Earl Grey Tea Concentrate

This is the tea concentrate behind our London Fog Latte and London Fog Frappé. A traditional London Fog is Earl Grey tea, steamed milk, and vanilla syrup — three components, not two — so this concentrate is deliberately plain and unsweetened. The sweetness comes later, from real Vanilla Syrup stirred into the finished drink, not from sugar cooked into the tea itself. There’s no coffee anywhere in this recipe or the drinks built on it.

The Concentrate

Bring 4 cups of water to a full boil — Earl Grey is a black tea, so unlike jasmine green tea it handles a hard boil fine. Remove from heat, drop in 8 Earl Grey tea bags, cover, and steep for 5 minutes. Fish out the bags and let the tea cool completely. That’s it — no sugar goes in at this stage.

Store the finished concentrate in a sealed jar in the fridge for up to 1 week. It makes about 6 drinks’ worth at 4oz concentrate each.

This batch (6 servings)$1.20 total

Per 4oz serving~$0.20

Bottled Earl Grey/black tea concentrate, per 4oz serving$0.50-$0.70

Assumptions: Earl Grey tea bags at typical grocery pricing (~$0.15/bag). Bottled tea concentrates are less commonly stocked than bottled coffee concentrates, so the comparison above is a representative specialty/online price rather than one specific product.

Storage & Shelf Life

• Keeps about 1 week in a sealed jar in the fridge — brewed tea, same shelf-life family as this site’s other tea concentrates (Chai, Jasmine).
• Double the batch if you go through London Fogs quickly — everything scales evenly (16 tea bags, 8 cups water).
• No sugar to settle or separate — since nothing’s dissolved into this one beyond the tea itself, it stays a clear amber liquid the whole time it’s in the fridge.

Swaps & Notes

• Why no sugar, when your other concentrates have it? Because a London Fog’s identity is specifically “Earl Grey plus vanilla syrup,” not “sweetened black tea.” Baking sugar into the tea concentrate would make it harder to control how vanilla-forward the finished drink tastes — keeping the tea plain and adding the Vanilla Syrup separately at the drink stage is the more accurate build.
• Loose-leaf Earl Grey instead of bags? Use about 3 tbsp and strain with a fine-mesh strainer instead of lifting out bags.
• Want it stronger? Steep an extra minute or two, or use 10 bags instead of 8 — Earl Grey’s bergamot flavor can take a slightly longer steep better than jasmine green tea can.

What to Make With This

4oz of this concentrate, combined with 4oz of steamed milk and 1 tbsp of Vanilla Syrup, is the London Fog Latte. Blended with milk, the same vanilla syrup, and ice, it’s the London Fog Frappé.

Recipe Card Summary

Earl Grey Tea Concentrate

• 4 cups water, 8 Earl Grey tea bags — no sugar
• Makes ~6 servings (4oz each) · Prep: 5 min · Total: 15 min (mostly steeping + cooling)
• Cost: ~$1.20/batch, ~$0.20/serving

FAQ

Why isn’t there any sugar in this concentrate?

Because the sweetness in a proper London Fog comes from vanilla syrup added when you build the drink, not from sugar cooked into the tea. Keeping this concentrate plain means you control the vanilla-to-tea balance directly in each drink instead of it being baked in ahead of time.

Do I need an espresso machine or any coffee gear for this?

No — Earl Grey is a black tea, and neither this concentrate nor the London Fog drinks built on it involve coffee or espresso anywhere.

Can I use regular black tea instead of Earl Grey?

You can, but it stops being a London Fog at that point — Earl Grey’s bergamot (a citrus oil) is the specific flavor a London Fog is built around. Plain black tea plus vanilla and milk is a perfectly good drink, just a different one.