The Earl and His Lady
The Story of Earl Grey Tea
A recent television commercial suggested that if you insult Earl Grey tea, you're insulting British royalty and a Cockney will be happy to punch you in the eye. In Star Trek The New Generation French ship captain Jean Luc Picard always ordered 'Earl Grey, hot' from his food replicator. Pop culture references aside, as the only tea to ever be named after a person, how did Earl Grey tea get its' name? And what is Lady Grey tea?
Earl Grey was named after Charles Grey, an Earl. He was the Prime Minister of England when King William reigned, in the early 1800's, before Victoria became the longest reigning monarch in British history. The popular story goes that Charles saved the life of a Chinese Mandarin, who gifted him with a chest of black China tea flavored with the oil of the Bergamot orange. When the tea was almost gone, Charles went to Richard Twining, the founder of Twining Tea, and asked him to replicate it. According to Adagio Teas, this story is an urban myth - the Chinese don't drink black tea, and Charles Grey never went to China. But they don't offer another story for the origin of the tea, either...what is definitely known is that the tea was named for Charles Grey, and it was invented by Richard Twining.
Choose Earl Grey tea only from reputable manufacturers. The strong flavor and aroma of Bergamot is used to mask low-quality black tea.
Lady Grey tea is named after Mary Elizabeth Grey, wife of Charles. It was created for Mary by Richard Twining, when she wanted a lighter version of her husband's signature tea, and to this day, only Twinings manufactures Lady Grey tea. In addition to Bergamot orange oil, Lady Grey tea contains lemon peel and cornflower essenc
Adagio now manufactures Rooibos Earl Grey (red) and Green Earl Grey. Go to www.adagio.com.
ʃ During his term as Prime Minister, Charles Grey abolished slavery in England. But his legacy to the world is the tea named after him.
To buy Earl Grey and Lady Grey tea go to: www.Twinings.com or www.englishteastore.com more information about Earl Grey tea, go to:
Published by Debora HIll
I am the co-owner of Lost Myths Ink LLC, a company created for the development and promotion of my solo writings and my collaborative work with Sandra Brandenburg. I am the author of five novels and three... View profile
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2 Comments
Post a CommentMy first post disappeared so the second seems odd, I apologize Serenity House Tea, I hate to dispute this article, but the one thing we do not know for sure is who made the first tea, you state without prejudice that the first tea was made by Twining, the history books tell us and you state, that the first tea was made for the Greys by a visiting Chinese Mandarin and he either brought is as a gift or helped them develop a tea for their water problem which is quite believable. The first tea sold in tea bags or loose may have been Twining s, but the recipe was given to them by Lady Grey who served this at political events and they asked her for the recipe. It is stated in the book on the Earl that Lady Grey gave this recipe and never made a dime on the sales of the tea. We may find many stories, but let's keep some open minds on this topic. Second, I notice on the side it states only Twinings has Lady Grey, we have Lady Grey with French Organic Lavender on Amazon. And it is amazing.
Serenity House Tea again. I wanted to comment on Lady Grey there are opposing articles that the tea companies sales were not doing well in the Northern countries and so to soften the flavor they added lavender. This is from Consumer Affairs article and was to have taken place in 1996. So, once again we have a turn of events.The other intersting points are for the Mary Grey, Lady Grey lavender tea, it contained orange peel, lemon peel, cornflowers and lavender when made for her. This too seems odd to have happened in 1850, the British were not quite that bold, perhaps a bit of lavender, but so many lend me to believe is was 1996, will we ever know? This is what I love about tea, the stories are endless, the blends are unique and interchange from story to story. Our Earl Grey with Lavender is just that pure and simple which might have been in 1850. Since ladies did use lavender this makes perfect sense. They also used a mixture of lavender and rose hips for sleepy time tea?True/False?