London Fog: the Earl Grey and vanilla latte recipe

What is a London Fog?

The London Fog is an Earl Grey tea served as a latte: a bergamot-scented black tea, brewed strong, topped up with hot, frothy milk, flavoured with vanilla and lightly sweetened. The English word fog refers to the milk foam that veils the cup. In Quebec, the Office québécois de la langue française proposed a French name in 2019, thé latté à l'anglaise.

Despite its name, the drink was not born in London but in Vancouver, Canada, in the 1990s. The most often told story credits Mary Loria, a ceramicist who would order an Earl Grey made with hot milk at her local café, then add vanilla sugar to it. She has said she did not come up with the name: someone else gave it to the drink, and we still do not know who.

The London Fog recipe for two cups

The base is an Earl Grey brewed twice as strong as for a plain cup, so that the bergamot is not lost in the milk. We start with Mariage Frères' Earl Grey Impérial, a spring Darjeeling scented with bergamot, whose product page gives 2.5 g per 200 ml of water at 95 °C for 5 minutes. For the London Fog, keep the water and the time, and double the measure.

1. Heat the water to 95 °C, pour it over the tea and leave to steep for 5 minutes. Remove the leaves or the muslin sachets: you now have a highly fragrant tea to use as the base.

2. While the tea steeps, gently heat the milk in a small saucepan with the vanilla and the maple syrup or honey, without letting it boil.

3. Froth the hot milk with a whisk, a milk frother or the steam wand of an espresso machine.

4. Divide the tea between two large cups, pour in the hot milk while holding back the foam with a spoon, then spoon the foam on top. Serve at once.

The right proportions of tea and milk

Allow about one part tea to two parts milk: 100 ml of tea and 200 ml of milk per cup. The reference recipes we reviewed range from about two to four parts milk to one part tea; the more milk, the more the taste of the tea fades. Keep the doubled measure of tea, whatever the amount of milk.

Choose the milk to suit your taste: the recipes leave the choice between dairy and plant-based milk. With 300 ml of drink per person, plan on a large cup: Dunoon's Mug Henley · 0,6 l, in fine English bone china, holds 0.6 l. The whole range is on our Dunoon page.

Which Earl Grey for a London Fog?

A London Fog is made with a black tea Earl Grey; our versions differ in the tea that carries the bergamot. Earl Grey Impérial is based on a spring Darjeeling, with a light liquor and a rounded, fruity character. Paris Earl Grey is a malty black tea with an amber, rounded liquor; its product page recommends 4 minutes of steeping instead of 5. You will find every version in our Earl Grey & bergamot section, and their history in our Earl Grey guide.

Variations: with lavender, caffeine-free

Some recipes add dried lavender to the hot milk. Earl Grey Provence already contains it: its ingredients combine tea, bergamot flavouring and lavender from Provence. Prepare it like Earl Grey Impérial, at 95 °C for 5 minutes with a doubled measure, then follow the same recipe.

For an evening cup, there are two options. Earl Grey Déthéiné is a decaffeinated Ceylon black tea scented with bergamot, which its product page recommends at 95 °C for 5 minutes. Rouge Earl Grey is a red rooibos from South Africa, naturally caffeine-free, with the same settings; its product page describes a rounded, mellow liquor with a woody note. Our guide to caffeine-free tea presents the other options.

What to serve with a London Fog?

To go with it, a biscuit that echoes the bergamot: Mariage Frères' Sables Thé Noir Earl Grey Imperial are butter shortbread biscuits flavoured with Earl Grey Impérial tea, sold in a 150 g pouch. If you enjoy spiced milky tea drinks, our homemade chai recipe follows the same idea, with spices in place of vanilla.