Earl Grey · Steamed milk · Vanilla
An Earl Grey latte named after a city it has little to do with. Invented by a café regular barred from the delights of coffee.
Read the story ↓The story
In the mid-1990s, Mary Loria was a regular at the Buckwheat Café in Vancouver. She was pregnant, had bad morning sickness, and couldn't face coffee.35 She asked for an Earl Grey tea bag steeped in steamed skim milk, with no water, and sweetened it with vanilla sugar from the condiment bar.23
She kept ordering it and told friends about it, and they started asking for it at other cafés.34 Years later she saw "London Fog" on menus and didn't recognize it as her drink at first. She says she has no idea who named it.24
“I had severe morning sickness, so a lot of things didn't taste right.”Mary Loria, to Country & Town House5
A note on the record
Loria's account is the one most writers cite, and it rests mostly on her own memory. Other cafés have disputed it.3 We think it's the best-documented version, but it's an oral history, not a paper trail.
The name
Loria never named it, and nobody has come forward who did.2 These are the two usual guesses. Neither is documented.
Steamed milk poured into dark tea turns it cloudy and grey. Most writers who explain the name point to this.4
Earl Grey is a British blend, usually said to be named for Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, Prime Minister from 1830 to 1834. Even that link is uncertain.7 A London name fits an English-sounding tea, whoever came up with it.
The recipe
Three ingredients. This is our everyday version. Loria's original skipped the water and steeped the tea bag straight in the steamed milk.2
Oat or almond milk both work. Lavender syrup in place of vanilla is common, and so is honey. Some people add a pinch of cinnamon or cardamom.
Kyle's usual: Earl Grey with a splash of vanilla extract and a packet of stevia instead of syrup. Same idea, less sugar.
Details
Once the pregnancy was over, Loria returned to coffee,3 and she's still described as a big coffee drinker.2
A Dublin Fog uses Irish Breakfast tea, a Halifax Fog uses maple syrup, and a Maui Fog uses coconut. Bars also make cocktail versions with scotch or gin.4
When Sprudge went looking, they couldn't find a London café serving one.2 It's still mostly a North American order.
An 8 oz cup of brewed black tea has around 48 mg of caffeine, against about 96 mg for brewed coffee. Steep time changes it a lot, and it's not caffeine-free.6
Quiz
See how much of the story stuck.
About
Hey friend, I'm Kyle! My brother Kaden and I built this site. I was a barista in college, and I've always loved this drink and its origins. As nerds, we put it together as an act of love for this cozy beverage.
Sources
Numbers in the text point here. Most of the origin story comes from interviews with Mary Loria, so it's her memory of events. Where the record is thin, we've said so.