Earl Grey

Black tea scented with oil of bergamot — a citrus-bright English blend named for a 19th-century prime minister.

Earl Grey is a flavoured tea rather than a single origin — any black tea base scented with bergamot oil qualifies. The bergamot, a bitter citrus fruit grown mainly in Calabria, Italy, gives the blend its recognisable floral-citrus lift.

The name comes from Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey and British Prime Minister in the 1830s, though the exact origin story of the blend is more legend than documented fact. A milkier variant, London Fog, is made by adding steamed milk and vanilla.