There’s a lot of history to the tea most often referred to as “Earl Grey.” It has become one of the world’s most famous flavored teas. In fact, like Jasmine tea, Earl Grey’s place in the tea hierarchy is so secure and established that it’s not even thought of as a flavored tea, but simply as a well-established fundamental tea.
Yet, much of the history of this tea is garbled and conflicted. All we’re really sure of is that the idea of blending some good tea with the oil of a particular citrus is a great idea, and that the end result was named after the second Earl Grey, Charles, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1830 to 1834. The Earl was known for his hard work and quiet accomplishments and his wife, Lady Grey, gained fame for serving this fine tea at her social gatherings in London.
One example of the confusion behind the history of this great tea is that many recitations of its origins cite reference to the Earl saving the life of a Chinese dignitary’s son and the tea being presented to him as a gift of gratitude by the father. Trouble is, there is much argument that the Earl never went to China and that the citrus fruit, Bergamot Orange, was not widely grown there, even though it may have been indigenous to some parts of China. (And that’s clear as mud as well!)
So, very early on in our study of the origins of this tea, we decided that we’d rather spend our time focusing on what makes the flavor of this tea so tempting, and what we could do here at The Republic of Tea to make Earl Grey tea even more satisfying. Our goal was to deepen the overall taste of the tea and give it a longer story to tell on the palate. The result of that search is our slightly tongue-in-cheek, but ever so seriously delicious “Earl Greyer” tea.
This “More of a Good Thing Tea” combines the lush flavor and exquisite fragrance of the Bergamot Orange, native to Southern Italy, with a lovely Ceylon tea leaf from Sri Lanka. Naturally, we had to seek out the purest oil of Bergamot to increase the complexity and match the profound flavors of this superior tea. We believe that our version of this classic offering takes advantage of the intoxicating perfume of the rare Bergamot Orange and amplifies it with undertones of cedar, a subtle bouquet of freshly sliced stone fruits and perhaps even a hint of dark chocolate. We offer this happy tea as full-leaf loose tea as well as natural unbleached tea bags for the convenience of our Citizens.
After much praise, many have asked us why we didn’t name it the “Earl GREATEST” tea? But knowing what we do about that conservative statesman, we just don’t think he would have gone for that … We hope our version of this classic tea would have made him (quietly and humbly) proud.
CommuniTEA