While the cold weather closes in and the holidays seem ever nearer, what better way to rest your mind and cozy up than with the greatly under-appreciated London Fog! Originating in Vancouver more than a decade ago, this drink is made with a combination of milk, earl grey tea and vanilla syrup. It’s a great alternative to coffee (even created to be one originally!) and can be found at a variety of stores around Bellingham. If you’re unsure where to start or what your options will look like, I’ve picked a handful of local businesses and tested them out to see just what they are!
These ratings will not be affected by the scenery, location, or price. This is based on the drinks alone!
Starbucks’ London Fog:
3/5
For me the drink was quite heavy on the earl grey tea and focused much less on the milk and foam which made the drink a lot less sweet than some of the others I’ve tried. Personally, the unbalanced ratio wasn’t really my thing, but I can totally imagine it being perfect for someone else. Don’t let the rating scare you off from trying it!
Woods Coffee’s London Fog:
3.5/5
Despite tasting like the direct opposite of Starbucks by tasting so little of tea and relied on the “milk” and foam, I felt they were around the same rating because they had the same unbalanced ratio. Apparently, instead of just adding regular ol’ milk to their Fog, they added something called a “half and half”, which is made up of a thicker and creamier milk. Its likely the reason the milk taste was so much stronger than the rest of the drinks I tested, but even so it doesn’t over sweeten the tea like how it sounds it would. Honestly the only reason the rating is slightly higher is because I just prefer the sweeter kinds of London Fog, but to each their own.
11th Hour’s London Fog:
4/5
Still continuing onto that sweet milky trend, the 11th Hour’s drink is quite similar to Woods Coffee’s in terms of priorities in the ratio. But this London Fog actually added more foam than the rest did, and it was as prominent as the milk was- but at a larger loss of the already weak tea taste. Weirdly enough I prefer this new addition, as I feel the foam is quite crucial to the balance of the drink even if it doesn’t change all that much. Overall, improvements!
(My Mom’s) Home-made London Fog:
5/5!
Call me biased all you want, but I really think it’s the best option if you really want to try out a new experience or revisit something familiar from a new perspective! When you make it yourself, you get to control the ratio and tailor it just to you and not rely on the luck of the draw. Personally, I think my mom has perfected the mix. While it still stays on the sweeter side (which I prefer don’t get me wrong) it doesn’t lose its original tea taste as much as the others, rather trading a good portion of the milk ratio back to the tea. All the components seem to be split perfectly into thirds, and that’s exactly what I like. Depending on how you make it, the presentation can come out quite beautiful as well. If this sounds like something you’d like, go ahead and try it yourself!
The Lindsay Fog
Ingredients
- 1 Bag Double Bergamot Earl Grey
- 3 tsp Brown sugar
- 1/2 Cup milk (Heated)
- Splash of vanilla syrup
Instructions
- Steep tea for 2-3 minutes.
- Heat milk in microwave for 1 minute.
- Use milk frother to froth milk.
- Squeeze and remove the tea bag. (Don’t hurt yourself!)
- Add frothed milk, sugar, and vanilla to tea. Stir.
- (Optional for presentation) Sprinkle a little brown sugar on the top.
- Enjoy!
If you don’t like tea as much as I do and you’d rather test something else still fitting for the winter season, perhaps you could snoop around the rest of the articles… who knows what you’ll find?
