Have you guys heard of golden milk or turmeric tea? It was the hottest food trend last year, picking up where chai left off years ago. It’s an earthy, slightly savory spiced milk drink full of vibrantly colored turmeric. I’ve made it and loved it, but when I had Golden Chai at a local coffee shop I fell deeply, madly in love. Golden chai is the love child of golden milk and chai tea. It has all the exotic warm spices of chai paired with the earthy tones and slightly savory edge of golden milk. I knew I had to modify my chai concentrate recipe to make some Golden Chai at home ASAP (because I don’t want to pay $4 for each drink, lol).
Fully Adjustable Flavor
This recipe is super flexible and will most likely need to be tweaked depending on the potency of your ginger, cinnamon sticks, cloves, type of tea, and how sweet you like things, so play around with it. And YES you can absolutely use non-dairy milk. :)
I reduced the sweetness from my original chai concentrate recipe by half because I like my golden milk to have only a hint of sweetness. I also used honey instead of sugar this time around because honey has a really distinct flavor that I thought would go really well here. Of course, you can use whatever sweetener is your favorite or that your budget allows.
The Golden Chai mix (without milk added) will stay good in your fridge for 3-4 days, so drink up!
Golden Chai
Servings 4 16 oz. eachIngredients
- 3-4 2-3″ cinnamon sticks ($1.50)
- 1-2 inches fresh ginger, peeled and sliced ($0.11)
- 10 whole cloves ($0.39)
- Freshly cracked pepper ($0.05)
- 4 cups water ($0.00)
- 4 bags black tea ($0.51)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract ($0.14)
- 1 Tbsp ground turmeric* ($0.30)
- 1/4 cup honey ($0.48)
- 4 cups milk ($1.24)
Instructions
- Place the cinnamon sticks, sliced ginger, cloves, cracked pepper, and water in a medium sauce pot. Place a lid on the pot and bring it up to a boil over high heat. Once it reaches a boil, reduce the heat to low and let it simmer for five minutes.
- Turn off the heat, add the black tea bags, replace the lid and let the tea steep for 4-5 minutes. Pour the tea into a bowl through a fine mesh strainer or colander.
- Whisk the vanilla, honey, and turmeric into the tea. Taste and adjust the sweetness or other spices, if desired. This Golden Chai tea mix can be refrigerated and saved in the refrigerator for a few days.
- To make each drink, heat 8oz. of milk (stove top, microwave, or steamer) and combine with 8oz. of the hot golden chai tea mix. Make sure to stir the Golden Chai tea mix just before combining with the milk. Serve while hot.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Notes
Nutrition
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How to Make Golden Chai – Step by Step Photos
Place 1-2 inches fresh ginger (peeled and sliced) into a medium sauce pot along with 3-4 cinnamon sticks, a generous dose of freshly cracked pepper, and about 10 whole cloves. Add 4 cups water, place a lid on the pot, and bring it up to a boil over high heat. Once it reaches a boil, turn the heat down and let it simmer for 5 minutes.
After simmering for 5 minutes, turn the heat off, and add 4 black tea bags. Let the tea steep for 4-5 minutes.
Strain the tea into a bowl using a wire mesh sieve or a colander.
Whisk 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, 1 Tbsp ground turmeric, and 1/4 cup honey into the tea. This is your Golden Chai tea mix, which you can serve now with milk, or refrigerate for later. The mix will be good in the refrigerator for a few days. The turmeric won’t dissolve, so the mix must be stirred each time before combining with milk.
To make your Golden Chai, heat 8oz. milk for each drink you want to make (do this on the stove top, microwave, or with a steamer), then combine the hot milk with the hot Golden Chai tea mix. I garnished with an extra sprinkle of turmeric. :)
I’m out of cinnamon sticks, could I stir in cinnamon powder with the turmeric powder instead?
That will create quite a bit of sediment and it’s hard to say how much it might affect the flavor.
Just made this with fresh turmeric instead of dried. Used a roughly equal amount of peeled, sliced fresh turmeric to ginger. Served with soy milk. A++++
Awesome recipe! Excited to give this a try next weekend instead of coffee.
Question: How can you make the milk foamy like it is in the photo? Or like they do at coffee shops? I just added hot milk but it’s not quite the same. I also added less turmeric because it’s kind of a strong flavor. I used half a tablespoon instead of a whole tablespoon.
I recently bought a small espresso machine that has a steam wand, so I used that, but there are several other types of inexpensive milk frothers, like this hand held battery powered one.
i bought this:
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01E69O7HW/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
and it works so well even with almond milk! :)
If you prefer to avoid another kitchen gadget, you can add some milk to a small jar, shake for 30-60 seconds, then remove the lid and microwave for 30 seconds. The heat will stabilize the foam.
First of all, I LOVE that blue background coupled with the golden milk.
Second, your towel styling skills are on point. I swear, I can’t style a damn towel in my photography if my life depended on it.
