Top 10 Earl Grey Teas

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Earl Grey tea is literally the best thing there is. And I do mean literally. I rank it above my loved ones and world peace. Whoever thought of blending black tea and bergamot together was an absolute genius. And although he gets all the credit, it definitely wasn’t Charles, second Earl Grey who came up with the recipe. (Which is a whole other story that I go into here.)

I have written hundreds of tea reviews covering everything from delicate single-estate greens to robust builder’s brews. (I’ve even reviewed things that aren’t real tea, like rooibos and pointless fruity herbal nonsenses.) This here is my top ten of the very best Earls Grey.

I do play fast and loose with the definition of Earl Grey here. There are things with flower petals and exotic fruits on the list, so brace yourself. (There’s also one that doesn’t actually have bergamot in, but that one only got in by creating a diversion and slipping past while I wasn’t looking.)

10. T2 French Earl Grey

T2’s French Earl Grey is lovely. Alongside the usual black tea and bergamot flavouring, it contains hibiscus, sunflower petals, rose petals and mallow flowers.

Presumably, it’s the addition of these flowers that makes this particular Earl Grey ‘French’. My not-very-extensive research was inconclusive as to whether this is definitely a French thing. Generally, it seems, your speciality teamongers sur le continent will stock ‘Earl Grey’ in the straight-up tea-and-bergamot format we all recognise and also carry blends called something like Earl Grey Fleurs.

Apart from the rose petals, I couldn’t distinguish precisely what each flower brought to the party, but it didn’t matter. I don’t need to pick out the individual flavours; I just need to appreciate the harmonies they produce when they’re all playing together, and in the case of T2’s French Earl Grey, it’s a melodious tune indeed.

9. Twinings Earl Grey

It seems a bit mean to place Twinings Earl Grey so far down (or, given that this list is in descending order, up) the list. It’s my regular go-to cuppa in the morning. It was one of my first reviews on this blog, and I enthusiastically described it as “the best tea there is”. I gave it five stars because that’s the maximum possible score in my rating system. I admitted that if I could have given it ten stars, I would.

“Twinings Earl Grey”, I said, “is the linchpin, the cornerstone, the very foundation of my tea-drinking life. Brewing a cup of this perfectly balanced tea and bergamot blend reassures me that the world is worth waking up for.”

Now, that was many years ago, and I have drunk an awful lot of tea since then. And I no longer think that Twinings is the best tea there is. But I do think it’s the ninth best Earl Grey blend, so that’s something. Also, it’s a lot cheaper than many of the other teas on the list.

8. Lady Dinah’s Blend

This blend is a bit of a challenge to get hold of because it is only available at Lady Dinah’s Cat Emporium in London. It’s worth the trip, mind. And not just for the tea. This cat café is full of the most delightful feline residents you could ever wish to meet. (Apart from my own cats, obviously. And I’m not just saying that because I know they read this blog.) My daughter bought me afternoon tea at Lady Dinah’s as a birthday present. Cats and tea! She knows me well.

This blend of Earl Grey, rose and cornflowers has a pleasantly flowery bouquet that hits all the right notes. When I visited, it was available for sale in the gift shop. It’s not available online, but it’s still on the café menu along with a marvellous selection of other teas like Japanese Sencha and Kuchipudi Masala Chai.

7. Tea-Adora Posh Earl Grey

As a fan of the original Earl Grey (the OG EG, if you will), I am duty-bound to check out a tea called Posh Earl Grey when it comes to my attention. Taste-wise, Tea-Adora’s Posh Earl Grey doesn’t disappoint. This is a marvellous concoction full of Sri Lankan black tea, orange pieces, rose petals and lime leaves. The flavours all whoosh about together, showing off their talents but not overshadowing the tea to the extent that it risks resembling a scented candle.

However, there is one crucial ingredient missing from the list. Where’s the bergamot? Is this even an Earl Grey at all? It’s a smashing tea, but I think if you are using whatever the tea equivalent of the Dewey decimal system is, maybe it should be shelved in the fruity-flowery-black-tea section rather than under Earl Grey.

6. Rosie & Java Blue Lavandula

This lavender Earl Grey from Rosie & Java combines two of my favourite things – Earl Grey blends and bunging flowers in things. Lavender adds a soothing presence to bergamot oil-infused Chinese, Indian and Ceylon tea leaves.

Lavender has long been a favourite fragrance of producers of soap, skin creams and those soft toys you can put in the microwave. It is also associated with several health benefits. I consulted my Culpeper Herbal to see what the 17^th-century herbalist and astrologer had to say about it. (One might argue that this isn’t the most up-to-date medical resource, but realistically, how much is likely to have changed in the last 400 years?)

