Recently I decided I spend a ridiculous amount of money at Starbucks. And I almost always get the same thing: A Chai Tea Latte. This runs me up at $4.75-ish. I decicded to see if I could re-create the coveted Starbucks Chai Tea Latte at home.
I went to Zerhs and purchased some Chai tea bags for about $4. I've tried two teabags - Lipton and Tetly. I did like the Lipton better, but for a bigger cup I ended up using two bags instead of one. Then I needed a milk frother. You can go all out and buy a Bodum glass hand pump frother for about $30 on amazon, or you cay buy a small electric frother for about $4 from Ikea. I happen to have both at my house.
If I'm just making one latte for myself, I use the small electric frother. But for more than one cup, I do use the bigger hand pump one. It's also fun to froth the milk yourself. :)
My home-made lattes were pretty good - the edition of the frothed milk really made it seem like Starbucks. And if you sprinkle some nutmeg or cinnamon on top, it tastes great.
So on the cheap side, you could spend as little as $10 and have a good 15 to 20 chai tea lattes that taste almost as good as Starbucks. That's a lot of money saved!
It was worth it. I felt so stepford wife-ish, making my own lattes, frothing my own milk... Maybe I'll start cooking now.