Earl Grey and its children

Oxidized tea
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mbanu
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Wed Mar 16, 2022 12:13 pm

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I was reminded by Victoria's mention of a lavender Earl Grey that the Earl has had quite a lot of children -- above are a few American hippie-blend Earl Greys from the San Francisco Herb Company back in 1980. I thought maybe a thread on Earl Grey and its children might be interesting. :)
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mbanu
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Wed Mar 16, 2022 12:27 pm

The common denominator is the bergamot trick, a type of adulteration which is older than Earl Grey itself. Here it is described in an 1824 issue of The Kaleidoscope, for improving the flavor of green tea:
To render Tea at 5s. a pound equal to Tea at 12s. -

The cheapest and most expensive teas are all the leaves of the same tree, at least they should be so, and if there were no sloe-leaves nor privet-leaves, they would be so. The high flavour, therefore, of some of the sorts of tea, and the want of flavour in others, must arise from the manner of preparing them, and must be in some measure artificial. It follows, that if we can discover any fine flavoured substance, and add it to the tea in a proper manner, so as to make it agree and harmonise with the original flavour, we shall be able to improve low-priced and flavourless tea, into a high priced article of fine flavour. The flavouring substance found to agree best with the original flavour of tea, is the oil of bergamot; by the proper management of which you may produce from the cheapest teas the finest flavoured bloom, hyson, gunpowder, and cowslip. There are two ways of managing the bergamot. Purchase at the perfumers some of the perfumed pieces of wood, which they call bergamot fruit. Keep one such piece in your canister, and it will flavour the tea in the same way as a Tonquin bean flavours snuff. If the canister be a small one, the flavour perhaps would be too strong; in that case you may chip the bergamot fruit in pieces, and put only a little bit among your tea. Or procure a small phial of the oil of bergamot; take some of the smallest of your tea and add it to a few drops of the oil, till you form a sort of paste, which is to be carefully mixed with the whole tea, in proportion to its quantity and the degree of flavour you like best. If you make the flavour too strong, you have always on easy remedy, namely, by adding more unfavoured tea. When it is thus improved, it is often sold at 18s. and a guinea, a pound. Cowslip tea has been as high as 32s.
(https://books.google.com/books?id=1DAFAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA435)

I suspect this was a British effort to independently replicate "Canton Tea" that was scented before sale to the East India Company, not quite understanding how it was done in Guangdong.

However, it was already a decades-old practice by 1824 -- here is a description of the hustle in action from 1785 (along with an antique variant of MarshalN's ABA trick), courtesy of John Trusler's novel, Modern times: or the adventures of Gabriel Outcast:

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Much like with jasmine tea, eventually a preference developed for this flavor even when the deception was no longer a deception. :)
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mbanu
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Wed Mar 16, 2022 3:37 pm

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From the other end we have Keemun, the traditional (but not original) base for Earl Grey tea. Most ads up to the 1920s for Earl Grey mention "China tea" rather than a specific tea, such as this Jackson's ad from December 1923. When or how Earl Grey became associated with Keemun in particular I'm not so sure.

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By 1940, Twining's was using a mixture of Chinese and Indian teas as the base rather than just Chinese tea, but before that, it sounds like their Earl Grey also used only China tea. Their Keemun blend was "Prince of Wales", as mentioned in this March 1939 ad in House & Garden.

These two companies feuded over Earl Grey for many years, with Twinings finally winning through buying Jackson's out. :D

Twinings is back to using only Chinese teas, at least for the American version.
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Iizuki
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Wed Mar 23, 2022 1:34 am

Ahh, my route to tea started from Twinings Earl Grey teabags and proceeded into Twinings loose Earl Grey. I've since moved on to other teas, but the loose version will always have a special place in my hearth. Come to think about it, I have none at the moment. Maybe I should pick some the next time I go to the grocery store :D

My local tea shop also blends their own Earl Grey, which I think is a nice way of making their own tea in an environment where tea doesn't grow.
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LeoFox
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Location: Washington DC

Wed Mar 23, 2022 7:45 am

mbanu wrote:
Wed Mar 16, 2022 12:27 pm

To render Tea at 5s. a pound equal to Tea at 12s. -
It follows, that if we can discover any fine flavoured substance, and add it to the tea in a proper manner, so as to make it agree and harmonise with the original flavour, we shall be able to improve low-priced and flavourless tea, into a high priced article of fine flavour. The flavouring substance found to agree best with the original flavour of tea, is the oil of bergamot; by the proper management of which you may produce from the cheapest teas the finest flavoured bloom, hyson, gunpowder, and cowslip.
(https://books.google.com/books?id=1DAFAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA435)
:lol: :lol:
This is gold. Hahahaha
swordofmytriumph
Posts: 429
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Location: Seattle, USA

Thu Mar 24, 2022 4:57 am

I have infected several friends and family members with my favorite flavored tea, the Earl Grey Bella Luna from Adagio. They only sell it on the day of the full moon every month. Delicious, creamy, coconutty goodness. I gave my roommate some and she ended up buying an entire 16oz bag of it, and spreading it to her friends and family also :lol:
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