Good teas good for latte?
I recently bought an espresso machine to make lattes and espresso for my lady. While I may drink an occasional coffee with her, I’m pretty sure I will be sticking to tea. But the excellent built-in milk frother has piqued my curiosity about tea lattes. Usually I don’t drink tea with milk but I’ve already made a Masala Chai Latte with Tavalon’s Kama Chai Sutra and I’ve heard of green tea lattes made with Matcha (doesn’t that get expensive fast?) What other teas would be good for making latte?
I mostly drink flavored stuff, but flavored matcha is pretty good and I quite like blacks and rooibos. I like the tea to be on the heavy flavored side, which picks up well in the milk.
Off the top of my head, some good lattes I’ve made are: DavidsTea Buttered Rum, Creme brulee, Oh Canada. Many of 52 teas black teas (especially with cheesecake flavor). Lupicia’s Strawberry Vanilla.
Some sellers like lupicia list teas that are good with milk http://www.lupiciausa.com/Milk_Tea_s/67.htm
Matcha lattes would be expensive? What do you mean, were you planning to put more matcha in a latte than you would drinking it straight? I drink almost all my matcha as lattes, ‘cuz most of what I have isn’t good enough to drink straight.
Lattes: pretty much any chocolate/dessert tea will do. EGs, especially creamy ones. Basically, if it’s decent taken with milk, it will probably hold up well as a latte.
Matcha is rather expensive but a little goes a long way. You use such a small amount compared to tea leaves that it really isn’t that expensive in the long run.
Matcha is probably the best taste, but I’m in the process of trying sencha, genmaicha and hojicha powders as well for flavored lattes. In my opinion culinary grade tea powders, while rather more bitter than ceremonial grade matcha, taste fine for flavored lattes (I use Torani flavored syrups) and are way less expensive. Sugimoto America has 20 gram sampler packs of matcha for $5; sencha, genmaicha and hojicha packs are $3. Their service is very good.
Red Leaf tea has every flavor of matcha imaginable. My favorite is probably Caramel, but there are many great flavors. I always make lattes with my flavored matchas. 1/2 tsp in 8 oz of almond milk/water with my milk frother. Delicious.
Has anyone ever tried a Pu erh latte?
I have successfully made latte’s using both Cinnamon Heart and Chocolate Orange both of which are pu’erh/black tea blends from DavidsTea.
I have straight puerh lattes on occasion! I always use cheaper leaves that don’t give me much variety in flavour in a gaiwan or even western brewing – making them into a latte makes them quite enjoyable!
DavidsTea Pumpkin Chai makes an awesome latte, although it’s not in season right now. I’m sure you could experiment with dessert teas and see what you like.
I’ve made a ton of lattes with Celestial Seasoning’s Gingerbread Spice tea too – I find that you can use lower quality teas with a latte as some of the flavour is lost anyway. A little bit of brown sugar and…. wow. I’ve saved a bit of money NOT getting Starbucks drinks because I know I can just make this when I get at home.
That is a great idea. Now that my tea snobbery level has been upped quite a bit, I’m shooting looks at my old boxed tea for taking up pantry space.
Whoops! I think you just told me this last week too!
I just remember my sales associate told me that I’d better stock up because it was probably going to disappear and my brain decided that that was the end. #Sabotage
I tend to prefer latte’s best when they’re made with desserty rooibos flavours. One of my all time favourite things is an Oh Canada latte with brown sugar and Vanilla Almond milk!
I want to try Lupicia’s Strawberry& Vanilla as a latte, also Good Earth’s Chai.
Thanks all, so much. For me, fruity teas in the morning are anathema, but all your suggestions show that lots of blends may work and point the way to a lot of fun experiments.
I’m thinking right now of one of those bone cold, rainy winter afternoons eased by a London Fog: a big warm mug of Earl Grey with a hot frothy mist of steamed, frothed milk.
Another question, do you brew all your teas extra or double strong to hold up to the extra milk?
double strength at least! more if the tea is one that doesn’t risk oversteeping or getting bitter. Usually if it’s a rooibos I will add a little extra too.
mmmm London Fog! Oh I might have to make a latte right now… ! London Fogging it up! :D
I usually do double strength for the tea – what I love about lattes is even if it is a little bitter, once you add the milk it goes away. Ah yum.
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