Iced Lavender Earl Grey London Fog Latte
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If you love summery floral flavors and creamy lightly-sweetened beverages, you're going to want to try this recipe! This Earl Grey latte, also called a "London Fog" is made with black Earl Grey tea, lavender syrup made from unrefined coconut sugar, and creamy almond milk. It can be served over ice for a refreshing summer drink, or served hot for a more cozy floral experience.
Now that we're living in a small city again, we've gotten back into the costly habit of going out for coffee and tea on the weekends. I unintentionally stopped drinking coffee a while ago- oddly, I lost my taste for both coffee and alcohol at the same time about four years ago and haven't had either since, but my love for tea endures all.
Our local coffee shop makes the best sweetened tea lattes; matcha, chai, and one that I hadn't tried until very recently- a London fog latte, which is a vanilla sweetened milky earl grey tea. As soon as I tried one it became an instant new favorite morning drink. The floral flavors of the bergamot Earl Grey tea make it the perfect summer beverage.
While I love the version my coffee shop makes, it's definitely borderline too sweet to have regularly, not to mention quite expensive for something I could learn to make at home, so that's exactly what I did!
My favorite part of making any milky tea recipe is watching as the milk and tea blend and swirl together in a glass. Does anyone else find this as mesmerizing as I do? The swirls only last for a split second before it all turns a uniform rosy beige color, so if you blink you might miss it.
There are only two main steps to this recipe, with an optional third step-
Make the Earl Grey tea concentrate
Make the lavender syrup
Make your own almond milk, or you can just use any store-bought plant based milk you prefer
If you are looking for quality glass milk jars to store homemade milks and teas, check out these liter sized glass jars on Amazon (affiliate link).
How to make Earl Grey tea concentrate
To make the Earl Grey tea concentrate, bring 2 cups of water to boil in a kettle. Pour the boiling water over two Earl Grey tea bags and steep for 10-12 minutes. This will make for a strong tea concentrate that isn't too bitter. Once it has steeped, remove the tea bags and allow to cool, then pour it into a liter-sized jar and cool it in the fridge.
*Note: This recipe is for an Iced London Fog Latte. If you just want a single cup of hot tea, you can make a mug of Earl Grey tea and steep it to desired strength, keeping in mind that the almond milk and lavender syrup will dilute it a bit. Then add almond milk and lavender syrup to taste.
Here are the Earl Grey teas bags that I use (Amazon affiliate link).
How to make lavender syrup
Ingredients: 1 cup coconut sugar, 1 cup water, 1 tbsp dried culinary lavender flowers, 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions:
Pour the water and coconut sugar in a small pot or saucepan and bring to a boil. Stir and cook until the sugar is completely dissolved into the syrup, about 3 minutes.
Take the pot off the heat and stir in the lavender. Steep for 7 minutes, not too much longer than that or it will start to get bitter.
Strain through a fine mesh strainer to remove the lavender buds, then stir in the vanilla extract. Store in a sealed container in the fridge, it will keep fresh for about 2 to 3 weeks. Use 1 tsp-1 tbsp of syrup to add sweet lavender flavor into coffee and tea, or use it in your oatmeal or anywhere else you'd enjoy the flavor of lavender.
I buy my dried lavender flowers on Amazon, here are the lavender flowers I use (affiliate link).
This lavender syrup recipe is inspired by Kathy Hester.
How to make your own creamy almond milk (optional)
Store bought almond milk just doesn't compare to the creamy goodness that is homemade almond milk. All you need is 1 cup of raw almonds, a blender, and a nut milk bag or fine mesh sieve.
If you don't want to make the almond milk yourself, this latte will still be delicious, but it won't be quite as rich and decadent as it would with the homemade milk.
Soak your raw almonds overnight, then drain out the soaking water and give them a good rinse. Place them in a blender with 4 cups of water and blend for a few minutes until very smooth. Pour this mixture through a sieve or nut milk bag, straining out the almond pulp. Save the almond pulp to use in other recipes throughout the week. It functions similarly to almond flour in some recipes.
Pour the strained almond milk into a glass jar using a funnel if needed and store in the fridge for up to a week.
NOTe: The flowers on the left are not lavender, just lavender-colored flowers I found growing in my garden. The dried flowers on the right are actually dried lavender flowers.
To Assemble
In the 1-liter jar that your 2 cups of Earl Grey concentrate is in, pour in 2 cups of homemade almond milk (check out those groovy swirls!) Taste and add more almond milk if desired. Add in your lavender syrup to taste, I used 3 tablespoons for this one liter serving size, but start with a little and taste until you have your own preferred level of lavender flavor and sweetness. Put a cap on the jar and shake to distribute the syrup, or you can give it a good stir.
Serve in individual glasses over ice and enjoy!
Notice: This blog post contains affiliate links, which simply means that I earn a commission if you purchase through those links, but your price remains the same. Thank you for your continued support!
