Earl Grey a Classic Perfumed Blend

Earl Grey is one of the most popular perfumed blends, black tea and essential oil of bergamot. Earl Grey is a 19th-century blend recipe and the stories associated with its origen are several and no one knows which one is the true story. I like the story of the British Secretary at the time of Earl Grey premiership, is said to save the life of a mandarin and as a symbol of gratitude it was given the blend recipe to take home to the prime minister. Chinese have been flavouring teas for centuries with many different ingredients, but bergamot was never mentioned. The bergamot orange is a hybrid citrus fruit, from the Rutaceae family trees. The origin of this tree is not well known, it seems imported from the Americas by Christopher Columbus but it has also been found also in West Africa and Calabria (south of Italy), the look of the fruit is a pear shape, tangerine  kind of look,  bitter to eat and mainly used in the production of essential oil. The best essential oils are from fruit harvested from November to March, where fruits are picked, sorted and then by a mechanical process the essential oil is extracted from the bergamot skin. To produce 1 litre of essential oil, 200 kg of bergamots are required. Earl Grey is a fantastic tea to pair with a variety of baked tarts, dairy eggs, spices and chocolate.

Liliana Algorry - Certified Tea Sommelier and Blender.
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www.theteaatelier.com.au​