Despite its name, the London Fog is Canadian. The best known account traces it to a café in Vancouver, where a regular customer who was expecting a baby began ordering Earl Grey tea with steamed milk and a little vanilla, and the combination spread from there to cafés across the country. Nobody seems sure who named it, though anyone who has watched steamed milk swirl into dark tea, on a gray Pacific morning, can probably guess. Like many good café stories, the details are disputed; the drink is not.

It is now on the menu of nearly every Canadian coffee shop, the tea drinker's answer to the latte. The bergamot in Earl Grey, a fragrant citrus, softens beautifully with milk and vanilla. It makes a calm, comforting cup for a Canadian Grand Prix morning, and one with rather less caffeine than a coffee, should the race already be supplying enough excitement.

The London Fog

Ingredients

• 1 Earl Grey tea bag
• 1/2 cup (120 ml) boiling water
• 1 to 2 teaspoons sugar or honey
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup (120 ml) whole milk
• 1 pinch dried culinary lavender

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