Add the water, cinnamon stick, cardamom, cloves, black peppercorns, ginger, and star anise to a small saucepan. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat and cook for 5 minutes. Add the black tea, sugar, and salt. Simmer very gently for 2–3 minutes, then remove from the heat and steep for 2 more minutes. Strain the concentrate through a fine sieve and let it cool. The concentrate should taste strong, spicy, and slightly tannic, because it will later be diluted by milk, ice, and espresso. If it tastes perfectly balanced while hot in the saucepan, it will usually taste too weak once built into the iced drink. Do not over-steep the tea. The spice base should be assertive, but if the tea sits too long it becomes rough and bitter rather than deep and warming. Simmering the whole spices alone for 5 minutes before the tea is even added lets those tougher, harder spices — cinnamon, cardamom pods, whole cloves — release their oils fully first, so the more delicate tea leaves get only the brief, controlled contact time they actually need without over-extracting into bitterness.

Let the strained chai concentrate cool until just warm or room temperature. If needed, chill it briefly so it does not melt the ice too aggressively during assembly. You need 180ml chai concentrate total, 90ml per serving. The concentrate should be fully smooth and free of spice solids. Any grit left behind muddies the drink and makes the final texture unpleasant. Cooling the concentrate before assembly protects the ice from melting prematurely — a warm concentrate poured directly over ice would begin diluting the drink from the very first pour, before the rest of the components even have a chance to layer properly.

Brew 120ml espresso total, equal to 4 standard 30ml shots. Let it stand for 30–60 seconds only if extremely hot, but do not let it go stale. The espresso should be fresh and strong. Dirty chai works because the coffee deepens the chai, not because it dominates it. Weak espresso disappears; burnt espresso crushes the spice profile. This is a genuine balance point worth respecting — the espresso's job here is specifically to add depth and richness to the chai's own flavour, not to compete with or override it, which is exactly why both weak and overly harsh espresso work against the drink in different ways.

Fill 2 glasses generously with ice. Pour 90ml chai concentrate into each glass. Add 75ml cold whole milk to each glass. Then pour 60ml espresso into each glass. In one glass, you can leave the espresso only lightly stirred so some darker swirl remains visible. In the other, stir more fully if preferred. The drink should settle into a deep warm amber-brown colour, clearly darker than a regular chai latte. If it looks too pale, there is too much milk or the chai concentrate is too weak. Add the espresso after the chai and milk. That preserves the darker coffee movement through the glass instead of flattening everything into one uniform tone too early. This build order — chai concentrate, then milk, then espresso poured last — mirrors the same layering logic used throughout this collection's other iced espresso drinks, adapted here to preserve the chai's own colour and spice presence alongside the coffee's visible swirl.

Combine the 40ml cold milk, 10ml chilled chai concentrate, and a small pinch of cinnamon in a small frothing cup or bowl. Froth lightly until you get only a thin soft foam, not a thick cappuccino cap. The foam should be light and pourable, just enough to create a thin spiced top layer. If it becomes thick and dry, it no longer fits the drink and starts reading more like an iced cappuccino. Working a small amount of the chai concentrate directly into this finishing foam, rather than using plain milk alone, ties the topping's flavour back to the same spice base running through the rest of the drink.

Spoon or pour a little of the spiced foam over each drink. Dust lightly with ground cinnamon and rest 1 whole star anise on the rim of each glass. Serve immediately. The final drink should smell warmly spiced first, then coffee-rich underneath. The garnish should stay restrained — one star anise is enough. Anything more makes the drink feel decorative instead of clean and classical. This restraint in the final garnish echoes the same design principle running through the whole recipe — every component, from the tea steep to the espresso strength to the foam thickness, is calibrated to support the drink's balance rather than compete for dominance.