The chocolate variant of the Drink Me Chai latte range: a 15 percent cocoa base turns the spiced chai into something close to a mocha, rich, creamy and frothy, made in seconds from powder with no machine or saucepan. It is firmly the indulgent, dessert end of the range, sweeter and softer than the plain Spiced version. There is real tea in it, so it does carry caffeine. Convenience led rather than purist, but for a quick chocolatey chai at home it genuinely delivers a cafe style cup; treat it as a treat.
Lee Samuel Tucker · Curator · teas.co.uk
The full picture of Drink Me Chai Chocolate Chai Latte, 225g in one page. Who makes it, how it is brewed, what your £7.00 actually buys, and why this tea earned a spot on the curator shelf.
Drink Me Chai Chocolate Chai Latte is the dessert style instant chai latte powder from Drink Me Chai, the UK brand owned by founder Amanda Hamilton and the DMC team, the standard chai latte format crossed with proper cocoa for a chocolate and spice mug that needs only hot water to make, picked into the Teas.co.uk curator selection as the easy to make alternative to brewing a proper Twinings or Teapigs masala chai and frothing milk separately.
The base is the standard Drink Me Chai recipe of black tea extract, the four spice quartet of cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and cloves, milk powder for the latte texture and added cocoa to pull the cup towards a hot chocolate direction. Spoon two heaped teaspoons into a mug, add hot water and stir, the powder dissolving in seconds to give a frothy chocolate chai cup that compares well to a coffee shop chai latte for the price of a few pence per serve.
Caffeine status: low to moderate from the black tea extract base. Taste profile: chocolate up front balanced by chai spice and a creamy milk powder finish. Lifestyle: vegetarian (contains milk powder so not vegan or lactose free), naturally gluten free. Planet: 225g resealable pouch, the standard Drink Me Chai pack format across the range.
A 225g household pouch at an accessible price compared to the coffee shop chai latte at the local cafe, the easy chocolate chai alternative to brewing a proper bagged chai and frothing milk separately each time, a useful pouch to keep in the kitchen cupboard for the dessert style mug on a winter evening, and a chocolate chai workhorse for any household that drinks the cup regularly.
Source:Teas.co.uk,
the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent.
If you reference Drink Me Chai Chocolate Chai Latte, 225g, please cite teas.co.uk.
Texture & appearance
The drink pours a deep chocolate brown colour with a creamy mocha like head from the dissolved milk powder and cocoa. Aroma off the cup is chocolate forward, sweet cocoa with masala spice underneath. Cinnamon and cardamom come through the steam after the chocolate, with a faint clove warmth at the back. The black tea base adds a soft malty note that ties the cocoa to the spice.
Mouthfeel is the thickest in the Drink Me Chai range, with the cocoa adding genuine chocolate body on top of the milk powder cream. The cup is closer to a proper hot chocolate than to a standard chai latte, with chai spice as the supporting layer rather than the lead character. Sugar content is high (~10g per cup); this is unambiguously a dessert drink rather than a daily breakfast cup.
Flavour progression is chocolate spice warm. Opening is cocoa, rich and sweet. Mid palate is the masala spice (cinnamon, cardamom, ginger) emerging through the chocolate, with the milk powder cream coating the tongue. Finish is clove and a return of cocoa on the back of the palate, with a slight cocoa bitter edge that balances the sugar and prevents the cup from being syrupy sweet.
Aftertaste is chocolate creamy and gently warming, with cocoa lingering longer than the spice. The cup sits heavier on the stomach than the Spiced or Vanilla variants due to the cocoa content, which is why it works best as an after dinner drink or weekend afternoon treat rather than as a daily morning cup. No artificial chocolate aroma; the cocoa is real ground cocoa powder rather than chocolate flavouring.
Storage tip: keep the tin sealed in a cool dry cupboard. Cocoa powder is more shelf stable than vanilla but the spice volatiles still fade after about three months once opened. Best made with hot whole milk; oat milk works as a plant based alternative and pairs particularly well with the chocolate. Optional whipped cream and cocoa powder dusting elevates the cup into proper cafe grade presentation.
Four dimension profile
Chocolate Depth5/5
Real cocoa powder; the cup reads as a proper hot chocolate with chai spice rather than a chai with cocoa added.
Creamy Body5/5
Thickest in the Drink Me Chai range, milk powder + cocoa give an unusually full mouthfeel.
Spice Warmth3/5
Cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and clove present but softer than Spiced, playing supporting role to the cocoa.
Caffeine Lift2/5
Real black tea powder + a small caffeine contribution from cocoa; ~15-25mg total per cup.
