How to Make a Tea Latte

In our café we found that we could make a lot of the specialty coffee drinks using a tea base.  Tea Latte’s and tea-cino’s are delicious with a lot of flavor variety and a healthy tea base.  Unlike the pre-made tea latte mixes, you can add the amount of sweetener of your choice for to make it healthier or more like a dessert.  Here is the secret that we found to making a fabulous tea latte.  (To see the video demonstration, check out the link at the bottom.)

How to Make the Tea Base

1. Refer back to our basics on how to make a proper cup of tea, because those same skills apply to making your tea latte base. https://somscafe.com/how-to-make-delicious-cafe-quality-tea-from-home/
2. The main difference from a regular cup of tea is that you want to make a tea concentrate. The rule of thumb is to use twice as much tea as a normal cup, so for a latte it will be 2 tsp tea/8oz. water. To get the flavor to cut through the steamed milk you have to make a stronger tea.  You can add more tea to make it even stronger if you find that the tea flavor is weak.
3. The second difference is that your latte is going to be one-third water and two-thirds steamed milk.  So when you heat the water to the proper temperature, you will heat up your vessel, then just fill your mug ⅓ full of water and steep the tea in the smaller amount of water to make a tea concentrate.
4. Cover your mug with a saucer, and set the timer for the appropriate amount of time according to the tea guide below:

How to Steam Your Milk

There are multiple ways to steam your milk.  Lisa our barista will be making a video about how to make steamed milk on a home espresso machine.  Please see her video and blog on our website. If you do not have a steamer, here are two ways to steam your milk.

1. Fast and Easy method: This method is most effective with dairy milk.  Pour your milk into a small jar no more than ⅓ full.  Put on the lid tightly and shake it up vigorously until it is frothy.  Take off the lid and heat it in the microwave for 30 seconds.  Voila, it is ready.  You could also just use a whisk after warming the milk for the same amount if you prefer. I like to use this on busy mornings. 
2. Stove Top method: Heat your milk on the stove on medium heat until it reaches 140°F, 60°C.  If you don’t have a thermometer, heat the milk until it’s warm but not too hot to touch.  It should not be boiling.  To froth the milk you can either use a french press, whisk, pump frother, hand blender, bullet, or kitchen blender to froth it for 30 seconds.
3. When your tea is finished steeping for the appropriate amount of time, squeeze the tea leaves to extract the flavor in the leaves, then add the steamed milk.
4. Add any sweeteners of choice and stir.
5. Use a spoon to scoop the foamed milk onto the top.
6. Top with any favorite spices or syrups like cinnamon, nutmeg, chocolate, or caramel.

Here are some of our favorite latte flavors

1. The Toasted Almond Tart Rooibos Tea Latte: Rooibos tea is decaf and full of antioxidants.  This latte is really good for you and has an amazing rich nutty flavor.
2. Salted Caramel Tea Latte with the Creme Brulee Pu’erh tea base for a rich, almost coffee flavor and sweet caramel accents, or the Caramel Rooibos for decaf and milder flavor.  Add a little sprinkle of sea salt for the salt flavor and some thick caramel sauce drizzle for a decadent finish.
3. Vanilla Rooibos Latte with rich antioxidants and decaf Vanilla Rooibos tea. This is a fabulous latte for children.
4. The Queen’s Latte with the Buckingham Palace Garden Party tea base.
5. Pecan Tart Latte with the Pecan Tart tea Base.
6. London Fog: with an Earl Grey Tea base and vanilla syrup.
7. Chai Tea Latte with the Masala Chai tea base and some cinnamon sprinkled on top.
8. Our seasonal tea lattes are fantastic.  Subscribe to the monthly subscription service coming soon to get special recipes and all the seasonal teas.

To purchase these teas, visit our website at: https://somscafe.com/product-category/teas/

Try out these steps and let me know how it goes. For a limited time if you follow these steps and post about your latte tagging us @SomsCafe, I will send a free sample of one of our latte teas listed above.