal drink and I share some ideas you can do at home.

❤️ Why you'll love this recipe

If you're a fan of the Starbucks Iced Gingerbread Oatmilk Chai Latte, you'll love the fact that you can make it at home! If you like the drink, but prefer it with lots of alterations, you'll be happy to be able to recreate your own perfect version in your own kitchen.

In addition to the oat milk froth, I've also already seen a lot of people complaining that the drink doesn't taste enough like gingerbread. But when you make it at home, you can really control the level of gingerbread flavor and sweetness involved.

This iced holiday drink is so easy to make and once you have the gingerbread syrup, you can make it at home super quickly any time you want!

🗒 Ingredients

You don't need too many ingredients for this iced chai recipe and all can be easily obtained or made. Here's everything required (but be sure to check out 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 (though note they are all a little different in terms of sweetness). If you prefer to make a homemade chai tea with tea bags instead, I share some information on how to do that below under the the subheading "how to make this drink lower sugar."
• Ice
• Oat milk
• Gingerbread syrup: You can either make your own gingerbread syrup with this recipe (I'll show you how within this post, too) or you can buy a bottle of gingerbread syrup.
• Pumpkin pie spice, for topping

And if you want to make your own gingerbread syrup, here's everything you need for that:

• Water
• Granulated sugar
• Molasses
• Ground ginger
• Ground cinnamon
• Ground allspice
• Ground nutmeg

If you don't have molasses, I recommend making the syrup with brown sugar instead of white sugar, so you still get some of that molasses flavor.

🥣 How to make gingerbread syrup

Gingerbread syrup is super easy to make at home! And once you make a batch of it, you should have enough for about 4 grande iced lattes.

It's also really easy to double or triple the recipe and keep it in your fridge for whenever you get a gingerbread latte craving!

You can check out my full gingerbread syrup recipe post for lots more info.

To start, put all the ingredients in a medium saucepan and bring mixture to a boil.

Once it's boiling, lower the heat and let it simmer for about 10 minutes, until sugar is completely dissolved and mixture has thickened a bit.

Pour the syrup into a mason jar or bowl and place in fridge to cool completely before using.

The syrup will continue to thicken as it cools.

🧋 How to make Iced Gingerbread Oatmilk Chai Latte

Now that you've either made or bought your gingerbread syrup, you're ready to mix up the iced latte drink. It takes no time at all!

Start by adding the chai concentrate to your ice-filled glass.

I use 3 oz. of chai concentrate, but note that all brands are different. I actually used a brand different from Tazo and found 3 oz. way too sweet. So, you may want to do some experimenting here.

Pour in 3 oz. of oat milk.

Then you can froth the remaining 3 oz. oat milk with 1 oz. gingerbread syrup.

You can either use an electric frother, hand mixer, blender, or jar to turn it into froth. Just note that it's not going to froth up like a cold cream does and even when it does froth, the froth doesn't last for a very long time.

I used my electric frother for mine:

But it didn't last long when I poured it over the rest of the drink in the cup and sprinkled pumpkin pie spice over the top.

I prefer to make this drink by mixing the chai concentrate and gingerbread syrup into the cup with the ice and then pouring all 6 oz. of oat milk over the top.

The syrup does settle on the bottom of the cup more than it does when it's incorporated into the froth, but you just have to give it a good stir every now and then.

🎉 Customization ideas

I always order new Starbucks drinks as the company intends them to be enjoyed at least a couple times so I can really see how they're supposed to taste.

But once I get to know the drinks, I start experimenting with substituting and adding different ingredient and various flavors. Here are some fun ideas for the Iced Gingerbread Oatmilk Chai Latte:

• Of course, you can make it with any type of dairy or non-dairy alternative you want. I do think the oat milk complements the gingerbread flavor nicely, but other types of milk would froth up a bit better. Try regular 2% milk, almond milk, soy milk, or even coconut milk. I would use unsweetened varieties.

• If you don't care about the froth, simply mix the gingerbread syrup with the chai concentrate and pour the oat milk over the top.

• Or you can make the oat milk froth AND add extra gingerbread syrup to the drink. I've made it like that a couple times.

• If you want extra gingerbread flavor without adding more syrup, top the drink with your own spice blend instead of pumpkin pie spice. I'd use ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, allspice, cardamom, but go heavier on the ginger.

• Some people have said adding brown sugar syrup to the drink makes it even better.

• You can top it with your own cold foam instead of the froth. You can use this cold foam recipe and customize it with any flavor you want. Of course, gingerbread would be delicious, as would salted caramel or vanilla. You could also use whipped cream instead.

• Lining the cup with caramel sauce adds some extra sweet deliciousness

• If you want some extra caffeine, you can make this a "dirty chai" and add a shot or two of espresso.

⚡️ 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 Gingerbread Oatmilk Chai Tea Latte has 100 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 much sugar does the drink have?

A grande size of this gingerbread drink does have 45 grams of sugar in it, so it's not a low-sugar drink. However, note that this is less than the fall's Iced Pumpkin Chai, which had 66 grams of sugar.

Of course, the more syrup and/or chai concentrate you add to your drink, the more the sugar levels will increase.

🍭 How to make this drink lower sugar

Many people are often surprised to learn that chai tea drinks at Starbucks have a lot of sugar in them as tea isn't generally thought of as being high-sugar.

But Starbucks uses a chai tea concentrate, which comes with a lot of sugar in it.

If you want a lower sugar drink, 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, so you get enough chai flavor. Then you can add gingerbread simple syrup until you reach the sweetness level you like. Or if you want less gingerbread flavor, you can use honey, agave, or maple syrup.

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 keep in mind that the less you use, the less the chai flavor will be pronounced.

You can also try using sugar-free gingerbread syrup.

🎄 What are Starbucks' other holiday menu items?

Not only is Starbucks releasing the Iced Gingerbread Oatmilk Chai Latte, but they're also releasing a hot version of the gingerbread chai for the holidays.

Several favorites are also coming back, including the Iced Sugar Cookie Almondmilk Latte (also available hot!), Peppermint Mocha, Caramel Brulée Latte, Chestnut Praline Latte, and the Peppermint Mocha Frappuccino.

For food, the gingerbread loaf is back along with the snowman cookie, cranberry bliss bars, peppermint brownie cake pops, and the sugar plum cheese danish.

Which holiday drinks are you most excited for?

☕️ More Starbucks winter drink copycat recipes

I love making copycat versions of Starbucks drinks and the holiday drinks are some of my favorites! Here are some other winter drink recipes you can try:

And if you love chai drinks, definitely give my copycat recipe for the Iced Pumpkin Cream Chai Tea Latte a try!

You can see all my Starbucks copycat recipes here.

I hope this make-at-home version of the Starbucks Iced Gingerbread Oatmilk Chai Latte helps you get in the holiday spirit a bit earlier this year!

Let me know your favorite way to customize this drink!

📖 Recipe