Earl Grey tea

Earl Grey is the name of a tea mixture that consists of black tea and originally consisted of only Chinese teas. It is easily flavored with the subtle, fragrant oil of bergamot, bitter fruit.

Genesis

The type of tea was, 2nd Earl Grey is named after Charles Grey. He raised 1833 as British prime minister on price monopoly of the East India Company in the tea trade with China. However, the invention of the person Earl Grey, the type of tea Earl Grey is not: A legend states that during a storm on a voyage on the high seas between England and China, the transported cargo of the ship was heavily cluttered and it spilled leaking bergamot oil on entrained Teeballen. Lord Grey was possible to show the damage to the ship's arrival in London and decided to try first is the " dirty " tea and then decide whether the charge should be destroyed. However, the tea in question came from friends and acquaintances so well that the Earl decided to bring the tea designated from now on as flavored in the trade.

The additional fragrance that dried herbs of tea was added by Chinese Teelieferanten, protected - much like the smoke flavor during the smoking of meat and meat products - on the long crossing from overseas to England to each deep in the hull stored tea before accepting modernization, fish - and / or Teergeschmack.

Earl Grey is no longer only mixed of Chinese teas, but also from others. Also the typical bergamot flavor comes today at most in number of traditional remedies still alone of natural bergamot oil, instead, nature-identical flavor is often, especially in inexpensive tea added. The term often refers Earl Grey consequently only a touch of citrus part Teecharakters. So you can find today also green Earl Grey and even Earl Grey mixed with a ( fine ) smoke flavor.

A variant of Earl Grey with the addition of orange and lemon peel and lemon flavor is called Lady Grey.