September 10, 2025 • 41 mins
This type of tea is flavored with bergamot for a bright brew, but its background is foggy. Anney and Lauren engage with the science and history of earl grey tea.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hello, and we'll come to save our prediction of iHeartRadio.
I'm Annie Reese.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
And I'm Lauren vocal Bum And today we have an
episode for you about Earl Gray Tea.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Yes, oh my goodness, I miss tea for a lot
of reasons. I do really miss Earl Gray. Is really lovely.
It is one. It is one of my favorites. Yeah, yeah,
solid was there any particular reason this was on your mind? Lauren?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Nope. I was browsing through types of non alcoholic beverages
and kind of went down a tea rabbit hole, which
is the most appropriate kind of rabbit hole to go down, probably,
like thematically speaking, And uh, yeah, this one, this one
was relatively simple.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
But also delicious both. Yes, yes, and it was very
fun because there's a nerdy tangent I wasn't expecting. And Lauren, yeah,
you really came through for me. Any time to get
to it? Yes, yes, Uh. You can see our episode
(01:18):
we did on Tea Time, Tea Bags, Bubble Tea.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Sure, we have done a general Tea episode, which, like
our General Rice episode, is kind of too much, but
it's kind of it's it's it's a pretty good tea
one on one i'd say, yeah, sorry, any size, the
sigh of someone who has seen too much. Also vaguely
(01:49):
related orange blossom water and currousel.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Sure, yes, yes, yes, yes, which I guess brings us
to our question. Oh yeah, Earl Gray tea, what is it?
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Well, Earl Gray tea is a beverage made up of
a blend of tea leaves and bergamot peel flavoring of
some kind, bergamot being a floral tart type of citrus,
and you steep that blend in heated water in order
to leach a bunch of compounds into the water, which
you then drink. Yeah, the type of tea leaves and
(02:26):
the type of bergamot flavoring can vary, but you're basically
looking at in result like this warming, woody, maulty like,
slightly to highly astringent that is sort of a mouth
drying feeling, bright spiced, floral, citrusy kind of beverage. It's
typically served hot, but can be served iced sometimes with
(02:49):
additions like sugar or honey and or lemon slice or
milk or a milk alternative, though people do have opinions
about this. However you serve it, though it could be
consumed alone or with snacks like cookies or small sandwiches
with or after meals, perhaps especially with breakfast. And it
(03:11):
is just the thing on like a crisp morning. You
can also use it as a flavoring for other drinks
or maybe like sweet baked.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Goods something like that.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
It's like it's like a ray of sun piercing through
particularly dour clouds.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Yeah, it's the feeling when you are it's raining and
you're comfortable at home with the blanket in a book. Yeah,
that's what it is. Oh yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Did drink some Lady Gray a variant while writing this outline.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Good.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
It also does taste like by itself if you haven't
put anything else in it, it tastes just a little
bit like fruit loop. And this is not just according
to me, This is according well to me and to
one Todd Chatterson, a former director of the tea program
at eleven Madison Parks. So like a fellow who knows
his tea. Yeah, that's citrus note, you know. But okay,
(04:19):
to explain what's going on with all of this, first,
let's talk about tea. Tea comes from this type of
evergreen shrub or small tree botanical name Camillia sinensis. There
are a couple like botanical varieties of this species and
hundreds of cultivars with various properties, but all types of
tea come from this one specific plant, and the differences
(04:43):
between like white, green, black, and other types of tea
are and how the leaves are treated after they're picked.
Very basically, tea leaves all start out looking a little
bit like rose leaves, like bright green pointed ovals with
these serrated edges. Traditionally they are picked by hand because
(05:03):
machines tend to bruise and damage the leaves and that'll
result in a lower quality tea. There's definitely like a
value versus bulk trade off there, and a lot of
tea these days is processed for bulk, not value, not
not quality. But let's go over the traditional method in
order to understand a little bit about the chemistry that's
(05:23):
happening here. Okay, So as fresh tea leaves are handled
and as they dry out after being picked, they'll begin oxidizing.