Third, I keep hearing about golden milk but have yet to try it. I love turmeric so this recipe is on my “to make list”
Great job!
Hahaha, thank you! Towels are so tricky because if they’re too thick they don’t work or if you don’t have them bunched or rumpled juuuuust right your dish sitting on top will be lopsided. :P
This was delicious! The turmeric gave it a nice earthiness. Next time around I’ll probably throw in a few cardamom pods.
Yum! Love it. A local coffee shop serves this in my area, but I never thought to make it myself! Tastes almost exactly the same and I already had the ingredients on hand.
I was so excited for this! But I just made it and….it was awful. 😩 I followed the instructions to a T….what could I have done wrong? I didn’t over-steep the tea, but it had an incredibly unpleasant bitter aftertaste that I just can’t get out of my mouth. I feel it must’ve been something I did because everyone else is raving about this. Help?! 😭 My only thought is that my turmeric has gone bad. But I don’t know because I rarely use turmeric.
Hmmm, maybe you’re not used to such a strong turmeric flavor? It may just be that in that concentration it doesn’t taste good to you? You can also try adding more sweetener as that can help dampen bitter flavors. I wonder if it could also be the cinnamon sticks. I’m sure they is probably variation from brand to brand. :( Sorry it didn’t turn out for you! I wish I had a more clear answer.
Thanks for the great idea for using turmeric! I have heard about the health benefits of turmeric, supposed to be a powerful anti-inflammatory, so I am excited to find a way to incorporate it into my daily diet. I love Dirty Chai, so I used about 1/4 cup chai tea mix, 1/4 cup hot milk whisked, 1 tsp turmeric and filled to the brim with dark roast pour over coffee. Delish! I will make this my daily afternoon pick-me-up.
Delicious. Also a great cold drink served over ice on a hot August day. Thank you for sharing.
Hi. This recipe looks great. I have never had the turmeric drink and look forward to combining it with Chai concentrate, which I have experimented with. I thought I would share a little info based on my efforts. First off, Barbara Tropp and several other experts in Chinese cooking say that removing the peel from ginger is unnecessary. So I just rinse off fresh ginger before using it, which is really convenient. The only fresh ginger available for sale in the local Krogers has been organic for over a year. If you have access to organic fresh ginger, you have another justification for not removing the peel. I prefer my chai made with green tea, so that is what I use. You can even sub water for the tea and still have a delicious drink. Cardamom and fresh ginger are 2 flavors I am crazy about, so I would never omit the cardamom as you have. Cardamom is also a major flavor in traditional chai, but it is all a matter of personal taste. One issue with cardamom is that it is extremely expensive. This can be helped by purchasing it from a bulk spice bin, where you measure out the desired amount yourself. I believe that pods are cheaper than ground cardamom, but I have always used ground because I am more familiar with measuring to taste that way. Also, cardamom dissolves just fine in the concentrate. Another good reason for buying Cardamom in bulk is that, if the store maintains their spice products well, the cardamom will be much fresher. It is essential for ground cardamom to be extremely fragrant. If the spice is too old, the only smel! It will retain will be peppery, rather than fragrant with a peppery element. If the spice only retains a peppery smell, or no particular smell at all, it is too old for use. Supermarket spices are often too old. Another great source for fresh spice is Penzey’s, store or mail order. Hope this is helpful for someone!
I’ve made golden milk, and your Chai concentrate before – can’t believe I never thought to combine them for a quick heat-n-serve drink. Looks perfect since it’s starting to get a bit chilly in the evenings here in the Midwest. Is there an herbal tea you’d recommend substituting for the black tea, for drinking later in the day?
Hmmmm, someone in another comment said that they sometimes just steep the spices in water without the tea, so maybe that would work? I wonder how yerba mate would taste, since it kind of tastes like coffee and people often mix chai with coffee. Not sure how it would taste with the turmeric, though.
Tulsi tea is a nice combination with chai and has lots of healing properties.
Such a great way to get more turmeric and healthy spices in your diet! I was so inspired – I love chai – that I ran to the store to pick up some cloves and cinnamon sticks to make this.
It’s great! I reduced the honey significantly, since I find so many chais overly sweet, using only one tablespoon. Worked beautifully with unsweetened vanilla almond milk.
The recipe itself doesn’t include milk in the list, and I think that might be helpful for planning. Also, turmeric stains quite a bit, so this might need an added caveat.
Otherwise, I really enjoy your recipes and appreciate your sharing this! I will be enjoying this all week!
Oops! I forgot to type the milk into the ingredients list. :P It’s in the price calculations but I forgot to include it in the ingredients. Thanks for catching that!
Have you tried to freeze the concentrate so I could make a larger batch.?
I haven’t, but that’s a good idea. I bet you could freeze it in an ice cube tray!
Hey, just an FYI: Chai Tea means “tea tea”! Chai itself means tea in most indian languages (It’s like if I said Coke Soda or Cappuccino Coffee)!