Starbucks' London Fog Tea Latte has already been "hacked"

The London Fog Tea Latte is about $4, but you can get nearly the same thing at Starbucks for around $2.50, provided you don't mind with tinkering at the counter for a couple of moments and switching to a normal Earl Grey tea bag instead of the loose-leaf mesh one. Here's the recipe for a Ghetto London Fog Tea Latte:

1 medium (grande or whatever the 16 oz is) hot cup Earl Grey tea
3 packs sugar
3-6 ounces two-percent milk.

Order a cup of Earl Grey tea. Tell the barista you'll steep it yourself. Drink or pour out the top fourth of the drink. Add the sugar and two-percent milk and presto! a London Fog. || Read "Starbucks' new drink is already hacked"

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Comments

how about you buy a box of earl grey tea for 5 dollars and go home.

[Barista Joe]

...Yeah, but who's gonna steam the milk for ya? =p

[Lindsey]

It's not a London Fog without Vanilla.

FAIL.

Yeah not quite the same.

[barristerbarista]

*shrug*

Or you can get an Earl Grey Tea Misto.

It's similar, just without the loose leaf tea bag. If you want to pay 30 cents extra for vanilla syrup, even better.

Not to mention in order to get the correct proportions to the LFTL, you'd have to drink half the tea, and fill it back up with cold milk, and lord help me, if you do that, I can't warm it back up for you.

[Mike in Seattle]

Yeah. About as much as a doppio with some milk is a Double Tall Latte.

[Barristerbarista]

Also, I really love it when people are encouraged to pour hot liquid out into our trash cans. Do these people not think about the consequences that others have to deal with?

If you really intend to make your ghetto drink, just ask us for extra extra room. We'd rather do that then have to deal with soggy leaky trash bags if this is going to become a trend.

[Soursupervisor]

I just got done "arguing" with a customer in drive thru a few days ago who wanted to do this...she wanted the actual london fog tea latte the way its supposed to be done but refused to pay the correct price cuz she figured that it should be considered a tea misto and come out to about 225/250. Everytime I tried to explain she'd put her hand out the window and said I'm not done speaking sir..even though she wasn't saying a word...I ended up giving it to her for that price because there were about 7 cars behind her and she was ready to sit at the window all friggin night. I did tell her that I'm speaking to the manager to make sure no one else gives her special treatment because our prices are set and if she wants it for that price she'll get somethin different...sorry. Ugh...-_-

[josh]

if you're really willing to forgo the vanilla, hot frothy milk, lavender for the sake of a few cents you deserve the results. why not just "hack" this buy purchasing 20 bags of tea and steeping it yourself?

[barista lane]

is this starbucks gossip, or some new, "how to cheat your way to cheaper drinks" website. what purpose does this post serve?

[Jim Romenesko]

Barista Lane apparently is a newcomer who missed the hundreds of posts about Ghetto Lattes. There's nothing "new" about this discussion.

Jim
Starbucks Gossip webmaster

[Ettal]

This is a poor excuse for a thread on this once informative and important website. Shame on you...

[Me]

But Jim, you have to admit it really only creates more trouble for us baristas and doesn't really serve anyone, does it?
Again, to anyone who still doesn't get it: Because the milk at the condiment stand is available free of charge doesn't mean it doesn't cost anything.

Yes, you can talk about how to cheat at starbucks. But this post is really ridiculous. At least make it a vanilla earl grey tea misto. You would still save some, wouldn't get the silk tea bag, but also wouldn't be a big douchebag about it.

Have a calm tea guys.

[barista lane]

Mr. Romanesko,

I'm not a newcomer, and I do remember the ghetto latte discussions. But you've posted a RECIPE! You haven't started discussion here, you're encouraging customers to come in and make my day at work more difficult.

And, like you say, since there's nothing "new" about this discussion, why are you posting on it again? I mean, don't you do your best to stop commenters from discussing other heated topics like tips?

[Mary]

Drink "hacking" is a legit issue related to Starbucks and it definitely fits in this blog. Plus, anyone reading the comments here would take away the fact that the hacked drink wouldn't taste nearly as good, and wouldn't be hot either.

[Me]

to be fair, the "hacked" drink most likely would taste disgusting at best. I can't imagine anyone doing it more than once.
But posting the recipe still makes our days harder and the losses for unaccounted milk bigger.
Oh well, Jim never acclaimed he is the biggest starbucks fan around...

