5 Earl Grey Tea Facts _ Benefits of Earl Grey Tea_ Lady Grey vs Earl Grey

Earl Grey is named after Charles Grey, the second Earl Grey, and British Prime Minister between 1830 and 1834. Legend has it that a Chinese businessman's son was drowning in a nearby river and Earl Grey sent one of his footmen to rescue the boy, and out of gratitude, the Chinese tea merchant gave him a box of tea, which happened to be Earl Grey. Another legend has it that Earl Grey himself was a little more deliberate with the forming of his tea. He commissioned a Chinese gentleman to create a tea blend that would better suit his family estate in Northumberland, which had a really high concentration of lime. Probably didn't taste good in tea. So the genius who was this Chinese businessman blended black tea leaves with bergamot oil, Native to Italy in the Mediterranean region, a perfumey, citrusy extract which masked the lime taste that Earl Grey was trying to get away from. And thus, Earl Grey was born. There's a whole Grey family. You have classic Earl Grey, which uses black tea flavoured with bergamot oil, but there's also Lady Grey. Lady Grey is named after Earl Grey's wife in real life. I know, it's confusing. And it's flavoured with additional Seville oranges, which is called Citrus Lady Grey, or Lavender, which is Lavender Lady Grey. There's Double Bergamot Earl Grey, so that's twice the bergamot oil. There's London Fog, which is Earl Grey brewed with milk and vanilla syrup to make a form of latte. There's Russian Earl Grey, that has citrus peels and lemongrass in addition to bergamot. French Earl Grey, which adds rose petals into the mix. And then there's Breakfast Earl Grey, which uses a heartier black tea, like Assamese black tea. I'm not done. They're the distant cousins now. So there's Lapsang Sochang Earl Grey, which is tea leaves that are smoked over pinewood instead of dried, to give a more complex, smoky, citrusy flavour. And then even more distant cousins, like the half-cousin, twice-removed. There's Green Earl Grey, using green tea. Muscat Earl Grey, and Earl Grey Chai. I'll let you know where to find these brands in the description box below, so you can have a try of the whole family of green. Like other black teas, Earl Grey has a high flavonoid concentration, that has itself a lot of health benefits, such as reducing your risk for heart disease. Just as effective as some other green teas, Earl Grey also is antioxidant rich, having quite a few polyphenols, which help to combat cell damage. And of course, caffeine. Helps you to keep alert, stay awake, so you can go on with your day. Hopefully there'll be more research into what strength booze give what exact benefits in the future. A word of caution. If you decide to have Earl Grey, great. But in case you're wondering, bergamot is closely related to grapefruit. So if you were ever told by your doctor to avoid grapefruit, because you're allergic or your medication has a bad reaction to it, you might just want to research the concentration of bergamot in the tea you're about to drink, just to make sure there'll be no interactions with your medication. Just to be safe. Now for a wild story. A man drank 4 litres of Earl Grey for 5 weeks and was rushed to the ER with severe muscle cramps. That's 5 weeks. And before that, he drank 4 litres of black tea every day for 25 years. So in the switch between black tea to Earl Grey, he developed the muscle cramps by drinking 4 litres a day. Over time, they went away once he stopped drinking so much tea. But then he went back to drinking 4 litres of black tea a day. And only 1 litre of Earl Grey a day. We haven't heard of him again, so I assume he's fine. Please don't drink so much Earl Grey. Water. Water's actually good for you. But everything in moderation. Having the tea without any additions really helps to bring out the flavour of the citrus and the natural tea flavour.