Tea for You - Tea Business

In 1833, Earl Grey, the Earl of Howick Hall, at that time British Prime Minister, suspended the price monopoly, which the East India Company had over the tea trade with China. The originally pure Chines tea was lightly flavoured with fine bergamot oil. This additional fragrance, which was provided by the Chinese, was intended to protect the tea from the taste of mould and tar, which could arise from the long voyage at see to royal England. Thus this tea received its name, and, still today „Earl Grey” is the embodiment of the finest English tea.