How Earl Grey Tea Got its Name

Earl Grey Tea is a popular blend of dark tea laced with bergamot, or nowadays, artificial bergamot flavoring. But why is it called Earl Grey Tea? In common with many others, I used to think it was named in honor of Charles Grey, the second Earl Grey, who became Prime Minister in 1832. He is best known as the PM who succeeded in enacting the Great Reform Bill, the first major reform of Parliament.

[Naughty aside: Grey had an affair in his younger days with the famous Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, which ended when her dastardly husband the Duke threatened to take her children away from her. Things were tough for the rich in those days. Georgiana chose her children over Grey. ]

The Great Reform Act of 1832 enlarged the electorate, particularly among the middle class, and redistributed seats to provide more representation for the growing industrial towns of the North and Midlands. It was far from democratic, but provided a precedent for future democratic reforms in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Alas, the stories linking the tea with Earl Grey seem to be apocryphal. The evidence for them is sadly lacking. Tea laced with bergamot had been around for about ten years before his reformist heroics, and the resulting product was viewed as inferior. Bergamot was being added to tea of low quality to disguise its poorer flavor. It seems unlikely that he would have considered the name an honor. After the mid-19th century, however, tea flavored with bergamot became popular among the well to do. 

In the 1850s and 60s a tea merchant named William Grey marketed a bergamot flavored tea called "Grey's Tea" or "Grey's Mixture." In the 1880s, Charlton and Company marketed the tea under the name "Earl Grey." They may have added "Earl" to make it seem more posh, and the earl in question may have been Henry, 3d Earl Grey, who was still alive at that time. But this is all speculative. So the next time you have a cuppa of Earl Grey, you can say, who the hell was this beverage named for anyway? History is full of mystery.

If you enjoyed this post and would like to become a follower of my blog, just click on the blue "FOLLOW" button on the right side of the first page. Below there you can also find my previous posts. Thanks!