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I love drinking tea and I love making lattes. So it only makes sense to combine the two! Most people don’t know how to make a tea latte, or even that you can make them in the first place! Tea lattes look super fancy and taste great, but they’re actually really easy to make at home!
How to Make a Tea Latte
A nice tea latte is a great way to start the morning or to serve with friends during afternoon tea. If you choose decaffeinated tea, it also makes a fun kid-friendly drink idea too. Enjoy your tea latte on its own or with your typical afternoon tea snacks!
What kind of tea should I use to make a tea latte?
The best part about tea lattes is that you can make them with any kind of tea you like! Loose leaf, (or tea bags!) can both do the trick. I find that tea lattes work best with black teas, especially English Breakfast. Or add in white varieties like chai and oolong for a delicious, creamy drink.
You can also use flavour infused teas. Cinnamon, vanilla, maple, and other flavours all taste great when used as part of your tea latte recipe.
If you don’t have any of these handy, you can also add some spices to your cup of tea once it’s prepared. Just like you would with any other beverage you want to add flavour to.
Some popular types of tea lattes are:
What kind of milk can I use to make a tea latte?
Any kind of milk that you can heat and froth will work. The key to a perfect tea latte is properly frothing your milk, so ideally you’ll have an electric milk frother at home to use. Alternatively, if your cappuccino machine has a milk frother you can use that too.
High fat milk definitely is the best choice for frothing. Skim milk tends to froth up a bit thinner and melts into your drink quicker. Non-dairy milks like almond, soy, and coconut also will froth up for your homemade tea latte but they might need a bit extra work to get to the right consistency.
Not everyone likes frothed milk, though. If that sounds like you then you can skip the frothing part altogether.
What is a London Fog?
A lot of people confuse tea lattes and London Fog drinks. The truth is that the London Fog is a tea latte, but it’s a specific one.
To make a traditional London Fog, you combine sweetened Earl Gray tea with milk and vanilla. That gives it the sweet, light, and relaxing taste that’s synonymous with this upscale drink.
Can I sweeten my tea latte?
Now that we’ve talked about London Fogs being sweet you’re probably wondering if you can add sugar to any tea latte. The answer is yes! Prepare your tea in the same way that you would a normal cup. So if you usually like sugar in your tea, definitely add one to your tea latte so it tastes the way you like it.
You can also use sugar substitutes in tea lattes the same you would in any cup of tea.
How to make a Tea Latte
First, steep your tea like you would if you were brewing a regular cup. Make sure you heat your water to the right temperature for your type of tea. If you’re not sure, look at the package. Usually black, white, and green teas need different temperatures and brewing times.
If you’re using a tea blend, it’s especially important to read the directions and see how much to use and how long to steep it. Some teas are stronger than others!
While your tea is steeping, prepare your milk. You’ll need to heat up the milk in order to froth it. If your cappuccino maker has a milk heating attachment, you can use that to heat and froth your milk. Alternatively, heat your milk on the stove in a saucepan.
For those who like foam on their lattes, you can froth the milk with a dedicated milk frother or by whisking the hot milk vigorously.
Once your tea is steeped, add in any sugar or flavouring you want to include. You can add this after, but if you do it now you’re not going to ruin your foam by mixing.
Carefully pour the hot milk into the tea. The proper way to do this is by using the back of a large spoon to hold the foam in the container while you pour the liquid. Then top with foam.
It’s that easy!
Tips on how to make a perfect tea latte
- Make sure your milk is warm. Cold milk will cool down your drink, and it won’t froth well.
- Experiment with different spices and flavour combinations.
- Don’t be afraid to make it with your favourite tea variety!
- For a stronger drink, make it with black tea. If you want a creamy tea latte, opt for chai or oolong.
Maybe you’d rather have something cold to drink! Thankfully it’s super easy to transform this tea latte recipe into a delicious iced tea latte drink for summer.
First, brew your tea based on the package directions. Any variety works! While your tea brews, fill a glass with ice. This is basically the whole secret to making iced tea!
Once it’s brewed, pour your tea over ice. Add any extra flavour shots or sweetener here, too. Unlike hot tea lattes, you’ll probably want to make your ice tea a little bit sweet.
Finally, add cold milk to your drink until the glass is full.
When you’re making ice tea it’s a lot of fun to try out different flavour syrups. You could add caramel, chocolate, vanilla, or even fruit flavours to your ice tea!
Tea lattes are super easy to make
Seriously, once you make it once you’ll never go back to spending a fortune on café tea (or iced tea) lattes again. Just follow the instructions on how to make a tea latte and you’ll be all set! Once you get comfortable with the recipe, get adventurous and start experimenting with different flavour combinations.