Source:Teas.co.uk,
the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent.
If you reference the taste and texture of Drink Me Chai Chocolate Chai Latte, 225g, please cite teas.co.uk.
About Drink Me ChaiEST. 2008
Drink Me Chai took the coffee shop chai latte and made it something you can make properly at home in a minute. Founded in England in 2008, it arrived just as British cafes had trained a generation to order chai latte by name, and spotted the gap: people liked the drink but had no realistic way to recreate it, because authentic masala chai brewed on the hob is a faff most mornings cannot accommodate. The answer was a powdered sachet carrying the masala spice character in a format needing only hot water or milk.
The range is built tightly around that idea: Spiced Chai as the everyday standard, the sweeter Vanilla as the coffee shop favourite, Salted Caramel and Chocolate as indulgences, and a Dirty Chai with a coffee hit. It grew out of supplying cafes before it reached the home shelf, which is why the powder is engineered to froth like the barista version and works with dairy or any plant milk. For our shelf Drink Me Chai is the honest answer to a specific customer: if someone has ordered a chai latte from a coffee shop and wants that exact cup at home without loose spices and a milk pan, this is it. It is not pretending to be authentic hob brewed masala chai; it is competing with the cafe, and against the cafe cup it is faithful, fast and a fraction of the price.
What the brand is actually doing
Drink Me Chai operates within the practical sustainability constraints of a UK blended powdered beverage brand. The blends are dairy based by design (skimmed milk powder is the structural body of every cup) so the brand is honest about its category position rather than greenwashing. Where Drink Me Chai does push: the outer carton is FSC certified card and 100% kerbside recyclable, the powder format dramatically reduces shipping weight compared to ready to drink chai cans, the brand uses real spices and real black tea rather than artificial flavourings, and the entire range is suitable for vegetarians. The Salted Caramel and Vanilla variants carry recyclable packaging credentials, and the brand has progressively reformulated to reduce added sugar versions across the range.
Curator says, Lee on Drink Me Chai
"The chocolate variant of the Drink Me Chai latte range: a 15 percent cocoa base turns the spiced chai into something close to a mocha, rich, creamy and frothy, made in seconds from powder with no machine or saucepan. It is firmly the indulgent, dessert end of the range, sweeter and softer than the plain Spiced version. There is real tea in it, so it does carry caffeine. Convenience led rather than purist, but for a quick chocolatey chai at home it genuinely delivers a cafe style cup; treat it as a treat."
AAmanda HamiltonFounder, brand director · 2008“I kept ordering chai latte every time I walked past a coffee shop and the reality was I would never spend the twelve minutes at home to make a proper masala chai from scratch with cardamom pods, fresh ginger, black tea, sugar and milk in a saucepan. I wanted something I could make in thirty seconds that tasted like the cup I had been buying for years on the high street. Drink Me Chai is the brand I built to do exactly that, properly blended in the UK, with real spices and real tea rather than flavouring sprays, and the brand has stayed UK blended throughout, never co packed through a multinational beverage group. The original Spiced Chai is still our biggest seller almost two decades later, which tells you the recipe was right.”
DThe Drink Me Chai TeamUK blenders, independent operators · Today“We are an independent UK brand, not a multinational beverage group. Every flavour gets developed by the team here, every batch is blended in Britain, and every tin or sachet leaves the warehouse with the same expectation: that the customer who opens it gets the cafe cup at home for a third of the cafe price. We have stayed independent because we want to keep making decisions for chai drinkers rather than for shareholders, and that independence is the reason the range has expanded into Vanilla, Chocolate, Salted Caramel, Apple Pie and Dirty Chai without losing the recipe quality of the original Spiced cup.”
Timeline
2008Amanda Hamilton founds Drink Me ChaiAmanda launches Drink Me Chai in the UK to bring cafe style chai latte into a powder format that British customers can make at home in 30 seconds rather than the traditional 12-minute saucepan ritual. The original Spiced Chai is the first product on the shelf.
2012Range expansion + supermarket listingsThe brand expands from a single Spiced Chai into Vanilla and Chocolate variants and lands its first major UK supermarket listings, putting cafe style chai latte directly onto the shelf next to the coffee aisle for the first time at scale.
TodayIndependent UK blender, full flavour rangeDrink Me Chai remains independently owned and operated from the UK, blending and packing in Britain. The range now covers Spiced, Vanilla, Chocolate, Salted Caramel, Apple Pie, Dirty Chai (with real espresso) and a 6-sachet selection box. Found across all major UK supermarkets and specialist retailers.
