Black Tea / Flavored Blend
Photo: Yuen Tou Zan / Pexels
Lady Grey is a softer, citrus-forward spin on Earl Grey, built to appeal to drinkers who find classic bergamot black tea a little too intense.
Twinings created and trademarked the blend in the early 1990s, adding dried orange and lemon peel to the traditional bergamot-scented black tea base, and often a scattering of blue cornflower petals for color rather than flavor. The added citrus rounds out bergamot’s sharper, more perfume-like edge, giving Lady Grey a brighter, easier-drinking cup than a classic Earl Grey.
Because “Lady Grey” is a registered Twinings trademark, other tea companies making a similar citrus-and-bergamot blend have to call it something else — “Orange Grey,” “Citrus Earl Grey,” or similar — even when the recipe is nearly identical. That’s different from “Earl Grey,” which functions as a generic style name any blender can use.
How to Steep It
Lady Grey steeps like most black teas: just off the boil, around 200°F, for 3 to 4 minutes. A shorter steep than a robust Assam-based blend keeps the citrus and floral notes from getting buried under tannins. It’s pleasant with or without milk, and its lighter body makes it a good afternoon cup rather than a wake-up-strong morning one.
Trademarked by Twinings, early 1990s
Steep 3–4 min at 200°F