[Mike]

Things like this are the reason customers always come running back from the condiment bar upset that their drinks aren't hot enough...well, you just turned a 10 ounce drink into a 20 ounce drink with cold milk...yeah, that'll do it...oh, and now you want another one? Uh, I don't think so...you see this all the time with drip ("May I have a venti drip no room and oh, throw in a couple tall cups please?") Yup, I see you huddled over there at my condiment bar making that one coffee three and using all the milk. And yeah, I saw you put a handful of Splenda in your pocket...and wow, was it really necessary to take 20 napkins? And these are the same customers who have the nerve to get angry at us because their drinks aren't hot enough now? The Just Say Yes philosophy? Not for these cheapskates...don't let the door hit you on the way out. I'm not here to provide charity. You don't have to stand with me when my DM is asking me to explain why my dairy variance is so high from all the unaccounted for milk. As a company we're currently in the process of trying to figure out how to do this (the current answer is marked steaming pitchers so the milk poured will be more accurate depending on the order). Know what I say? Give us some labor back, let us pour the milk ourselves, and watch the millions we save. Dunkin' does it, and I don' see any less of their employees behind the line!
I can live with our customers trying to save themselves a buck or two. But do it the right way. Get a Starbucks card and register it to take advantage of the rewards. Get yourself a gold card and get your discount. If you're a regular customer more than likely I'll even throw you a freebie on occasion. But don't steal from me. I depend on my job and my paycheck just as much as anyone else.
And don't complain to me when you get what you pay for! Sorry, but the Earl Grey misto and the London Fog Tea Latte are in different ballparks.

[Maggie]

I concur. Touche.

[Maggie]

I concur. Touche.

[JonnySF]

Oh I wish this website is a bit more optimistics ....

Everyone is a new year..and the world is not ending. Can we all post some more positive messages...

[green_cup]

I just got done "arguing" with a customer in drive thru a few days ago who wanted to do this...she wanted the actual london fog tea latte the way its supposed to be done but refused to pay the correct price cuz she figured that it should be considered a tea misto and come out to about 225/250. Everytime I tried to explain she'd put her hand out the window and said I'm not done speaking sir..even though she wasn't saying a word...I ended up giving it to her for that price because there were about 7 cars behind her and she was ready to sit at the window all friggin night. I did tell her that I'm speaking to the manager to make sure no one else gives her special treatment because our prices are set and if she wants it for that price she'll get somethin different...sorry. Ugh...-_-

Posted by: Soursupervisor | January 13, 2009 at 12:48 PM

To be fair, the "London Fog Latte" is just hot, frothy milk and a tea bag. It's sweetened with vanilla syrup, but, sugar would do just as well. Unless I'm missing something, just because Starbucks decided to call it a "London Fog Latte" doesn't mean it isn't also a tea misto. Someone just got smart and figured out that the components of the previously-called tea misto is, indeed, just the new London Fog Latte.

If you would have been giving good customer service and actually been reasonable about this and actually followed Starbucks protocol of Just Say Yes, a few things would have happened:

#1: You wouldn't have driven away another customer which is something Starbucks seems really good at doing...

#2: You wouldn't have inconvenienced the seven cars behind her, taking up their time for your silly "cause"

#3: You should never argue with a customer. Never. You can shut them down in other ways rather than arguing. I'm more than sure your bosses wouldn't agree arguing is okay to do.

But, you decided that giving what is essentially marginally acceptable customer service is somehow giving "special treatment."

In most cases, I'd say that it would be YOU getting something coming to you, what with a normal company eventually seeing, disciplining and eventually terminating rude employees like you, but Starbucks can't seem to get its act straight. I highly doubt they would even notice much less actually do anything in regards to your poor, unacceptable behavior. That's too bad, though, but it looks like Starbucks is keeping on folks of your ilk more than they are doing to retain currently fleeing talent and customers. I guess, though, the company will lose enough customers at your store, and we all know Starbucks needs to close unprofitable stores to buy planes. Maybe then you'll see you were wrong.

Finally, it's very sad to see you are supervisor. That just means that you have someone looking to you for guidance and if this is what they're getting, there's another "generation" of Starbucks employees giving bad service.

Man, this company is worse off every day.

[Venti Urnex Latte]

I think the underlying theme here is that Starbucks drinks are just really, really expensive.

