Starbucks Earl Grey Tea

Starbucks Earl Grey Tea costs £3.15 for a Tall and carries 4 calories in a Grande, which makes it one of the lightest drinks on the Starbucks UK menu. Black tea is scented with bergamot and this blend adds lavender, which is not standard in most Earl Greys.

Bergamot is a citrus fruit grown mainly in Calabria, and its oil is what makes an Earl Grey. The scent arrives before the taste does: floral and sharp, closer to grapefruit peel than to lemon. The lavender sits behind it and gives the cup a softer, slightly perfumed finish that plain Earl Grey does not have. Black tea underneath keeps it from floating away entirely. It takes milk less well than a breakfast blend, because dairy flattens the bergamot.

Calories are 4 in a Short, Tall and Grande, and 8 in a Venti with its second bag. No sugar and no carbohydrate. Prices match the rest of the tea range at £3.15 for a Tall, £3.95 for a Grande and £4.30 for a Venti, which makes the whole tea menu the cheapest way to sit in a Starbucks for an hour.

Bergamot is also why this tea rewards a shorter steep than a breakfast blend. The oil sits on the surface of the leaf rather than inside it, so it comes out fast and then the black tea underneath keeps extracting tannins long after the citrus has finished. Three minutes catches both in balance. At five the bergamot is still there but it is buried under astringency, which is the usual reason people decide they do not like Earl Grey.

The caffeine figure needs the same caution as the rest of the black teas. Starbucks UK lists 1.1mg for a Grande, and a brewed black tea would normally deliver far more than that, so the published number is reported here without being presented as the real amount in the cup. Ask for it steeped three minutes and drunk without milk to get the bergamot at full strength. The English Breakfast is the maltier blend at the same price, and a London Fog, which is this tea with steamed milk and vanilla, is an off menu order every UK store will make.