Celebrate National Espresso Day Your Way
(Without giving up your favorite Moody blend)
Even the most die-hard tea fans could occasionally use an extra boost of caffeine, but you don’t have to give up your tea for coffee! Aside from switching out your tea for a higher caffeine blend, there is another way you can up the ante of your morning cup – make it dirty! A dirty tea latte is the perfect way to enjoy your favorite blends with an additional caffeine kick from coffee.
What Is a Tea Latte?
You’ve probably tried a tea latte before – the most common is a chai latte, which is a staple at most coffee shops nowadays. If you’re a tea pro, you may have even made one at home with your favorite blends! Tea lattes are based on a modified cafe latte, made with espresso and milk steamed with a thin layer of foam. Tea lattes are generally made with a tea concentrate in place of espresso, and can be made iced or hot, with your milk of choice. For example, a chai latte is made with chai concentrate. To learn how to make tea lattes at home, check out Making tea lattes at home ft. Moody Teas!
So What Makes a Dirty Tea Latte Dirty?
The phrase “dirty” refers to adding a shot (or two, or three) of espresso into your tea latte. A dirty tea latte is essentially a hybrid of a traditional latte and a tea latte. This type of drink also started with chai, and was supposedly invented in London when a barista accidentally added a shot of espresso to a customer’s chai. The customer tried it anyway, and it was a hit. Now dirty chai lattes are relatively common, since the strong flavors of chai and black tea hold up well against a shot of espresso, but that doesn’t mean you can’t try it with your favorite Moody blends!
Choosing a tea for your dirty Tea Latte
When choosing a blend to make your own dirty tea latte, consider the strength of the flavor. You’ll want to choose blends with flavors that compliment coffee: floral flavors (like lavender), spiced flavors (cinnamon, cloves, ginger), or even earthy spices (like rosemary) will all shine through the strong taste of espresso. On the other hand, delicate flavors may get lost and end up tasting watered down. For this reason we generally don’t recommend using white teas, and we’d use green tea blends on a case by case basis depending on the other flavors involved.
Additionally, you’ll want to consider how your tea blend will interact with milk. Blends with ingredients like citrus, pineapple, hibiscus, and some other fruits may curdle the milk, and that’s not the kind of “dirty” you want. A great rule of thumb is to ask yourself if you’d drink that tea with milk of without. If you wouldn’t add milk to a blend on it’s own, chances are you won’t enjoy it in a latte form.
Make It Dirty – How To Modify Your Tea Latte Recipe
Start by figuring out your coffee – if you have an espresso machine at home, this is easy: just pull your desired number of shots and go! If you’re like us and don’t have an expensive espresso machine at home, you’ve got a couple options. To make this simple, you could substitute around ¼ cup of regular coffee, brewed as strong as possible to recreate the intensity of espresso. This does run the risk of tasting a bit more watery than when made with espresso.
If you want to recreate that coffee shop dirty chai vibe, we suggest running to your favorite coffee shop and ordering a shot or two of espresso on it’s own. This way you can recreated a coffee shop style dirty tea latte without the coffee shop price since espresso alone is typically much less expensive than a more elaborate drink.
Once you’ve got your coffee, you’re ready to assemble! When making a traditional tea latte, you’ll use 2-3 ounces of concentrate, and the remainder steamed milk. To make your dirty tea latte, add your tea concentrate to your cup, followed by your coffee, then fill with milk – this will allow you to fill your cup without trying to estimate how much room to leave for your espresso.
Our Favorite Dirty Tea Latte Blends
- For a traditional dirty chai, you can’t go wrong with our Kumaon, Let’s Go!
- For some green tea benefits and a more earthy flavor, try Matcha
- For a bright flavor, try Bright and Early – the dandelion root brings our the roasted flavors of the coffee, while the bergamot adds a citrus note without curdling your milk.
- If you love the flavor of a dirty chai latte but don’t need the added caffeine, replace your espresso with decaf and add Red Moon Rooibos Chai – the creamy coconut notes and chai spices make a super warm and comforting dirty tea latte.
What’s your favorite dirty tea latte flavor? Let us know in the comments, or show us your favorite new drinks by tagging us in your posts!