Honey Vanilla Tea Latte

April 2020: Updated with a video!

My all-time favourite hot drink to get is the honey vanilla tea latte from Second Cup. I first discovered this drink during the Latte Tuesdays promotions while in school in the winter. After endless London Fogs and green tea lattes, my friend tried the new honey vanilla tea latte they were promoting and was hooked. I’m not the biggest lover of honey, so I was skeptical, but after trying it once, it’s really hard to go back to any other tea latte.

I’ve since then recommended this drink to anyone who listens and have only gotten positive reviews. So of course I had to try to recreate this latte at home.

What you’ll need

• 1 serving of English Breakfast Tea (1 bag or about 1-2 tsp of loose leaves
• 1/2 cup of milk
• a dash of vanilla extract or vanilla bean
• honey, to taste

As usual, many substitutions can be made – I do believe Second Cup’s version uses English Breakfast, but as they no longer officially advertise this drink, I can no longer verify that information. This latte works well with Earl Grey tea, orange pekoe, or virtually most simple black teas. If you are feeling luxurious, you may choose to use vanilla bean to flavour the tea. My cup is also larger than norm, so you may choose to scale this recipe up or down.

Despite the above photo, 3.25% fat milk works the best in creating a firmer foam. I would not recommend using anything less than 2% as I find it rarely froths up well, and the foam dies very quickly.

To prepare the tea

Brew a very concentrated cup of tea (I used about 1 cup of hot water for 1-2 tsp of loose leaves), and add the dash of vanilla.

Begin to froth milk – as someone washed my milk frother, batteries included, it has since ceased to operate and I use the whisk attachment on my hand mixer to achieve the same effect (I now own my fourth milk frothing item) – and pour into the cup of tea. If you like your lattes hot, I suggest you warm the milk first; however, I find the cool milk makes the latte a perfect temperature to drink immediately so I usually skip this step. Then add a swirl of honey and enjoy!