Honey Lavender Earl Grey Latte, Easy Recipe

Lavender Honey Latte

If you love the sweetness of honey and the floral flavor of lavender, then a lavender honey latte may be just the hot drink you’ve been looking for. Homemade lavender honey syrup is the key to marrying these two flavors from the garden. I especially like to use lavender honey syrup to make one of my new favorite tea drinks: honey lavender earl grey latte.

Combining this simple syrup with black tea, coffee or espresso and a little steamed milk gives your drink a subtle flavor that’s not only delicious to drink but is relaxing to sip on. And, in my opinion, quite pleasing to the eye. We do “eat with our eyes first,” right?

Lavender infused honey syrup

So how do you make lavender honey syrup? In a word, easily. I like to say that simple syrups are simple to make and this recipe for lavender honey syrup lives up to that description.

The basic recipe for all simple syrups is one part sweetener and one part water. Here you can see how I make a basic honey simple syrup.

Creating flavored simple syrups typically involves just adding one or two more ingredients. For example, you can make homemade vanilla simple syrup with sugar, water and a vanilla bean.

However, incorporating a flavor like vanilla (from a bean) or lavender (from buds) requires infusing the flavor into the syrup. And it couldn’t be easier to do.

Simply add the flavored ingredient to hot water or the syrup mixture and let it sit for a few minutes. In other words, it’s like making a cup of hot tea. Afterall, when you drop a tea bag into hot water, you’re infusing the flavor of the tea leaves into the water.

How to make lavender honey syrup

We all know how sticky and goopy (if that’s a word) honey is. So when I make this syrup I like to infuse the water with the lavender before combining it with the honey. Think of it like making lavender tea. It makes straining the lavender water a breeze.

When the lavender infusion is complete, combine it with honey and sugar. Next, put the mixture over heat and dissolve the sugar. And just like that, you made lavender flavored honey syrup.

My favorite way to use this syrup is in an earl grey latte. I do have a thing for earl grey. If you do too, this is how I make a London Fog Earl Grey Latte. (So good!) But, this syrup works well in other drinks, too.

As far as infusing and straining the lavender goes, there are a few ways to accomplish this. For instance, you can put the lavender directly in the hot water on the stove and after steeping pour the water through a fine mesh strainer.

Or, if you have an infuser basket that you use to make tea, that works too. One of those teamakers that you steep loose tea in and rest on a cup to strain the leaves out works just as perfectly. I have and old one from Teavana, but you can get one from a tea shop like Adagio Teas or even on Amazon.

I use a tea infuser or strainer to steep water with lavender

Simple syrup is the best way to sweeten drinks

Quickly, before I show you the syrup and latte recipes, I want to make sure everyone knows why simple syrup is the most ideal way to sweeten drinks.

Many of us grew up stirring in a spoonful of sugar into our hot tea, dumping in a packet of Equal or Splenda or drizzling honey on top. So why should you bother using simple syrup? The reason is quite simple. Since the sweetener is already dissolved, it is easily incorporated into the drink Now that the entire drink is sweet, you can say, “so long” to that extra-sweet last sip. I’m sure you can see why simple syrup is especially ideal for cold drinks like iced tea and cocktails, too.

Lavender Honey Earl Grey Latte Recipe

To make a lavender honey earl grey latte you need:

• lavender honey simple syrup
• earl grey tea
• boiling water
• steamed milk

Lattes are usually half steamed milk and half strong tea. Likewise, you can use strong coffee or espresso in place of the tea. Keep in mind, not all earl grey teas are the same. Some have a strong lavender flavor, others do not.

Additionally, it’s important to use strong tea so the tea flavor isn’t lost in all the milk. In order to make a cup of strong earl grey, just use twice as many tea bags or loose tea per cup than you normally would.

Remember, strong black tea is not NOT made by steeping it longer. If you do so, you will just wind up with a very bitter cup of tea. That’s why it’s best to double up the amount of tea.

Finally, putting together this lavender honey latte is easy peasy. Steep the tea, add lavender honey syrup to taste and top it off with steamed milk. Feel free to drizzle even more honey on top.