Collection: The London Fog | Earl Grey Tea

London, 1830. Charles Grey takes office as Prime Minister of Great Britain. The Reform Act is being drafted. The fog rolls thick off the Thames. And somewhere in Downing Street, a cup of bergamot-scented tea is poured.

The story goes that a Chinese mandarin, grateful to one of Grey's envoys for saving his son from drowning, gifted the Earl a tea blended with bergamot oil to suit the naturally lime-rich water at Howick Hall, his Northumberland estate. Whether legend or fact, the blend bore his name —...