The fascinating story behind Earl Grey Tea

Earl Grey is one of the most recognized tea flavors in the world today. It is consumed and loved by many tea lovers from different parts of the globe. Bergamot flavor is added to black tea to give Earl Grey tea its unique taste.

While we understand that Earl Grey is another type of a flavored tea, do we know the history behind Earl Grey Tea? This brief article details some of the stories behind Earl Grey tea which is a part of the rich history the tea industry has.

Earl’s Grey tea was named after Charles Grey who was an educated aristocrat who was selected to the UK parliament at the age of 22 and went on to become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1830-1840. There are 3 different stories that are narrated which brings out how Charles Grey had a tea named after him.

The first story is such that the Charles Grey’s saved a life of a Chinese man’s son. The Chinese man was a tea blender. As a token of appreciation for saving his son’s life, the tea blender created a tea blend and named it Earl Grey Tea which was presented to Charles Grey as a thank you gift.

The second story is that Earl Grey tea was invented to suit the water at the Earl’s Northumberland home where the water contained high mineral content. The tea was required to compliment the taste of the water, and this blend of the newly invented tea which compromised the taste of Bergamont delivered a winning combination.

The third story is that Earl Grey tea was invented by accident. A ship full of black tea and bergamont oranges were shipped to the Earl as a gift from diplomats in China. The flavor of the bergamont oranges were absorbed by the black tea in the ship resulting in the Earl Grey blend.

There are many more stories but many historians agree that the real story would be one of the above.

Earl Grey is a celebrated drink around the world. Its rich history has evolved with the modern world and adapted to new technologies while keeping its heritage and customs. The world market now carries the Earl Grey tea predominantly in the form of tea bags due to its convenience. As prominent players in the tea bag packaging market with speciality in pyramid tea bag packing, the global Tecpacking Group enables packaging of tea bags for Earl Grey tea in many tea factories located across the world. Having cutting edge and state of the art modern tea bag packing machines and biodegradable packing material, Tecpacking is a renowned brand in the tea packaging market globally.