Earl Grey, a Time Honoured Classic

The Citrus bergamia or Bergamot Orange is a citrus fuit the size of a small orange with a lemon coloured skin.

No tea catalogue is complete without Earl Grey. Along with the likes of Jasmine Tea, Earl Grey is a time honoured classic, a natural complicity between the Camellia sinensis flavour profile and that of another plant.
Named after a British Prime Minister of the 1830's, the Second Earl of Grey, there are several conflicting stories on how it originated. The Grey family's own version tells of a Chinese blender mixing bergamot with black tea to counteract the heavy lime content in the water of Howick Hall, the Grey's family seat in Northumberland. Entertaining the high profile world of politicians and high-society in London, Lady Grey developed enough interest that Twinings of London began to market it as a brand.

Over the last few years we have been gradually improving our own blend with the help of experts in Kolkata. The base tea is a full-bodied, slightly malty black tea from Dooars (Organic Fair Trade) at the base of the Indian Himalayas. The bergamot we have been using is a high grade, organic Italian bergamot from the Calabria region in the Province of Reggio.