That is, molecules of oxygen in the air will start
mucking around with the leaves. Chemistry, it's the same process
by which cut fruit turns brown or rust forms and
(05:44):
depending on what type of tea you're making, like green
tea or white tea, you might not want that to
happen basically at all, but with black tea, which is
what usually goes into earl gray, you do want some
controlled oxidation. In good quality, traditionally made black teas, you
gradually dry down the leaves, rolling them into little needles
(06:08):
to break down some of their cell walls and allow
the enzymes inside to oxidize, and the darker and stronger
you want the tea to be, the longer you leave
them to sit out to dry as in that needle forum,
letting them go from green to beige to tan to
like coppery brown. When they've reached the right level, the
oxidation will be stopped by destroying those enzymes with heat
(06:30):
from hot air dryers, and at that point the leaves
will be dried just about all the way down to
make them shelf stable, and then sorted and packaged for sale.
Green and white teas are made with basically no oxidation.
A white tea is made from leaves picked when they're immature.
Oolong is partially oxidized. Other teas might be smoked or
(06:52):
allowed to ferment a little bit something like that, And
again this is all the traditional method of producing tea,
sometimes called the Orthan method. Because of the time and
labor that it requires, these teas tend to be expensive. Therefore,
most black teas these days are made by the CTC
or crush tear curl method, like eighty to ninety five
(07:14):
percent of black teas. In this method, after the leaves
are withered, they're passed through a machine that bruises, cuts
and twists them into even granules like like a fine gravel.
This isn't ideal for brewing loose leaf tea in a
cup or a pot because it also produces a bunch
of like dust and weird bits of debris that might
(07:35):
not sink as readily as whole tea leaves do, but
it's perfect for tea bags. It also brews quicker and
stronger than whole leaf tea. Experts say that the Orthodox
process creates more flavorful, lighter colored tea, while CTC produces
less flavorful but darker colored tea. So yeah, that's basic
(07:57):
breakdown of how the tea gets into your tea bag
or tin or wherever else you're getting it from. If
a tea is going to be flavored. Oils or other
extracts can be added during or after the drying process,
or pieces of ingredients like dried citrus peel or flower
buds can be blended into the tea leaves before packaging.
(08:20):
Speaking of flavoring, Bergamont is a type of citrus thought
to come from a hybrid of bitter oranges and either
lemons or citron or maybe lime. No one is really sure.
The fruit will grow to about the size of an orange,
but with a greenish yellow skin when it's ripe, and
the fruit itself is like super sour and a little
(08:41):
bit bitter. It's mostly grown for its rind, which contains
a lot of very fragrant oil, which has this like floral, musky,
citrusy scent and a slightly spiced sort of flavor. It's
just really pleasant. It's used in a lot of perfumery
and it can be extracted by various methods these days,
usually by cold pressing, but not all Earl Gray tea
(09:06):
contains actual bergamont oil. Some probably a lot is made
with more processed flavorings made up of either natural and
or artificial flavors. And now there's nothing you can see
our whole episode about artificial flavors for more on this.
But there's nothing inherently wrong with natural or artificial flavorings.
(09:28):
Natural just means that it was made from living sources,
including bacteria and yeasts that are grown specifically to create
those compounds. Artificial means that it was made via chemical
and or mechanical processes, and note that the resulting flavorings
can be molecularly identical. They're typically a lot cheaper than
(09:48):
things like real cold press Bergamont oil because they're a
lot easier to produce at scale. If you look at
the ingredients on a container of tea that the term
Bergamont flavor probably means it's not real oil. But whether
you prefer that is up to you. I can't tell
you what to do. I will say that the dried
(10:10):
peel of bergamont is considered an inferior vector for the
flavor and typically is not used. Some blends will use
bits of cheaper orange peel for color and a little
bit of flavor. But yeah, whatever type or types of
tea and bergamont flavoring goes into it. You know, you've
got a cup of earl gray, which is nice hot
(10:33):
or iced And I didn't mean to rhyme that, but
here we are, and speaking of different flavorings, people and
or companies that produce tea blends will add other stuff
to earl gray florals like lavender, jasmine, or rose, sort
of rich flavors like cream or vanilla flavoring, or bright
things like ginger or other types of citrus. And there
(10:53):
are other rifts like the aforementioned Lady Gray, which is
black tea with orange and lemon peel for a kind
of less bitter, sort of zestier flavor. You can also
use earl gray to make a bubble tea or a
London fog, which is an earl gray with vanilla syrup
and steamed milk latte style, yeah, or any number of cocktails.