Culpeper advises taking the powdered leaves at breakfast to stop “the running of the reins in men and whites in women”, a confusing combination of words that immediately made me think, “Is that a sex thing? It sounds like a sex thing.” Further investigation has confirmed that yes, it is. Culpeper is talking about the symptoms of syphilis. Obviously, I can’t attest to the efficacy of treating your syphilitic discharges with lavender tea, but regardless, Blue Lavandula is very nice.

5. Debonair Extreme Earl

This blend of organic Sri Lankan orange pekoe and organic bergamot oil is a warm and refreshing brew with a lovely natural taste. It could be more ‘extreme’, though. It’s a blend of black tea and bergamot, which is, let’s face it, the traditional route to go down when making an Earl Grey blend.

Frankly, I was expecting the unexpected with this one, and I didn’t get it. I’m not sure how extreme I need my teamongers to go with Earl Grey blends, but I am sure there are some extremities left to explore.

Maybe they could have added habanero chillies. Or popping candy. I know! Debonair Tea Company could add ricin to every hundredth packet of Extreme Earl. So, you never know if your next cup of tea is going to be the one that kills you.

Admittedly, none of these suggestions are practical (and I suspect one of them might be illegal). This is why I’m in the ‘drinking tea and talking nonsense’ business rather than the tea-blending business. I wouldn’t want to change the recipe for Extreme Earl anyway. It really is very nice indeed.

4. Whittard Earl Grey

Whittard Earl Grey is dark (but not too dark), fruity (but not too fruity) and has wafts of flowery notes that make the whole thing entirely delightful. It has longish rolled leaves interspersed with dried cornflowers and chunks of orange peel.

Whittard have been teamongering since 1886. Admittedly this still makes them newcomers compared to Twining’s 317 years of experience, but you, know, I reckon they’ve managed to get a handle on how to make a really, really good cup of Earl Grey tea in the last 137 years. They’ve been practising, and it shows.

3. Chai Wallah Margate Lychee Grey

This tea delivers exactly what it promises. There’s bergamot, there’s lychee, and there’s tea, and they’re all having a whale of a time together. The flavours really bring out the best in one another. It’s a match made in heaven. Or rather, a match made in Margate, which is more or less the same thing.

This tea is sturdy enough to withstand a dash of milk, and it really does slip down beautifully. It was a pleasure to drink. My only concern is that it could ruin regular Earl Grey for you. You might be drinking a cup of perfectly nice normal Earl Grey and thinking, “Hmm, I don’t know. It’s not really lychee-y enough, is it?”

Chai Wallah Margate also produce a Rose Earl Grey and a Lavender Earl Grey, which are both fantastic. (And they do a regular Earl Grey, which I’ve never actually tried but, given their track record, is probably lovely.)

2. Bird & Blend Earl Grey Crème

I held off trying Bird & Blend Earl Grey Crème for ages. This was because I suspected I might really, really like it. (Bird & Blend’s Great British Cuppa won my Tea Fancier Tea Cup Challenge, so they have form for that sort of thing.) And the problem with nice things is that it ruins you for not-quite-so-nice things.

I knew that if I liked Bird & Blend’s Earl Grey blend as much as I thought I would, my regular Twinings bergamot blend just wouldn’t cut it anymore. But there came a stage where I’d already had multiple better-than-Twinings blends, and there was no reason not to give Bird & Blend’s version a go.

My tea-based precognitive powers were bang-on. Bird & Blend Earl Grey Crème is absolutely magnificent. It’s bergamotty, it’s vanilla-y, it’s got cornflowers in it (because Bird & Blend do love to pretty up their blends with flower petals at every opportunity), and it all works together beautifully. And it is very almost better than every other Earl Grey out there. But not quite.

1. The Tea Keepers Earl Grey & Vanilla

Earl Grey & Vanilla was recommended to me by another teamonger, and so in keeping with the Tea Fancier rules, I was duty-bound to check it out. (I was surprised as you are to discover that there were rules. I got down the big hardback Tea Fancier Book of Rules to see what they were. It turns out there were only two rules, and they were both “We don’t talk about Tea Fancier”, crossed out in biro when I remembered that’s not how blogs work.)

This tea contains top-notch Assam, vanilla pods, cornflowers and bergamot oil. The vanilla and bergamot perform a perfect flavour balance, neither one dominating and both of them bringing out the best in each other.

The Tea Keepers’ Earl Grey & Vanilla contains actual bergamot oil rather than the bergamot “flavouring” used in most Earl Grey blends. I’m sure this is a significant factor in its wondrousness. The Tea Keepers also do an equally amazing regular Earl Grey.

I love Earl Grey. Were I to go on Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, I would choose a hefty supply of Earl Grey tea as my luxury item. And given that The Tea Keepers Earl Grey & Vanilla is, thus far, the nicest one I’ve ever drunk, this is the blend I would pack to take with me.

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