Homemade London Fog Tea Latte

One of the new Tazo tea lattes at Starbucks is the London Fog Latte. It’s made with Earl Grey tea – hence the “London Fog” name. Earl Grey tea is a classic tea, a longtime favorite of many tea drinkers. It’s made with black tea and is flavored with bergamot, a citrus fruit with a orangy perfumy flavor. Starbucks uses vanilla syrup in their London Fog recipe to highlight the bergamot and give the tea a full, warm flavor.

The drink is easy to make at home if you have some vanilla syrup on hand, whether it’s homemade or store-bought. Earl Grey tends to get a little bitter if it is oversteeped, so be sure to use double the amount of tea to get double strength tea for your tea latte instead of simply letting the tea sit longer. Also, feel free to use more vanilla if you like your drink a little sweeter.

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Vanilla Rooibos Tea Latte

The vanilla rooibos tea I have at home is Adagio’s Vanilla Rooibos. It’s an herbal tea made by blending vanilla beans in with rooibos – and the vanilla flavor comes through wonderfully, giving the tea an impressive natural sweetness. Since the tea has a bold flavor and is a bit sweet to begin with, it’s a great choice for a tea latte, where added sweetness will only bring out the natural sweetness of the tea and the flavor of the vanilla will still stand out over the addition of milk.

The tea latte is easy to make by brewing strong tea – use twice as much as you normally would – and adding in some hot milk. Steamed milk is ideal, but if you use a small whisk to froth up regular milk you’ll get a good result, too. I usually sweeten tea lattes with vanilla syrup if I have some on hand, but regular sugar works out just fine, too.

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Christmas Morning Coffee

Spices can really do a lot for a cup of coffee on a cold morning – and I’m not talking about adding a flavored syrup to your morning brew. When real spices are added to the beans before you brew the coffee, they really become a part of the drink and give it a lot of depth, rather than just adding some sweetness. Trader Joe’s has Gingerbread and Wintry Blend coffees that include whole spices with their beans, and in both cases the blends work well. It’s just as easy to add the spices at home to whatever coffee you have on hand.

This coffee is a spin on those two Trader Joe’s coffees and is perfect – rich and spicy – for Christmas morning. Use a dark or medium roast so the coffee isn’t overshadowed by the flavor of the spices. If you use whole bean coffee and grind it yourself, you can start with whole spices or pieces of them, like chunks of cinnamon sticks. If you use ground coffee, add a few dashes of preground spices to your grounds before turning on your coffeemaker.
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Homemade Espresso Truffle Latte

One of the holiday offerings at Starbucks is a mocha that is a spinoff of their new Signature Hot Chocolate: the Espresso Truffle. It’s the hot chocolate combined with a shot or two of espresso. The hot chocolate alone is much richer tasting than the chocolate syrup they use for their regular mochas, and I recreated that feeling for this homemade version by adding melted chocolate to regular hot cocoa mix. The extra cocoa butter from the chocolate makes the drink creamier and more chocolaty, without just tasting like you dumped too much hot chocolate mix (and sugar) into your cup. You can either use a shot of espresso to finish of your drink, or use a little less milk and substitute strong coffee.

It makes a delicious – and fairly decadent – drink for a fraction of the cost of going to a coffee shop and not much more effort than you would use when adding regular milk and sugar to coffee at home.

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Cafe Vanilla with homemade vanilla syrup

At some coffee shops, a “cafe vanilla” is another name for a vanilla latte. I tend to think of a cafe vanilla as coffee flavored with milk and vanilla syrup. I like steamed or otherwise frothed milk in mine, but straight milk will do just as well. Heat up your milk in the microwave for a few seconds if you aren’t going to steam it, otherwise you might cool down your coffee a bit too much. I used some homemade vanilla coffee syrup to finish this drink off.

The recipe is easy and can be adapted to any size mug. Fill up a mug 2/3 full with freshly brewed drip coffee, stir in about two tablespoonfuls of vanilla syrup, then add milk to the top and enjoy!