(11:14):
Tea is excellent, particularly in non alcoholic cocktails, because it
adds a little bit of tannic bite.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Or you could bruce them up to help flavor cakes, chocolates, muffins,
ice cream, lemon bars. Oh I love a lemon bar anyway. Also,
earl gray is a flavor now and you can like
go out and buy natural and or artificial flavors that
are earl gray flavored.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
So I feel like several of you listeners have written
in about this about making like Earl gray favorite flavored
shortbread cookies.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Yeah yeah, absolutely, and that always I'm always like ooh yeah, yeah,
me too.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Well, I guess this is existed, should oh no? Okay,
all right?
Speaker 2 (12:03):
So there are compounds in tea and in bergamot extracts
that can have potentially helpful effects in your body, but
like in moderation because other compounds like caffeine and tannin's
should not really be overdone. Also, I found an example
for this one, so okay, go on. So I mean,
(12:24):
you know savor motto in general, before before imbibing a
medicinal dose of anything, you should consult a medical professional
who is not us. And I'm backing it up with
an example today because in the early two thousands, there
was a medical case report published in the Landset I
believe about this forty something Austrian dude who had been
(12:44):
drinking about four leaders of black tea every day and
nothing but black tea for like twenty five years. That's
like just about a gallon, okay, and he found that
he was experiencing some stomach cake. So he switched to
earl gray, thinking that that would be more gentle, and
(13:07):
then started experiencing these weird muscle cramps and like pins
and needles in his extremities. When he cut back to
no more than one leader per day, he got better,
and after consulting with these medical providers, compromised to two
leaders of plain black tea day as his sole source of.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Liquids.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Oh, I agree with that sound, and I'm just reporting
the facts. But I will say that this is what
I'm talking about when I say a medicinal dose of anything.
It's also what I'm talking about when I say drink
(13:55):
some water. By that, I mean drink some water that
has not been brewed into tea.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Wow. Yeah, okay, all right, Well, we do have some
other numbers for you.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
We do, we do, all right? So I read in
a couple different places that the global market for earl
gray tea encompasses over seven million tons of tea per year,
which is a number that I don't really understand. However,
of that, the classic plane earl gray makes up about
(14:34):
forty percent, which is the largest wedge of the market share,
and in terms of packaging and leaf types, tea bags
make up about fifty five percent of that market share.
All of that earl gray is worth some two and
a half billion dollars and the major brands all hold
(14:56):
about equal parts of the market, which is interesting. Yeah,
I feel like a lot favorites. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah yeah,
and they're they're well spread out.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Also, according to a Yugo survey of Europe from October
of twenty twenty, earl gray was indeed one of the
most popular types of tea around Europe. Specifically, over sixty
percent of people in Sweden and just about half of
Denmark said that they drink earl gray. Also around a
(15:26):
third of France and Germany. Only a fifth of UK
respondents said that they drink it. However, I will say
that that they were heavily skewed towards preferring English breakfast tea,
so that might be it. A different Yugo of survey
from twenty fourteen reported that over a quarter of Americans
(15:48):
drink earl gray, so actually more Americans are drinking earl
gray than Brits.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
This is really funny because the title of our outline
I started, uh, spells gray the American way, and I
read in so many places, how that's just not accepted.
