Earl Grey Tea
This morning I woke up to the ring of my Cell Phone. I squinted from my pillow, the bedside clock said 06:30 am, Oh, the East Coast is open for business now, I thought. I answered the phone, it was one of our Customer Service Associates responding to East coast customers.
He, “I have a lady on the phone here, she just received her order of Earl Grey Tea. She says the tea smells very good but she didn’t find the Bergamot fruit in the tea box. She wants to know where’s her fruit”? I sighed, explained the reason to the Associate and asked him to pass it on to the lady. I haven’t heard back from the Associate, yet, but we receive such calls on almost daily basis.
With tea popularity going thru the roof in North America, I often find a disconnect between popularity and basic consumer awareness. So I thought of sharing some basic information about tea on this page.
Lets’ start with Earl Grey Tea.
Earl Grey is a black tea that is flavoured with oil from the rind of bergamot orange, a fruit mostly grown in Italy. Variations on the traditional blend include Lady Grey (a blend of Earl Grey with blue cornflower blossoms), Russian Earl Grey (Earl Grey with pieces of citrus peel) and Red Earl Grey (rooibos and bergamot). That’s it. There is no Bergamot fruit in it, it is just the natural Bergamot oil that flavors this tea. Some cheaper varieties use artificial flavoring instead of Bergamot oil but all Earl Greys smell of citrus fruit. For this reason it is also called Bergamot Citrus Tea. Hot Earl Grey is perhaps the most popular tea today but very few people know that Iced Earl Grey takes on a completely different flavor and character than hot Earl Grey and I believe it is because the bergamot tastes refreshing when cold.
Adding some orange to iced Earl Grey tea really tastes wonderful. The orange adds some natural sweetness, while the bergamot gives that nice little bit of sour citrus that makes this a great thirst quencher on a hot day. Here is an easy recipe for an "Orangey Early Grey Iced Tea." I promise this is not one you want to miss.
Ingredients
4 Organic Bergamot Citrus Tea sachets, try our Naturals-N-Organics
4 cups boiling water
3/4 cup orange juice
4 cups ice
Peel of 1 orange, plus orange wedges for garnish
Directions
Steep Bergamot Citrus Tea sachets in hot water for 4-5 minutes
Add the ice to a pitcher
Remove sachets & pour the tea into the pitcher with ice
Add the orange juice
Serve over ice with some orange wedges
Enjoy!!
Love Earl Grey? I love it too, share your Earl Grey stories here with everyone.
We have some great Earl Grey Tea options at www.petittea.com or check these out here on the our Facebook page.
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