Black Tea / Flavored Blend
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Earl Grey is black tea scented with oil of bergamot, a fragrant citrus fruit grown mostly in southern Italy. The bergamot gives the tea its signature floral-citrus lift, turning an ordinary black tea into one of the most recognized blends in the world.
The tea’s exact origin is murky. The most repeated story credits Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey and British Prime Minister in the early 1830s, with receiving a bergamot-scented tea blend as a diplomatic gift — though tea historians have never confirmed the tale, and similar bergamot-scented blends were already circulating among British tea blenders around the same period. Whatever its real origin, “Earl Grey” became a generic name for any black tea flavored with bergamot rather than a single fixed recipe, which is why the flavor and strength vary widely between brands.
Traditionally the black tea base is a Chinese or Ceylon tea, chosen for a body that can carry the bergamot without disappearing under it. Some blenders lean into a malty Assam base for a stronger cup; others use a lighter Darjeeling-style base so the citrus stays front and center.
How to Steep It
Earl Grey steeps like most black teas: just off the boil, around 200°F, for 3 to 5 minutes. Oversteeping brings out tannins that read as bitterness and can flatten the bergamot’s brightness, so shorter steeps tend to preserve the citrus notes better than longer ones. It’s traditionally taken with a splash of milk, though the bergamot holds up fine on its own.
Steep 3–5 min at 200°F
Named for a 19th-century British PM