Oh oh, sell it the British way. But it just
cracked me up because I hadn't put too much thought
(16:18):
into it. But yes, okay, all right, I'll accept this.
But what a history, what a twisted, twisted history trying
to untangle this way.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Absolutely, yeah, we're going to get into that as soon
as we get back from a quick break for a
word from our sponsors, and we're back.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you. Okay. So, yes, the
history of tea is a long and complicated one and
is not what we're tackling today. Nope, nope.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
And same for citrus because citrus was being cultivated around
Southeast Asia like four thousand years ago, and it's really
difficult to trace all of its movements and mutations.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Yes see our previous citrus episodes. And yeah, a lot
of the history behind Earl Gray tea is foggy. Oh yes,
more on that later, and almost the stuff of legend,
especially since tea is so important to the UK, although
apparently Earl Gray not as much as I thought. According
(17:37):
to some sources, the practice of flavoring tea goes back
to ancient China. Archaeological evidence suggests that tea was being
brewed in China over two thousand years.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Ago, and that evidence briefly but because this is all
kind of related, okay, So around twenty fifteen, archaeologists on
Earth these Imperial tombs that contained fine riches, including what
would today be considered high grade tea leaves, now tea,
the beverage that we know today might not have been
(18:08):
what was being made with this tea. It's actually more likely,
based on other stuff found with the tea, that it
was being used to make a blend of like of
like barley tea buds and other plants. So flavored tea
is the earliest evidence that we have of tea. It's
(18:31):
possibility that it was more like a soup than a
drink at the time, but tea as a drink was
being written about within like the next hundred years after
this stuff originated.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
So yes, yes, and a lot of the early accounts
are medicinal. But sometime during the six hundreds to eight
hundred CE, drinking tea for pleasure rose to popularity in China,
and this is also the time that tea merchants likely
first oxidized green tea to make black tea, which stood
up to travel better so that they could sell these
(19:01):
teas around the globe.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Also around that time, people in China were definitely still
adding flavorings, but specifically such as citrus peel to tea.
They were also arguing deeply about whether it was appropriate
to do.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
So, arguments that continue today. By the sixteen hundreds, tea
was available in the UK.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Meanwhile, Bergamont developed, possibly in southern Italy in the early
fifteen hundreds or maybe earlier, possibly as a fancy ornamental.
It's certainly like the leaves and not imagine the flowers
also smell real nice. But Bergamont water as a perfume
element was in use by sixteen eighty six, and the
(19:50):
tree got its first good botanical description in seventeen oh eight.
Planting of Bergamont and oil production exploded during the latter
half of the seventeen high It was like very posh,
and oil production industrialized starting in the eighteen forties, which.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Brings us to Earl Gray and Oh my, the stories,
the stories legends. Okay, So the popular story behind the
name and creation is as follows. Sometime during the eighteen thirties,
the second Earl of Gray and UK prime Minister at
the time, Charles Gray received Bergamot flavored black tea. The
(20:31):
gift was most likely from a foreign diplomat or dignitary,
most likely from China. After tasting the tea, it became
popular amongst the English court, and soon tea merchants started
formulating their own blends of Earl Gray for the public
at large. Okay, that's the official government story, but there
(20:51):
are other theories behind the name. Theories abound. Oh yes, Oh.
One involves a tea enthusiast from China who somehow gets
in a life threatening situation and Gray saved him. The
enthusiast then gifted him with his own blend of tea.
