Earl Grey tea is a tea blend which has been flavoured with the addition of oil of bergamot. The rind's fragrant oil is added to black tea to give Earl Grey its unique taste. Traditionally, Earl Grey was made from black teas such as China keemun and therefore intended to be drunk without milk. However, tea companies have since begun to offer Earl Grey based upon stronger teas such as Ceylons which are better suited to the addition of milk or cream. Other varieties have been introduced as well, such as green or oolong.
History
The Earl Grey blend, or "Earl Grey's Mixture", is assumed to be named after Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, British Prime Minister in the 1830s and author of the Reform Bill of 1832. He reputedly received a gift, probably a diplomatic perquisite, of tea flavoured with bergamot oil. A "Grey's Tea" is known from the 1850s, but the first known published references to an "Earl Grey" tea are advertisements by Charlton & Co. of Jermyn Street in London in the 1880s. According to one legend, a grateful Chinese mandarin whose son was rescued from drowning by one of Lord Grey's men first presented the blend to the Earl in 1803. The tale appears to be apocryphal, as Lord Grey never set foot in China and the use of bergamot oil to scent tea was then unknown in China. However, this tale is subsequently told on the Twinings website, as "having been presented by an envoy on his return from China". Jacksons of Piccadilly claim they originated Earl Grey's Tea, Lord Grey having given the recipe to Robert Jackson & Co. partner George Charlton in 1830. According to Jacksons, the original recipe has been in constant production and has never left their hands. Theirs has been based on Chinese black tea since the beginning. According to the Grey family, the tea was specially blended by a Chinese mandarin for Lord Grey, to suit the water at Howick Hall, the family seat in Northumberland, using bergamot in particular to offset the preponderance of lime in the local water. Lady Grey used it to entertain in London as a political hostess, and it proved so popular that she was asked if it could be sold to others, which is how Twinings came to market it as a brand. A 2010 survey found that a significant minority of people in the United Kingdom associate drinking Earl Grey tea with being "posh" or upper class.
Preparation and variations
"Earl Grey" as applied to tea is not a registered trademark, and numerous tea companies produce their own versions of Earl Grey tea, using a wide variety of tea leaves and additives. Bergamot orange is a small citrus tree which blossoms during the winter and is grown commercially in Calabria, Italy. It is probably a hybrid of Citrus limetta and Citrus aurantium.
There are different varieties of a tea known as Lady Grey; the two most common kinds being cornflower Lady Grey and citrus Lady Grey, which combine Earl Grey tea with cornflower and Seville oranges, respectively. "Lady Grey" is a trademark of Twinings.
A beverage called "" is a combination of Earl Grey, steamed milk and vanilla syrup.
There are variations available including such ingredients as jasmine, as well as various flowers. A blend with added rose petals is known as French Earl Grey, which has become the most popular blend at Australian tea store T2.
A variety called Russian Earl Grey often contains ingredients such as citrus peels and lemon grass in addition to the usual black tea and bergamot.
Also, several companies make a tea called Earl Grey Green or "Earl Green" tea, combining green tea leaves rather than the traditional black tea leaves with bergamot flavouring. A similar variation called Earl Grey White or "Earl White" tea combines white tea leaves with bergamot flavouring.
Rooibos Earl Grey is a variation using this South Africanherbal tea as a substitute for the conventional form made with black tea.
Earl Grey tea is used as a flavouring for many types of cakes and confectionery, such as chocolates, as well as savoury sauces. For sauces, the flavour is normally created by adding tea bags to the basic stock, boiling for a few minutes and then discarding the bags. For sweet recipes, loose tea is often added to melted butter or hot cream and strained after the flavour is infused.
Toxicology
In several studies, application of high concentrations of some brands of bergamot oil directly to the skin was shown to increase redness after exposure to ultraviolet light; however, this should not apply to ordinary oral consumption of Earl Grey tea. Bergamot is a source of bergamottin which, along with the chemically related compound 6',7'-dihydroxybergamottin, is known to be responsible for grapefruit–drug interactions in which the consumption of the juice affects the metabolism of a variety of pharmaceutical drugs. In one case study, a patient who consumed four litres of Earl Grey tea per day reported muscle cramps, which were attributed to the function of the bergapten in bergamot oil as a potassium channel blocker. The symptoms subsided upon reducing his consumption of Earl Grey tea to one litre per day.