I can make a cup of tea with milk at home for approximately 4 cents. If I put sugar in my tea and add ancillary costs (the cost of dishwashing liquid for the mug and gas for boiling the water and electricity for running the fridge), it might rise to 6 cents. If I take a tea markout, the teabag is free!

I understand that customers are paying for our health insurance and our rent and the "free" napkins and such, but the markup is exponential. Sometimes I feel guilty charging people so much for drinks, especially if they are students or look like they can't afford much. And we have regulars who spend around $10 every single day, or $3K to $4K a year. This is a huge amount of money for what they are getting. I know there is the other extreme of people who sit there all day getting coffee refills and cups of ice. The imbalance is stark.

If I were a customer and didn't get free drinks as a partner, I wouldn't patronize Starbucks except on rare occasions. It is just way too expensive.

[YVRcustomer]

When my "trial" Vancouver gold card expired with the perks, I cut my Starbucks visits WAY down.

I would like to thank Starbucks for reintroducing me to tea. I tried a "London Fog" when it was still called a "Vanilla Earl Grey Tea Misto". I liked it, so I bought a box of Earl Grey tea, a bottle of vanilla syrup and I make the drink myself at home or work.

Tea mistos are easy to make yourself, use a kettle/microwave, so why pay $4 plus at Starbucks! (Or, why pay $2 for a simple teabag in hot water for that matter).

I'll still go to Starbucks for the odd latte or frappuccino, as I can't make those at home. But I already make my green tea lattes and other tea drinks at home.

Starbucks is way too expensive, and the baristas make way too many lousy drinks (no consistency in the making of the drinks & even forgetting to add syrups) lately to throw my money away on a regular basis.

[Mrs. Tillinghamshackles]

Green_cup,
"just because Starbucks decided to call it a "London Fog Latte" doesn't mean it isn't also a tea misto."

True, it is a tea misto, but the new london fog tea latte is full leaf earl grey tea in a silk bag. A traditional earl grey tea mito would come with the old tea, which is not full leaf. I'm sure the supervisor would've been happy to charge her for a tea misto if this was the case, but she wanted it made the way of the London Fog recipe.

And I hardly think a supervisor trying to explain to a customer that they have to actually pay for their drink is rude or argumentative.

[Barista]

a London Fog Latte is almost $4 WHERE?!

[Kathy]

Barista,
I am in southern Illinois and a London Fog is $3.85 at my local licensed store.

Melody,
Today Ethiopia Sidamo was brewing at 3:30pm.

Just found out our local McDonald's is closed for 3 days to remodel for reopening as a "McCafe".....No way it can compare to SBX!

[Marcus]

I've had a london fog twice now. The first time I ordered the standard tall london fog. I found it to be OK, but too sweet.

So today I ordered it without syrup. I said I guess that makes it like a misto, and just left it at that to see how they would charge me and I still was charged the full price which I don't mind because they are using the different tea bags.

But I decided I don't actually like the drink anyhow. I didn't like it so much without the sugar anyway. I think the tea is a bit too strong, well I guess I left it in too long. It looks like enough tea for a kettle in there though! It is a pretty bag to look at. But I like the taste of a regular earl grey more. So maybe it's the milk I don't like. I dunno. I'm not good at putting my finger on it, but I know I'll just get my regular earl grey when I go in for tea from now on, but I will miss saying "London Fog."

I guess I could call it my Clear Skies of London drink? Or Amber Skies? I dunno....

Not gonna lie, the McCafe drinks are pretty tasty.

...and much cheaper.

[Mrs. Tillinghamshackles]

Marcus. You may just not like milk with tea. If you want to try what I do, I drink London Fogs with soy milk. I'm not a soy drinker, but something about the soy with the tea just goes together really well.

[mikeevans]

I learned this from a customer....I won't pass on the specific 'cheapskate' website...it proposes taking your wife for morning coffee....get your registered card....buy a tall coffee....double cupped in a venti with extra extra room....then pour a bit into the wifes cup and get refills while you read the paper...This was the basic cheapskate move...they actually offer other ways to reduce the price more!!!

[SPORK]

YVR Customer,

If you're frequenting the Vancouver Airport Starbucks, then yes you will be getting an inferior product as they are not a 'real' Starbucks; they're a licensed store, similar in some ways to a Franchised store (although different in practise). Also, it's still a vanilla earl-grey-tea misto, it always has been. A london fog tea latte is a different version of the earl grey tea. The vanilla earl-grey-tea misto has NOT been replaced by the London Fog Tea Latte.