In a variation of this story, it was the enthusiast's
(21:13):
sun who nearly drowned on Earl's property and was rescued
by one of Earl's men. Arle of has happened in China,
and it was a British diplomat and not the Earl himself,
because by most accounts I read, he never actually went
to China himself. Another story goes that the water at
Gray's estate was very mineral heavy, with particularly high levels
(21:37):
of limescale, and the tea was developed specifically with that
in mind to compliment that water, and was perhaps developed
by a Chinese tea master, or black tea was a
gift from Chinese diplomats after the Earl reformed trade with China,
(21:57):
ending the monopoly of the East India Company, and Gray
went on to request that it was flavored with bergamonte oil,
or black tea being shipped with Bergamont oranges somehow accidentally mixed.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
That doesn't sound like a but sure okay, yeah, yeah, yeah,
it doesn't yeah, Or perhaps a tea merchant named William
Gray was the one to invent it.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Since his Earl Gray was the first known advertisement of
the product in eighteen fifty two. Okay, Bergamont oranges are
from Italy, so it's likely that while flavored Chinese teas
inspired Earl Gray, perhaps even citrus flavored teas, it was
blended in Europe. Most likely, the first known written mention
(22:44):
of black tea with Burgamont oil dates back to eighteen
twenty four. By the eighteen thirties, Bergamont flavored teas were
looked down upon, associated with cheap teas that needed a
flavored oil to mask the low quality allegedly, the company
that first added Bergamont to tea was later prosecuted for
(23:05):
fraud for adding the oil and raising their prices under
the pretense of selling higher quality teas. Oh no, yes,
all that being said, this is very fun, but there's
no real documentation or evidence behind these origin stories apart
from yes, you can look up William Gray's ad in
(23:26):
eighteen fifty two and there was an Earl Gray. There
was an Earl Gray, but most of the like saved
the Sky's life and he made a tea for me.
There's nothing, There's nothing to back that up, and the
name Earl Gray didn't appear until decades after Gray's death.
Some suspect it was named after another family member or
(23:47):
successor of his, or that tea sellers just use earl
to make the tea sound sophisticated, which I could see.
I could see. So those are the like. I'm sure
there's even more, but these are some of the main
stories people like to tell about this tea. However it
came to be, It was popular by the late eighteen
(24:09):
hundreds in the UK, and it made its way to
the US around that time too. Both Twinings and the
Jacksons of Piccadilly claimed to have been the first to
offer Earl Gray tea Big Ta Companies a nineteen twenty
eight ad from Jackson's read that introduced in eighteen thirty
six to meet the wishes of the former Earl Gray,
(24:32):
and that quote the genuine blend can be obtained only
through Jackson's of Piccadilly, so they were really claiming they
were laying down their steak there. Eventually, Twinings purchased Jackson's
of Piccadilly. Of notes, Jackson's also claimed to have the
original recipe after the Earl of Gray tasked them with
(24:54):
making it. So they're kind of like saying the story
is true, but also we've got the original rest. Twinings
introduced a spinoff on Earl Gray Lady Gray in the
nineteen nineties with a lighter flavor, and that's Tea shops
have introduced numerous spins on Earl Gray over the years.
(25:14):
That's just one of them. Oh definitely, And this brings
us too the fun unexpected nerd tangent. I was not expecting.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Oh see, I knew about it, but.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Uh huh, I know, I was so happy. Okay, So
in nineteen eighty nine, Star Trek the Next Generation aired
the episode Contagion, which is the first time Captain Picard
orders tea Earl Gray Hot, and it went on to
become kind of a saying and a fave of his characters.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
Yeah, okay, so this occurred relatively early on in season
two and right, and became sort of a whole meme
because just the way that you have to order things
from replicators is so stilted and funny. Uh And you know,
it's Patrick Stewart and he's being so serious in this
(26:10):
role of Jean le Bicard and he's tea or gray hot.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
You know, it's just it's it's a whole thing.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
It's it's easily rifted upon, right, I mean, and so
it continues, and you know, like by the Star Trek
Picard series said a couple of decades later, the character
switches to decaf. It's a whole thing. And by a
whole thing, I mean, okay, Like, for example, there's a
fan theory that Picard doesn't actually like Earl gray tea
(26:36):
that much, but rather like replicates some as a sort
of affectation or like soft power move when he's trying
to impress upon visitors that he is like this urbane
Earth figure. Apparently he only orders it once when he's
(26:57):
by himself in this in the history of the show,
So like Beverly Crusher points out that he prefers coffee
with his breakfast. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
Conspiracy.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Beverly knows better than I do, So I don't know.
