Starbucks Iced Royal English Breakfast Tea Latte Copycat

5 from 2 votes

This Starbucks copycat Royal English Breakfast Tea Latte recipe is quick and easy to make at home.

Prep Time2

Steep Time5

Total Time7

Course: Drinks

Cuisine: American

Servings: serving (16 ounces)

Author: Jee Choe

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 water temperature to 195°F. For best results, make tea ahead of time and chill in the refrigerator.
Discard tea bags and stir in sugars.
Make sure sugars are fully dissolved.
Put tea, milk, and ice into a cocktail shaker. Shake 10 times.
Pour entire contents of cocktail shaker into a cup.

Starbucks uses 2% milk by default in all their lattes (tea and coffee), but you can use any milk you like.
Royal English Breakfast tea is a blend of a black tea from India and a black tea from Africa. English Breakfast tea is a blend of black teas and every company creates a different blend. Once the tea is combined with milk and sugar, the black teas will pretty much all taste the same.
This recipe replaces liquid cane sugar syrup with white sugar and turbinado sugar to give it the same flavor and sweetness, without having to use a syrup.
The baristas at Starbucks handshake their tea lattes in a large plastic cocktail shaker, which is why it has that nice foamy layer on the top. If you don't already have a cocktail shaker, you can use a large jar with a tight lid. Just make sure it is large enough to shake 16 ounces of liquid plus ice and some room for shaking.
Use tea bags or tea sachets instead of loose tea for mess-free steeping. Since you're adding milk and sugar, the tea quality doesn't have to be the best.
Customize this tea latte with cold foam. Top the drink with a homemade vanilla sweet cream cold foam since it pairs nicely with the English Breakfast tea.