Starbucks vs Dunkin': Who makes the better chai latte?

Taste test: Dunkin' hot chai latte

The Dunkin' hot chai latte is made with whole milk and chai tea syrup. The syrup is made with brewed chai tea extract, which is a mixture of filtered water, black tea, chai spice, cane sugar, natural flavors, preservatives, and some other ingredients. The description on the Dunkin' website says the chai spice is a blend of cinnamon, cardamom, and nutmeg, but it doesn't specify that in the ingredients. While the drink does have some spice to it, the milk flavor comes forward the most. This drink is sweet, mildly spiced, and very milky. 

The drink had a nice frothy foam on top, and the color was an almost barely there shade of pink in comparison to the Starbucks version, which was more brown. My Dunkin' drink was served in a holiday cup. But if you order it during other times throughout the year, you'll likely find it in a standard white cup with the orange-colored Dunkin' logo. The medium hot chai latte at Dunkin' has 290 calories, 9 total grams of fat, 5 grams of saturated fat, 43 grams of carbohydrates, 40 grams of sugar, 9 grams of protein, and an estimated 105 milligrams of caffeine.

Taste test: Dunkin' iced chai latte

The iced chai latte from Dunkin' has the same ingredients list as the hot one, but it's poured over ice. It had the same pink-ish color as the hot chai latte, but it's more noticeable because of the clear plastic cup. The shade is also discernable when you compare the Starbucks and Dunkin' iced drinks side by side. The Dunkin' iced chai latte was very light in color, which correlates with the level of milkiness. 

You can taste some of the chai spice flavors, especially if you let the liquid sit on your tongue for a moment before swallowing, but it's not overly spiced. The sweetness and milkiness make up most of the tasting notes. I could taste the milk because Dunkin' uses whole milk, which I find has a stronger flavor. In this case, however, the drink gets watery as the ice melts. Your best bet is to drink it quickly or opt for a smaller size. The iced chai latte has the same nutrition facts as the hot chai latte.

Taste test: Starbucks hot chai latte

Now on to the Starbucks drinks. Starbucks makes its hot chai latte with steamed 2% milk, milk foam, four chai pumps, and water. What are chai pumps, you ask? This is a chai tea concentrate consisting of water, black tea, cardamom, black pepper, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, star anise, and other flavors. If you stick your nose in your drink, you can smell the light aroma of the spices — not overly fragrant but more perceptible than the Dunkin' hot counterpart. This drink had a foamy top and was warmer than the Dunkin' drink (even though I picked up my Starbucks order several minutes before my Dunkin' one). 

The standard drink uses 2% milk, which is more watered down than whole milk; I found that the milk taste was more mellow in this drink than the Dunkin' one made with whole milk. This made the spices a tad more prominent. The 16-ounce grande hot chai latte has 240 calories, 4.5 grams of total fat, 2 grams of saturated fat, 45 grams of carbohydrates, 42 grams of sugar, 8 grams of protein, and about 95 milligrams of caffeine.

Taste test: Starbucks iced chai latte

The Starbucks iced chai latte is a simplified version of the hot drink. It's made with 2% milk, four chai pumps, and ice (no milk foam). The cup had a little hole to sip out of rather than the straw offered at Dunkin', so as you tilt the cup, you sometimes get pieces of ice stuck in the opening. That made for an odd beverage-drinking experience. I had to slurp up the ice or shake the cup to loosen it. The drink was a little darker in color and a smidge less sweet than the Dunkin' version. 

While the Starbucks iced chai latte has some spice notes, it's hard to distinguish a specific one as nothing is especially prominent. This, too, faced the same fate as the Dunkin' iced quencher with it becoming less flavorful as the ice melted. The drink has nearly the same nutrition facts as the hot Starbucks chai latte but with 4 grams of fat, 44 grams of carbohydrates, and 7 grams of protein.