I don't know what to say about all of that.
But tangent into our tangent and I and I know
this partially because one of my I don't know, does
it come as a hobby. One of the things that
(27:29):
I enjoy doing in my off time is hanging out
with a dear friend of mine and just watching like
DS nine and Next Gen, just just just watching it.
Just yeah, hanging out and doing that.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
So yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
The drinkwear that Card uses on Star Trek the Next
Generation was actual commercial drink wear that was available at
the time.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
It was chosen by the crew for its like modern
or futuristic looks.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
And is annoyingly unavailable and or expensive now. The glass
cup with the minimalist black plastic handle was designed in
nineteen seventy four for Botom's Bestro line and discontinued in
twenty sixteen. You can find them on eBay are similar
for varying prices. The white porcelain tea set with like
(28:17):
the cups that nest into the sides of the teapot
was from Singer Porcelain. I think I'm saying that right.
It's called the Design two set.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
It is still.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Available and will run you over four hundred dollars list
price of four fifty. Also just saying, if the found
prop design of Star Trek and its cultural implications to
this day is a thing that interests you, oh my gosh,
have people written about it?
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (28:47):
I mean also there are like there are essays about
like the imperialist implications of Picard drinking Earl Gray tea
given tea's history on Earth.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
M hmm.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
I mean I wasn't even looking for this and it
came up and I found a lot of written about it,
and I was like, I think Lauren will take this
for me. Done and done. Yep, Yes, so thank you
appreciate it. Very interesting. I learned there's a Upper Card
(29:24):
day where people drink all great team Oh great.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Yeah. So let us know listeners, if you have some
of these this d set.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
Absolutely, yeah, it was really pretty. It is really pretty anyway.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Mm hmm. Okay, So that brings us to the London Fog,
which I had actually never heard of. But I recently
went to Seattle with some friends and one of the
friends was determined to get a lot of fog from
a specific place, and we did get it, and great.
He loved it. He loved it. So the history of
(30:05):
the Earl Gray latte or the London Fog is pretty
murky as well, but the story goes that it was
invented in Vancouver, Canada, at the Buckwheat Cafe by a
pregnant woman named Mary Loria Lauria. Named Mary Lauria Lauria
frequented the cafe with her husband and one day she
(30:25):
requested Earl Gray tea and steamed skim milk and mixed
the two together. It's often put like this was a
pregnancy craving that she had. She loved the combo and
went on to order it several more times, adding things
like vanilla sugar. She liked it so much she recommended
it to friends and to other cafes until the London
(30:47):
Fog caught on. No one really seems to know where
the name comes from. Though not even hurt, because she
says once she saw it on the menu, she had
no idea what it was. But anyway, as the drink spread,
regional variations popped up, like the Mexican Fog, which uses
the gave sweeten it, and the Halifax Fog, which uses
(31:08):
maple syrup. Some of these variations forego Earl Gray Tea altogether,
using a different type of tea. There are even yes
cocktail versions. Starbucks added a version of this to their
menu sometime around two thousand and seven. In twenty twenty four,
(31:28):
the eighth Earl of Gray endorsed Twinings as the original
blend Wow Yeah. The Twinings website includes this quote from
the seventh Earl of Gray. Twinings has been blending my
family tea for years. Legend has it that my ancestor,
the second Earl Gray, was presented with this exquisite recipe
(31:50):
by an envoy on his return from China. He liked
it so much he asked Richard Twining to recreate it
for him. Generations of my family have in enjoyed Earl
Gray tea, and today I am proud to continue the
tradition with the tea celebrated throughout the world known as
Twining's earl Gray. Wow, this is fascinating to me because
(32:13):
there's so many stories we already went over of how
this might have happened. And I don't know. I wasn't
there not saying he's crafting a falsehood. But it is
interesting how even in your own family you might not
you might get kind of you might have sales legs and.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
There right absolutely, I mean also, marketing is a hell
of a drug.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
So he is a hell of a drug. That is true.
