I first discovered Earl Grey in my mid-teens and this has been my preferred tea blend ever since. So it really is quite remiss on my part that it has taken me over thirty years to give Lady Grey tea a go.
I’ve always passed over Lady Grey on the supermarket tea shelves. “Yeah, it’s not Earl Grey though, is it?” I presumably thought to myself before putting Twinings’ original member of the Grey family into my basket. I don’t think this is due to sexism on my part (but I’ll give it a good thinking about and hand in my feminist badge if I need to), it’s more a general disdain for Lady Grey’s lack of historical credentials.
Earl Grey tea is named after Charles, second Earl Grey, who was Prime Minister between 1830 and 1834. Twinings produced a blend to his Lordship’s liking and then – in a canny bit of celebrity-endorsed marketing – put it on sale to the general public. Lady Grey tea has no such heritage. History does not record the favourite tea type of the Earl’s missus. Twinings first began selling Lady Grey tea in the 1990s.
As you have no doubt observed, this is a fairly stupid reason to eschew a tea brand. And thank goodness I had fellow tea fancier, Karen, to put me on the right track. She urged me to give Lady Grey tea a go and I’m really glad that she did. This tea is absolutely amazing and delicious and is set to become a regular member of my tea shelf favourites.
It’s a blend of black tea with orange peel, lemon peel and bergamot flavouring. The orange peel is a major player here. The soft punch of oranginess fills the whole cup. It doesn’t overplay its hand though and, beneath the citrusy flavours, the full-flavoured black tea comes through loud and clear.
It’s funny, I never think of Earl Grey as being a citrus blend, although it absolutely is. Bergamot flavouring is derived from the bergamot orange, which is a rather sad, lemony-looking member of the citrus family. But I, along with I imagine most of my readership, have never had a bergamot orange in its natural state. (I’m now curious to discover whether it would taste more like Earl Grey or an orange.) Lady Grey, on the other hand, is entirely upfront about its citrusy credentials and wears them proudly.
I can’t believe that I have lived with a Lady Grey-shaped hole in my life for so long. Now my eyes have been opened and my taste buds tickled, my entire life is just that little bit better than it was before.
Today’s featured book is Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. It occurs to me that if she’d called the book ‘Little Ladies’ then it would have fit even better with today’s theme. But you know, I’m really, really glad she didn’t do that.