Here is why a London Fog Tea Latte is more expensive
-Vanilla added in
-Loose-leaf Earl Grey Tea
-Silk Tea Bag
-Foamed Milk (Tea-Mistos do NOT have foam).

I think we all know that this 'Ghetto' LFTL is absolutely NOT a replacement... it's just hilarious! I agree that the LFTL is way overpriced, but if I were cheating the system I would get a registered card, and ask for a Grande-in a Venti Earl Grey Tea with 5-pumps vanilla and then tell the Barista to charge me for Add Dairy as I would be off to the condiment stand to fill it up with milk. The card would take off the vanilla and the Add Dairy. If I were really interested in the tea bag I would even pay the 40 cents for the silk tea bag Earl Grey. All in all it would be about 2.04 at my Starbucks including the silk tea bag, vanilla and the milk you 'stole' would be compensated by the add dairy that your registered card just gave you for free! I know some Baristas are going to bitch about the add dairy only being for steamed milk, but at my store my Store Manager has been known to charge one customer the Add Dairy for her tall-in a venti coffee and then she fills it up with milk. The reason I told you to get a grande-in-a-venti, is because the extra hot water (a typical grande tea misto has 8 ounces hot water, 8 ounces hot milk) would heat up the colder milk so you'd have 16 ounces of hot water to offset the 4 ounces of the cold milk

[tea=tea]

does the whole leaf earl grey in silk bag taste that much different than regular earl grey tea bag?

[coffee flavored coffee]

We have customers at my store who will do ANYTHING to save a buck. Normally I'm all for helping someone out and have no problem throwing a free drink to a nice regular now and then. Some people however push me to far. When the SAME customer comes in multiple times a day here is what he orders and how he orders it:
"I would like 2 doppios (sp?) but ring it up as a quad! Oh and I would like one of them iced and can you throw a little steamed milk into the other?"
Oh and if you try to ring it up for what it actually is, he will correct you... A lot.
Does he have a gold card? No. Does he ever tip. No. I hate some people.

[Really?]

Perhaps we should just make all the drinks the same price, since with a tweak here and a tweak there you could make them all the same.

[Mousie]

Tonight I asked for a skinny London Fog. To me, that meant SF vanilla and skim milk; to him, that meant no syrup and 2% milk. It was my fault for assuming he would treat a tea latte like an espresso latte - unfortunately I didn't discover the miscommunication until 10 minutes and 8 miles later.

To make things worse, even after letting it steep for those 10 minutes there was very little tea flavor. The beverage I ended up with was watered down steamed milk with a faint tea flavor. Didn't really feel like driving all the way back for a re-make. Live and learn.

I've actually had a lot of skinny London Fogs at the store near my old office (made with the standard Tazo bags), and started making them at home after changing jobs. This was my first "official" one. Luckily I used the "try it free" coupon that Starbucks mailed out.

This "cheat" version sounds nasty - watering down tea with a ton of cold milk gives you tepid tea-flavored milk. Ugh. Come to think of it, it sounds like what I ended up with tonight, except for the temperature.

[Mrs. Tillinghamshackles]

tea=tea,
yes they do taste different as the tea in the silk bag is full leaf tea.

[Screamin' Bean]

I would just like to point out that us licensed store employees really hate being called"fake starbucks" or not real. We are trained with the same training material corporate stores use. We have to answer to a district manager from starbucks. The only real difference in my opinion is that we are operating out of a leased kiosk. At our location we have several people come in complaining about drinks they have gotten at corporate locations.

[Mrs. Tillinghamshackles]

Screamin' Bean,
Having worked for a year before transferring to a corporate store I can tell you the difference is night and day. Your training materials are different. Nowhere near as thorough. Your DM is not kept anywhere near as in the loop as a DM of corporate stores. Corporate Starbucks doesn't really care too much about its licensed locations. They just make Starbucks money no matter how they perform. I know you do your best, I did too. But it really isn't the same.

[OHARE]

As manager of among other things, several licensed stores, I will definitely agree that the experience you get is somewhat diminished in comparison to a company store. Sure, there is a BRM in some cabinet somewhere, but really its just not the same.

