Earl black tea is the general name of a kind of blended tea. It is a kind of flavored tea with special aroma and taste, which is based on black tea and flavored with oil extracted from the skin of bergamot, an aromatic citrus fruit.

Gray earl grey origin:

The name of this flavored tea comes from Earl Gray II, who served as British Foreign Secretary and Prime Minister. Legend has it that he received a gift tea because of his diplomatic privilege, which was made of fermented black tea from India and Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and flavored with bergamot oil. Bergamot is a pleasant Chinese citrus. It is said that Empress Dowager Cixi of the Qing Dynasty used a lot of aromatic fruits instead of spices in her palace, especially bergamot, so she brought some oriental royal mystery to the legend of this flavored tea. The problem is that China has never been a drinking country of black tea, and it seems unlikely to use the formula of black tea as a gift for her guests, not to mention Earl Gray has never been to China.

This gift tea appeared in the living room of the Earl's prime minister's residence, which was so popular that the demand was in short supply, so Twinings, the prime minister's special tea merchant, was ordered to copy it. The company later sold the first earl grey in Britain, and their formula included China tea, Darjeeling tea, Ceylon tea, and a strong "smoked" black tea --Lapsang souchong. The company also has a series of products, that is, Mrs. Graves tea, with Serbian oranges, lemons and bergamot as ingredients. This is because people at that time generally believed that tea might induce women's impulses untimely, and adding fruits would help offset this adverse effect. The general name of a kind of blended tea is a kind of flavored tea with special aroma and taste, which is based on black tea and flavored with oil extracted from the skin of bergamot, an aromatic citrus fruit.