My Favourite Earl Grey Tea Blends

In my earlier post My Unexpected Journey into Herbalism, I touched on making teas and how, when I started making gin, along with my still, I of course needed to get a supply of the necessary botanicals. Once I had those botanicals lined up in glass jars I realised that many of them could be used in making teas as well. So I invested in an online course on blending herbal teas – much more interested at that stage in the flavour combination aspects than any particular health dimension. My collection of botanicals in glass jars expanded.

I started investigating different types of teas and how they were blended. The ‘first cab off the rank’ in this regard was Earl Grey tea. I’m fairly ambivalent about most of the mass-produced supermarket Earl Grey teas but I had been introduced to an Lady Grey Tea and French Earl Grey Tea that I really liked and was keen to find out how they were made.

Essentially Earl Grey is any tea flavoured with bergamot oil (extracted from the rind of bergamot oranges). However many of the Earl Grey’s these days use synthetic bergamot flavouring. Beyond bergamot flavour, the varieties of Earl Grey tea are virtually endless, using a range of black, green, white and herbal teas, with the addition of a multitude of different fruits and flowers.

The origins of Earl Grey tea are mostly unknown but with the claims many and varied:

• there are records in 1824 of low quality tea being flavoured with bergamot so it could be sold as higher quality – but there was no mention of Earl Grey.
• that it was named after Charles Grey (2nd Earl Grey) who was British Prime Minister in the 1830s. But this seems unlikely because bergamot was being added in a disreputable manner (with charges laid against a company for misrepresenting their tea as higher quality) at that time so it seems unlikely that he would have championed it.
• that a grateful Chinese mandarin presented it to the Earl in 1803 after his son was rescued from drowning by one of Earl Grey’s men. Wikipedia says that Lord Grey never travelled to China and the use of bergamot oil to scent tea was then unknown in China. The Twinings website amends the story to “having been presented by an envoy on his return from China”.
• that Earl Grey received tea flavoured with bergamot oil as a result of his ending the monopoly held by the East India Company on trade between Britain and China.
• that the tea was specially blended for Lord Grey by a Chinese mandarin, using bergamot to offset the lime in the local water. Lady Grey served it in London while entertaining and it became so popular that it went on to be marketed by Twinings.
• that Jackson’s of Piccadilly originated the tea, with Lord Grey having given the recipe to one of their partners in 1830.

Most likely (although not nearly as interesting), the “Earl” was probably created at a later time as a marketing ploy. There are references in old advertisements dating to the 1850s and 1860s to “Grey’s Tea” or “Grey’s mixture”, with the earliest being attributed to a tea merchant named William Grey in 1852. The first known published references to an “Earl Grey” tea are advertisements by Charlton & Co in London in the 1880s. It has been suggested that the “Earl” title was added to make the tea seem more posh, or alternately that it became associated with Henry Grey, 3rd Earl Grey, who was alive when the “Earl” title began to be attributed to the tea.

Regardless of how the name actually originated, the popularity of the style continues with a seemingly never-ending range of different combinations being produced. It is great fun to experiment with different flavours to see which you like. Here I share 3 of my favourites so far that are made as far as possible with botanicals from my garden. As well as the flavours, I really like the visual appeal – the colours are a feast for the eyes so you start to enjoy your tea even before you smell or taste it.

The measurements are in parts so you can use whatever measure you like – I used tablespoons but you could try it first with teaspoons.

Orange Rose Earl Grey

8 parts Earl Grey (Bergamot-infused) Darjeeling Tea*
4 parts Orange peel
2 parts Rose petals
1 part  Cloves
1/2 tsp vanilla essence helps tie the flavours together. You could also put a vanilla pod in the jar along with the tea and shake it regularly to distribute the flavour.

Royal Blue Earl Grey

10 parts Earl Grey (Bergamot-infused) Darjeeling Tea*
2 parts Cornflower petals
2 parts Lavender
1/2 tsp vanilla essence or a vanilla bean (can be finely chopped)

Jasmine Lemongrass Earl Grey

8 parts Earl Grey (Bergamot-infused) Green Tea*
6 parts Lemongrass
3 parts Jasmine flowers
2 parts Blue Cornflowers

*I bought my Bergamot-infused teas from Kerikeri Tea. Their range includes Darjeeling (black), green, rooibus and honeybush Earl Grey teas (and a whole lot of other flavours for you to try if you don’t want to blend your own).