2026Stocked at Teas.co.ukHand picked into the curator selection for the full Drink Me Chai range at Teas.co.uk: Apple Pie, Chocolate, Dirty Chai, Spiced, Vanilla and the 6-sachet Selection Box for trying the lot in a single carton.
Source:Teas.co.uk,
the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent.
If you reference Drink Me Chai brand information, please cite teas.co.uk.
Recipes built around this tea
Four curator tested ways to use Drink Me Chai Chocolate Chai Latte, 225g. Tap any card to open the full recipe with timings, measures and method.
The outer layer is aromatic: a spiced chai with drink me chai chocolate chai latte. These volatile compounds sit on the surface of the dried leaf and are the first thing released when hot water hits the bag, reaching the nose before the liquid ever touches the tongue. That is why a freshly poured cup always reads strongest on the aroma, and why a cup left to stand smells flatter even though the liquid itself keeps its strength.
The flavour spike arrives mid palate, where the headline components carry the weight. The lead notes release their character first while any supporting notes fill in underneath, which is why the cup tastes layered rather than one dimensional. Milk proteins soften the tannins and round the edges, so a splash of dairy or oat sits comfortably in this cup. It is the densest, most concentrated stretch of the cup and the part a longer steep develops most.
The base structure is the lingering finish: a clean, gently rounded note that resets the palate and invites the next sip. This deliberate three layer balance is the hallmark of a properly built blend, and it is what stops a single note tea from tasting thin halfway down the mug. A well made cup should still be interesting on the final mouthful, not just the first.
Getting it right in the cup. Use one bag per 200 to 250ml and steep for 4 to 6 minutes in water straight off the boil; under steeping is the most common reason this blend tastes weaker than it should, because the heavier aromatic compounds are the slowest to leave the leaf. Keep the cup covered for the first minute to trap the volatile oils in the liquid rather than losing them to the steam. Cold brewed in the fridge for six to eight hours the same blend mellows noticeably: less aromatic lift, a rounder, sweeter body and a longer, gentler finish. Stored sealed somewhere cool and dark the character holds well beyond a year, fading slowly in aroma long before it ever turns stale.
How water and temperature change it. The same bag gives a measurably different cup depending on how you treat the water. Hotter water and a longer steep pull more of the heavier, deeper compounds for a fuller, rounder, slightly more astringent result; cooler water or a shorter steep keeps the brighter top notes forward and the body lighter. Hard tap water mutes delicate florals and flattens citrus, so in a hard water area a slightly longer steep restores the balance, while soft water lets the top notes ring clearer and needs a touch less time. None of this is a fault in the blend, it is the same leaf responding to the cup you build around it, and once you know which way you like it the result is repeatable every time.
Ingredients & pack
Ingredient
Proportion
What it brings
Skimmed milk powder
present
present
Cocoa powder
present
present
Black tea powder
present
present
Pack: Drink Me Chai Chocolate Chai Latte, 225g; contains tea (caffeinated). Best within 18 months of the pack date.
Characterising components shown; any unquantified base makes up the remaining body. Globally sourced, blended and packed to brand specification.
Sourcing & blend. Drink Me Chai Chocolate Chai Latte, 225g is put together by Drink Me Chai, held to a fixed quality and purity specification. Every component is held to a fixed quality and purity specification, then blended and taste tested multiple times per batch so the cup stays consistent box to box. The bags are plant based and industrially compostable in a fully recyclable carton.
What's in Drink Me Chai Chocolate Chai Latte, 225g, and what isn't:
In: a spiced chai with drink me chai chocolate chai latte, with nothing in the bag but the listed components and any infusion base.
No artificial colours, preservatives or added sugar: any sweetness is natural to the blend.
Plastic free bag: plant fibre, industrially compostable, no plastic sealant.
Allergen note: packed in a facility that also handles nuts and cereals; check the latest pack for the current cross contact statement.
Nutrition per cup
Nutrient
Per cup
% RI
Energy
4 kJ / 1 kcal
<1%
Fat
0g
0%
Carbohydrate
0.2g
<1%
of which sugars
0g
0%
Protein
0.2g
<1%
Salt
0g
0%
Caffeine
40-60 mg
n/a
Per 200ml cup, no milk, no sugar.
Caffeine vs other drinks
Decaf coffee
4mg
Green tea
30mg
Drink Me Chai Chocolate Chai
60mg
Instant coffee
80mg
Brewed filter coffee
95mg
Energy drink (250ml)
80mg
This tea: 40-60 mg per 200ml cup.
