This Spiced Vanilla Chai Oatmeal tastes like your favorite chai latte! Flavored with a blend of black tea, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, and vanilla this creamy bowl of wholesome oatmeal is a delicious, flavorful way to start your day!

Combining Chai Latte with my morning oatmeal has quickly become a favorite at my house.
Perfectly sweet, a tiny bit spicy, and filled with warmth from the blend of spices, this oatmeal takes on the flavor of a chai latte, yet makes a much heartier and filling breakfast than a latte alone!
Not to mention oatmeal is full of fiber, nutrients, and whole grains, so this Chai Oatmeal will keep you satisfied for hours.
Notes on Ingredients and Substitutions
- Oats: Use rolled or quick-cooking oats for this recipe. Not steel-cut oats. And be sure to use certified gluten-free oats if needed.
- Chai Seasoning: I use a blend of cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, allspice, ginger, and cloves to create a homemade Chai spice blend. If you like, you can add a dash of black pepper to add a bit of spice to your chai oatmeal.
- Black Tea: Be sure to use decaffeinated black tea if serving to your children for breakfast, or keep the caffeine to get your morning fix all from your bowl of oatmeal.
- Milk: You can use any milk you like in this Chai Oatmeal recipe. I love to use unsweetened vanilla almond milk for the extra vanilla flavoring, but coconut milk, cow's milk, or soy milk all work well.
- Sweetener: I find that this oatmeal needs no added sugar, but you can sweeten the Chai oatmeal with maple syrup, honey, or granulated sugar as desired.
How To Prepare Chai Oatmeal
- In a medium saucepan, bring water, milk, chai seasoning, and tea bags to a boil over medium-high heat. Be sure to whisk often to prevent the milk from scalding.
- Once the mixture comes to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 2-3 minutes to allow the tea to steep into the milk. Continue to whisk this often!
- After a couple of minutes, remove the tea bags and stir in the oats.
- Simmer for 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the oatmeal has thickened.
- Turn off the heat and stir in the vanilla extract and sweeten as desired.
- Serve warm.

Chai Seasoning
If you love Chai, be sure to double or triple the blend of spices to create a larger batch of homemade chai seasoning. Store the mixture in an airtight container for up to 3 months in the pantry.
Then you can use this mixture to flavor oatmeal or make Homemade Chai Lattes. To make a Chai Lattes, add 1 teaspoon of the homemade chai seasoning to 1 cup of freshly brewed black tea along with ½ cup of warm, frothed milk.
More Oatmeal Recipes
- Slow Cooker Maple Cinnamon Oatmeal
- Overnight Oats
- Sweet Potato Oatmeal
- Banana Baked Oatmeal
- Instant Pot Oatmeal
If you enjoyed this recipe for Chai Oatmeal, please be sure to leave a comment and review below.

Spiced Vanilla Chai Oatmeal
Ingredients
For the Spiced Vanilla Chai Oatmeal
- 2 black tea bags
- 1 cup water
- 2 teaspoons chai seasoning
- 2 cups rolled oats
- 3 cups milk of your choice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the Homemade Chai Seasoning
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
- ¼ teaspoon allspice
Instructions
For the Chai Seasoning
- Mix all the spices together and store them in an airtight container for up to 3 months.
For the Chai Oatmeal
- In a medium saucepan, bring water, milk, 2 teaspoons of the Chai seasoning, and tea bags to a boil over medium-high heat, whisking every 30 seconds or so to prevent the milk from scalding.
- Once boiling, reduce the heat to medium-low, and let simmer for 2-3 minutes, to let the tea bags continue to steep. Discard the tea bags and stir in oats. Cook until thick, about 5 minutes, stirring often. *If using quick-cooking oats, you will only need to simmer for 1-2 minutes to thicken.
- Remove the oatmeal from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract. Serve immediately or cool and store in the refrigerator.
Rene
Could this be made as overnight oats?
Kristen Chidsey
Hi Rene! Yes! I would steep the tea with water with the chia seasonings. Pour 1/4 cup of the chai tea into glass and then add 3/4 cup milk to each jar. Stir in 1/2 cup oats, shake and refrigerate overnight. Enjoy!
Kimbo Baggins
Every autumn I crave warm comforting spices. This recipe satisfied the comfort a bowl of oatmeal brings with a chai kick. I used one cup black chai tea opposed to 2 black tea bags. It was spicy! Also it didnāt need sweetener but I thought I would try it and wow. The sweet and spice and everything nice. Now I know where that nursery rhyme came from! Thank you. (Also your chai spice mix, spot on!)
Kristen Chidsey
So happy to hear you enjoyed, Kimbo!
nicki
Curious. I drink iced chai every morning and use the Oregon Chai Latte Vanilla concentrate. Would that work with this recipe? We are having a debate at home.
Kristen Chidsey
I think that would be absolutely delicious Nicki š However, it will be really sweet if you were to only use the concentrate. Just be sure to use only a small amount (enough for 1/2 cup to 1 cup) and then use milk or water of your choice for remaining liquid.