That is true, And as mentioned at the top, it's
worked for earl gray because these days, earl gray is
a flavoring in all kinds of things outside of drinks,
mostly desserts, but it shows up all over, so it's
really made it. It's made it.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
Yeah, it comes and goes in waves. I feel like
twenty twenty four was a heavy earl gray year, like
a fog.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Yeah. Yeah, I feel like I would love to hear
from listeners because for me, I feel like it is
a kind of comfort tea, a comfort tea. So maybe
in years where you're kind of stressed, you lean harder
on the earl gray. But I don't know, I would
really love to hear from people around the world your
(33:30):
experience drinking Earl Gray, what it means to you, What
do you associate it with? Yeah, how do you make it? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (33:39):
I personally it depends on my mood. But I personally
usually either like it just black or with a little
bit of milk. By milk, I mean unsweetened, don't milk,
because that's what I roll with. But I know that
someone is mad at me for saying all of those things, so.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
Sorry about it. I think we have a little bit
that will be cut out of this where I was
making a horrified face when Lauren was saying people have
strong opinions about this, and I remembered some of those
strong opinions I saw when I was in the UK.
They are quite strong. Yeah, I've read that lemon, just
(34:17):
lemon is preferred, largely preferred in the UK for O Gray.
But write in listeners, give us your strong opinions.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Yeah, please, please please, But that is what we have
to say about Earl Gray for now. We do already
have some listener mail for you, though, and we are
going to get into that as soon as we get
back from one more quick break for word from our sponsors.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
And we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you, and
we're back with this. Oh yeah, m hmm. Okay, I
have to say when we did the SpongeBob episode, I
(35:12):
was very excited to hear from you listeners, and you
have not failed. And in fact, I am so thrilled
that so many of you are low key kind of
angry at me. Now I'm not mentioning certain things. Oh
because listen here, I want to come back. And super
(35:32):
producer Andrew was like, did you talk about this? And
I said no, So I know there's things that got
left out, and I'm really really thrilled that you all
are writing in about them. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
Absolutely, I have so much story as we had, so
please keep those, keep those coming.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
We might revisit. I would love to revisit. Oh yeah,
I think we should. Why I think we should? I
think we didn't even talk about the sayings like tartar sauce. Anyway. Okay,
so Colleen wrote in about the SpongeBob episode, this must
be my favorite episode, and I suspect you will be
(36:16):
swamped with emails, So as a major SpongeBob fan, I
will just tell you one funny SpongeBob incident. There was
a Nickelodeon SpongeBob Marathon Festival tenth anniversary celebration where they
played every episode in a row for twenty four hours
a day over three or four days, which I decided
to watch as many as possible. After about two days,
(36:40):
my husband said, politely, could you please not play the
theme song every time? I of course began to mute
it for him. It had been playing in my dreams
at night. He is now also a fan. Okay, yes,
in so many ways, because they're relatively short episodes, so
(37:04):
the theme song comes up a while a lot. Yeah, yes,
So I've also tried to get pretty good at like
muting the theme song so that it doesn't get stuck
in someone's head. Are irrecovely, but that's amazing. I remember
when that happened.
Speaker 2 (37:25):
They do those marathons occasionally. That's not the only They've
done that a few times. And I can see the
propensity for just really leading in.
Speaker 1 (37:37):
Yeah. And also, as mentioned in that episode, there are
several that make you feel like you might be losing
your mind. And I can imagine if you're watching a
lot of this that might really get to you.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
Oh, yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
I also forgot to mention I have a friend whose
birthday as we record this as tomorrow, we used to
celebrate joint birthdays, oh, because our birthdays were so close.
In one year in high school, we did a SpongeBob
themed birthday and we had a SpongeBob themed ice cream
(38:10):
cake that her mother maid and her mother was an
artistic design and oh wow great. So it was really good. Yeah,
and it was lovely. Everybody there was having a great time.
