Starbucks Royal English Breakfast Tea Latte
Updated Apr 26, 2025
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Creamy frothed milk and sweetened English breakfast tea are in this tasty copycat Starbucks tea latte that’s easy to make at home.
Starbucks Royal English Breakfast Tea Latte
Starbucks discontinued this drink but don’t worry, you can still order it by customizing a hot black tea latte. Even better, you can make it at home at fraction of the cost!
The Royal English Breakfast Tea Latte is a sweetened hot tea with frothed milk. It’s rich, bold, and creamy. Royal English breakfast tea is a black tea and it contains caffeine.
Note from Jee
For all my Starbucks copycat drinks, I take the original recipe (with exact amounts and ingredients) and recipe test to make sure it tastes as close to Starbucks as possible.
Instead of using my homemade liquid cane sugar, I went with stirring in the two different sugars that goes into it. It saves a step and I love shortcuts that doesn’t sacrifice taste.
Recipe Summary
- Made with 5 ingredients, it has both white granulated sugar and turbinado sugar to recreate the same flavors as Starbucks liquid cane sugar.
- Frothed milk can easily be made at home using an electric milk frother or with a French press.
- This recipe makes a 16 ounce hot English Breakfast tea latte, which is a grande at Starbucks.
RELATED: Starbucks Iced Royal English Breakfast Tea Latte Copycat
Ingredient Notes
- Royal English breakfast tea: Starbucks uses Teavana Royal English Breakfast tea but it’s hard to find without paying a premium. Instead, use any Royal English breakfast tea or English breakfast tea.
- 2% milk: All lattes at Starbucks is made with 2% milk unless by default, but you can use any milk you like. Dairy milk with some fat will froth up the best.
- White sugar: This recipe uses both granulated white sugar and turbinado sugar to match the flavor from liquid cane sugar used in the Starbucks drink.
- Turbinado sugar: Turbinado has a molasses flavor that adds a richness to the drink.
- Water: Use filtered water (Starbucks does), for a better tasting tea.
For full ingredients and detailed instructions, please see the recipe card at the bottom of the post.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Step 1: Boil water on the stovetop or use an electric kettle with a temperature setting. Put tea bags and hot water into a teapot. Cover and steep.
Step 2: Froth milk. Use an electric milk frother or by simmering milk on the stovetop, then pouring it into a French press, then pumping the plunger a few times.
Step 3: Pour hot tea into a cup and stir in sugars.
Step 4: Add frothed milk.
Photo Credit: amazon.com
Recipe Notes
Use tea bags.
Tea bags make cleanup easier since you don’t need a separate strainer. Higher quality (and more expensive) loose tea isn’t necessary when you’re adding so much milk and sugar.
Any black tea can be used.
Royal English breakfast tea is a blend of black teas so you can use any unflavored black tea. It’ll be very very difficult to taste the difference.
Turbinado and white sugar make Starbucks liquid cane sugar syrup.
Starbucks uses liquid cane sugar in the drink. To recreate it, a combo of turbinado sugar and white sugar is used. You can use just turbinado sugar or white sugar if you want to simplify the recipe.
Expert Tips
- When heating milk on the stovetop to froth using a French press, make sure milk doesn’t come to a full boil since it can easily burn.
- When using a French press to froth milk, be sure to fill it so that the filter reaches the milk but not overfilled. The milk volume will almost double after you pump air into it.
- Make it even more delicious with homemade whipped cream. Whisk ¼ cup heavy cream and 2 teaspoons white sugar using a handheld milk frother to make whipped cream in seconds.
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Related
- Starbucks Chai Latte Copycat
- Starbucks Medicine Ball Tea Copycat
- Every Starbucks Tea Drink Ranked by Caffeine Content
- 21 Best Starbucks Tea Drinks
- 23 Popular Starbucks Secret Tea Menu Drinks
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Starbucks Royal English Breakfast Tea Latte Copycat
Ingredients
- 2 tea bags English Breakfast tea, (or 1 tablespoon loose tea)
- 1 cup hot water
- 2 teaspoons white sugar
- 2 teaspoons turbinado sugar
- ⅔ cup 2% milk
Instructions
- Put tea bags and hot water into a teapot. Cover and steep for 5 minutes.Boil water on the stovetop or use an electric kettle with a temperature setting. Set the water temperature to 208°F when using the electric kettle. Once steeped, discard the tea bags.2 tea bags English Breakfast tea, 1 cup hot water
- Froth milk.Frothed milk can be made using an electric milk frother or by simmering milk on the stovetop, then pouring it into a French press, then pumping the plunger a few times.⅔ cup 2% milk
- Pour hot tea into a cup and stir in sugars. Add frothed milk.2 teaspoons white sugar, 2 teaspoons turbinado sugar
Notes
- Starbucks uses Teavana Royal English breakfast tea but it’s hard to find it without paying a premium. Instead, use any English breakfast tea.
- All lattes at Starbucks is made with 2% milk unless by default, but you can use any milk you like. Dairy milk with some fat will froth up the best.
- This recipe uses both granulated white sugar and turbinado sugar to match the flavor from liquid cane sugar used in the Starbucks drink.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Thank you, this is perfect!