[expired shot]

Green-Cup,

You bring up a point about customer service, which actually was a topic of discussion at my store today. Great service is getting the exact drink you want , with the freshest product, and a smile, thank you and conversation. "Just say yes" is a way to provide legendary customer care by ensuring that you get the beverage you want. If I mess up that beverage, than I will remake it over and over again to your specification.

Just say yes and legendary customer care do NOT involve telling a partner what to charge them. If you want premium tea bags, you are going to pay. You want 1 pump vanilla-there is a charge unless you have a registered card. Because 1 pump times twice a day times 365 days times fifteen customers a store at +10,000 stores = a whole lot of partners salaries and hours.

I wont unlock my doors after business hours to let a customer use the restrooms because it is a security risk, just as I wont give free product because it's not profitable and it affects partners income. I know that these don't line up with legendary care or with "Just Say Yes" But policy and procedure are there to make us profitable, safe and unified and non-discriminatory in our choice of who to apply a charge, or policy to and who not to.
Sorry for the rant, This topic gets to me!

[SPORK]

Screamin' Beans,

I'm sorry if I offended you. In reality I know very well that the title of licensed does not yield a lower product, it's people. The reason I put real in quotations was to emphasize public opinion of licensed stores not being the best and not to give out my own. That being said the Safeway store near my Starbucks results in at least 3 customers a day coming in and demanding a free drink for something that the licensed store made incorrectly. This happened much more frequently to the point where Corporate fired every one of them and started fresh it was so bad. As well you do not have the same training materials as we did nor the same amount of time spent on the training as Mrs. Tillinghamshackles (love the name) has stated above. Keep doing what you're doing, I'm sure your regulars appreciate you very much and I know that you're most likely 10x better than half the partners at my store ;)

[Torontodude]

More about price.

I agree that many SBUX drinks are ridiculously overpriced.

But there are some also some great bargain:

* Two venti brewed coffees for $2.26 (with a free refill on my Starbucks card.) That's a better deal than you can get at Dunkin Donuts, McDonalds, or Tim Horton. Some of the coffees are very good. Casa Cielo is my favorite. But many Sbux coffees are over roasted. So I don't agree with the whole bold hang up on this site. But 40 ounces of any type of coffee for $2.26? C'mon people. This is great value.

- An 8-cup French press for $4.10. Probably the best thing Starbucks serves. If the coffee is fresh (always a crap shoot), I sometimes buy the rest of the bag as whole bean.

- A venti red eye (brewed coffee with an espresso shot) for $2.86. Sometimes the barista will throw in an extra shot for free. I usually order this if I can't hang around for my in-store refill.

-

[smtdot]

The new bags for the full leaf tea are actually made of nylon.....the silk bag idea is just more tribal lore. Ask your product specialist

[BOSTON STARBUCKS REBEL]

The New England-Atlantic Zone is coming out with a new dairy standard. Basically we will now have to measure out the milk for each drink. Longer waits now. Fun!

[Mysticboi]

Screamin' Bean

Not to offend you, but where I'm from, license stores are not that great. They have half our menu, half our merchandise, and half our training. I get alot of customers complementing on my drinks and wondering why that other store around the corner tastes so nasty. Which then I ask....which store? The in Safeway! *Rolls eyes* Its not my drinks being good, its that Safeway Starbucks makes them differently, away from standard. Trust me, we hired two ex licensed Starbucks baristas and both of them have totally different ways of making drinks. I'm not saying anything about your store but in my area, license stores are sketchy.

[Herman Melville]

Up to 4 ounces of any milk product (including soy) is considered a condiment, and customers can ask for steamed milk as a condiment if they choose. So buy a tall earl grey, pay the thirty cents for pumps of vanilla and ask that your allotment of condiment milk be steamed. If they get crappy about it tell them you dont want to bring down the temp of your drink and the "just say yes" policy kicks in. Voila, ghetto london fog which has already earned the name "london smog" in our rather cheap neighborhood.

[Herman Melville]

You can also ask for an earl grey tea, filled half-way for whatever size it is and have them fill it up the rest of the way with whipped cream, stir in the cream and voila "london mist".

[mochasananimel]

Half tea and half milk? soo... luke warm milky suggary tea? Euw... nowhere near to a LFTL.....

But lets just talk about how much I, as a Londoner, hate the term London Fog..... gah....

[GossipGirl]

Seattle Fog Latte:
espresso, extra hot steamed NO FOAM milk poured over ice.
present with straw & drink coupon