Earl Gray (tea)
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| Type: | Black tea |
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| Other names: | Lady Gray (with the addition of orange and lemon peel and lemon flavor) |
| Origin: | United Kingdom |
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| Brief description: | Tart with bergamot aroma |
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| Amount: | 10-15 g / l |
| Time: | 3-5 min. |
Earl Gray is the name of a tea blend that consists of black tea and originally consisted exclusively of Chinese teas. It is lightly flavored with the fine, fragrant, bitter oil of the bergamot fruit.
History of origin
The type of tea was named after Charles Gray, 2nd Earl Gray . In 1833, as British Prime Minister, he lifted the East India Company's monopoly on prices in the tea trade with China . However, Earl Gray tea was not invented by Earl Gray. A "Grey's Tea" has been known since the 1850s, but the first documented reference of an "Earl Gray tea" was advertisements for the company Charlton & Co. on Jermyn Street in London in the 1880s.
Earl Gray is no longer just blended from Chinese teas, but also from others. Today, the typical bergamot aroma only comes from natural bergamot oil in some traditional mixtures . Instead, a nature-identical aroma is often added, especially with cheap teas . There are also green Earl Gray and Earl Gray mixed with a (subtle) smoke aroma.
A variant of Earl Gray with the addition of orange and lemon peel and lemon aroma is called Lady Gray .
Colored drawing of the bergamot fruit by Johann Christoph Volckamer
Charles Gray (1764-1845), Viscount Howick and 2nd Earl Gray
Legends
There are different accounts of the invention of the Earl Gray. One of the unproven legends is that during a storm on a crossing on the high seas between England and China, the cargo being carried by the ship was severely mixed up and leaking bergamot oil spilled onto the tea bales. Lord Gray had the damage shown to him when the ship arrived in London and decided to try the “dirty” tea first and only then to decide whether the cargo should be destroyed.
Trivia
- Earl Gray is the favorite tea of Jean-Luc Picard , a main character in the television series Starship Enterprise: The Next Century , and is therefore mentioned a lot in this series.
- Earl Gray is Hime's favorite tea, the main character in the anime series and the manga Princess Resurrection
- Earl Gray is also the favorite tea of the main character Ciel Phantomhive , in the manga / anime Black Butler
- In some interpretations of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories , Earl Gray is that of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John H. Watson's preferred type of tea
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Waldemar Ternes , Alfred Täufel, Lieselotte Tunger, Martin Zobel (eds.): Food Lexicon . 4th, comprehensively revised edition. Behr, Hamburg 2005, ISBN 3-89947-165-2 . , Pp. 198, 1845
- ^ Foods of England . Retrieved February 22, 2016.
- ↑ Earl Gray in the Star Trek Wiki Memory Alpha