Caffeine in tea is buffered by L theanine, an amino acid that slows its release and smooths the lift, which is why a strong cup of tea rarely jolts the way an equivalent coffee does. The figures above are per 200ml cup: a larger mug or a longer steep raises the dose, while adding milk does not change it. Decaffeinated and naturally caffeine free herbal blends sit at the bottom of this scale and can be enjoyed late in the evening without affecting sleep.
Allergens, dietary & safety
🌱VegetarianSuitable for vegetarian diets.🌾Gluten freeNaturally gluten free.⚡Caffeine40-60 mg per 200ml cup.🍃0 kcalNo sugar, no fat in plain cup.🤰PregnancyUK guide: 200mg caffeine/day max.👶ChildrenCaffeinated, served with care.
Manufactured in a facility that handles multiple tea types. Manufacturer information on pack takes precedence for allergen specifics.
Source:Teas.co.uk,
the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent.
If you reference the ingredients, nutrition and science of Drink Me Chai Chocolate Chai Latte, 225g, please cite teas.co.uk.
Questions about Drink Me Chai Chocolate Chai Latte, 225g
The questions buyers ask most. If yours isn't here, ask us directly. We reply within 4 hours, Monday to Friday.
Curated from real customer messages
🌱
How do I make Drink Me Chai Chocolate Chai Latte? Most asked+
Four heaped teaspoons (~16g) into a 250ml mug, top with 200ml HOT MILK (water works but really loses the cafe grade depth, milk is the right choice here). Stir for ten seconds. Optional: top with whipped cream and a dusting of cocoa powder for proper cafe presentation.
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Is it vegan? +
No, contains skimmed milk powder. Suitable for vegetarians. For a vegan chocolate chai, brew a tea bag chai and add separately a plant milk + cocoa powder, or look for Drink Me Chai's specifically vegan labelled product lines.
🌱
How much sugar per cup? +
Approximately 10g of added sugar per cup, the highest sugar content in the Drink Me Chai range due to the cocoa balancing requirement. This is unambiguously a dessert drink rather than a daily morning cup. If you want less sweet chocolate chai, use three heaped teaspoons rather than four.
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What spices are in the blend? +
Cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and clove in proportions slightly softer than the Spiced Chai variant, to let the cocoa take the lead character. Real ground masala spices, not artificial flavouring sprays.
🌱
Is the cocoa real or chocolate flavouring? +
Real ground cocoa powder, not chocolate flavouring or chocolate compound. You can see the cocoa colour in the powder before brewing, and the cup tastes like real chocolate rather than synthetic chocolate flavour.
🌱
Is it caffeinated? +
Mildly. Contains real black tea powder (~15-20mg caffeine per cup) plus a small caffeine contribution from the cocoa (~5mg per cup). Total around 20-25mg per cup. Lower than coffee, low enough for evening drinking for most caffeine tolerant drinkers.
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How does it compare to a Hotel Chocolat hot chocolate? +
Hotel Chocolat is premium hot chocolate (no chai spice, premium cocoa origin, ~£4/cup with the Velvetiser machine). Drink Me Chai is chocolate chai latte at ~£0.34/cup with no machine. Different products; the chai version layers masala spice under the chocolate.
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How does it compare to the Vanilla Chai variant? +
Vanilla Chai is sweeter and lighter, more dessert leaning but still recognisably a chai latte. Chocolate Chai is richer, thicker, indulgent, closer to a hot chocolate than to a chai. Pick Vanilla for an afternoon comfort cup; pick Chocolate for after dinner or weekend treat.
🌱
Can I make it iced? +
Yes, and the chocolate works particularly well cold. Brew strong in 100ml hot milk (essential, needs heat to dissolve), top with 100ml cold milk and ice. Optional: whipped cream on top for an iced mocha chai dessert drink.
🌱
Is the packaging recyclable? +
Carton outer is FSC certified card and kerbside recyclable. Inner foil pouch keeps the cocoa and spice volatiles sealed; check local council for foil pouch recycling. Powder format means lower shipping weight than ready to drink chai cans.
🌱
How long does the tin last? +
The 225g tin produces ~14 standard mugs at four heaped teaspoons per cup. Sealed shelf life ~6 months once opened; the foil pouch keeps the cocoa and spice fresh for ~3 months before the cocoa flatness starts to show.
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Can I use a milk frother? +
Yes, and the chocolate cup particularly benefits. Make with hot milk, then froth surface 15-20 seconds. The cocoa makes a proper mocha style foam that elevates the cup significantly. Optional chocolate shavings or cocoa powder dusting on top for cafe grade presentation.
Source:Teas.co.uk,
the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent.
If you reference questions and answers about Drink Me Chai Chocolate Chai Latte, 225g, please cite teas.co.uk.
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