Earl Grey is a tea with an interesting history and a bit of unsettled dispute as to how it has even come to exist. Named for the 2nd Earl Grey, who was the British Prime Minister in the early 1830's, Earl Grey tea is flavored with the oil of bergamot, a Mediterranean grown citrus fruit that one of our sources refers to as "resembling an ugly orange."

The unsettled dispute is between Jacksons of Piccadilly and Twinnings over who was the original blender of this tea for the Earl. Twinnings uses an Indian tea blend, while Jacksons uses a China tea. This is mostly mute now since Twinnings bought Jacksons some years back, making Twinnings the rightful owner of the recipe if in fact it was originally Jacksons.

One version of the story about how this tea came to be suggests that a grateful Chinese Mandarin, whose son was saved from drowning by one of Lord Grey's men, had given this tea and its recipe as a gift. An alternative version of the story suggests it was an Indian Raja, whose son was saved from a tiger by one of Lord Grey's servants, who gave the gift.

Whenever there are two or more stories about how a tea came to be, we generally assume these stories to be folklore or perhaps just a marketing ploy. A third version however suggests that an accidental spill of bergamot oil scented some otherwise ordinary black tea. That's our favorite version of the story, it's less romantic, but historically more likely as tea would have traveled via ships along with other products of trade. It's not hard to believe that bergamot oil, which is also used in perfume, could have been stored near the tea, and that rough seas could have caused a bottle of the oil to break, scenting the tea by accident.

We think that the Indian Raja story can't be true because tea wasn't grown in India as a commercial product until the 1830's and the history of tea from Twinnings own web site suggests that the first tea imported into London from India was in 1838. Earl Grey lived from 1764 to 1845 and retired to public life after serving as Prime Minister in 1834. It seems unlikely to us that in the seven years between tea's arrival in London from India in 1838 and Earl Grey's death in 1845, that an Indian tea would have been purposely invented that was flavored of bergamot and then sent to the Earl for something one of his servants had done years earlier. This also makes it hard to believe that Twinnings would be the original blender, since they use Indian and Sri Lanken teas in their blend.

If in fact the base tea were a China Black, as Jacksons claims to use, it would make the Chinese Mandarin version of the story more likely. Furthermore, Mediterranean traders traveled the Silk road to China at least 500 years earlier and this could explain how bergamot made its way to China, but we found nothing to confirm that.

No matter how Earl Grey came to be it's certainly a popular tea. In fact it's probably the most popular hot tea in the United States. At Licorice & Sloe Company we carry two versions of Earl Grey Tea, Earl Grey & Earl Grey Blue Flower. Earl Grey Blue Flower has more bergamot than our regular Earl Grey. Come in and compare them and see if you can tell the difference.