But yeah, I'm glad. I'm glad that your husband wasn't
turned off by the theme song being played constantly and
(38:34):
is now a fan.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
Yes, oh yeay, Yes, SpongeBob joy is very real. Julie wrote,
I enjoyed your Hostess cupcake episode, and it brought back
some childhood memories. I definitely liked them better than Twinkies
and so much more than ho hos, But I didn't
like the filling in either. I remember I had a
(38:58):
method for eating the cupcakes which went like this. First,
break off the frosted top, then eat the chocolate cake
up to the filling, throw out the filling or give
it to sisters who liked it, and lastly, eat the
frosted top. Perhaps I was weird lol. I deconstructed oreos
in a similar way, although it was actually consistent with
their jingle A Kitt'll eat the middle of an oreo first. Anyway,
(39:21):
it was a trip down memory lane for my sixty
five year old self.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
Oh I love this. I know we've said this before,
but multiple listeners have written in about their specific ways.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
Of eating some different things.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
Yeah, yeah, I love it. M hmm. It's so great.
I'd be curious if you've had one recently and if
you still maintain to this method, if you still stick
to this yeah, or if this was a kid only
kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
I feel like I feel like as a as a teenager,
like like young adult in college, which is when I
was really exposed to them, I also had some kind
of method of eating them that was definitely not the
entire thing at once. It was definitely I think I
didn't like the the chocolate frosting, and I feel like
that's the part that I gave to other people.
Speaker 1 (40:15):
Mm hmm. And you've got to find your other person,
you do you do? Because I don't like the icing
and oreo, so I'd find that person. Yes, people really
love the icing they do, so just got you gotta.
Speaker 2 (40:28):
It's a barter system of trees between that and Halloween
candy halls. Yeah, m work out your systems of trade.
Speaker 1 (40:36):
It's very important. It is very important, and we love
hearing about it. So yes, thank you. Thanks to both
of these listeners for writing in. If you would like
to write to as, you can or emails hello at
saberpod dot com. We're also on social media.
Speaker 2 (40:52):
You can find us on Instagram and blue Sky at
saber pod, and we do hope to hear from you.
Savor is production of iHeartRadio podcasts my Heart Radio. You
can visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows. Thanks as always to our
super producers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you
for listening, and we hope that lots more good things
are coming your way.
Hello, and we'll come to save our prediction of iHeartRadio.
I'm Annie Reese.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
And I'm Lauren vocal Bum And today we have an
episode for you about Earl Gray Tea.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Yes, oh my goodness, I miss tea for a lot
of reasons. I do really miss Earl Gray. Is really lovely.
It is one. It is one of my favorites. Yeah, yeah,
solid was there any particular reason this was on your mind? Lauren?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Nope. I was browsing through types of non alcoholic beverages
and kind of went down a tea rabbit hole, which
is the most appropriate kind of rabbit hole to go down, probably,
like thematically speaking, And uh, yeah, this one, this one
was relatively simple.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
But also delicious both. Yes, yes, and it was very
fun because there's a nerdy tangent I wasn't expecting. And Lauren, yeah,
you really came through for me. Any time to get
to it? Yes, yes, Uh. You can see our episode
(01:18):
we did on Tea Time, Tea Bags, Bubble Tea.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Sure, we have done a general Tea episode, which, like
our General Rice episode, is kind of too much, but
it's kind of it's it's it's a pretty good tea
one on one i'd say, yeah, sorry, any size, the
sigh of someone who has seen too much. Also vaguely
(01:49):
related orange blossom water and currousel.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Sure, yes, yes, yes, yes, which I guess brings us
to our question. Oh yeah, Earl Gray tea, what is it?
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Well, Earl Gray tea is a beverage made up of
a blend of tea leaves and bergamot peel flavoring of
some kind, bergamot being a floral tart type of citrus,
and you steep that blend in heated water in order
to leach a bunch of compounds into the water, which
you then drink. Yeah, the type of tea leaves and
(02:26):
the type of bergamot flavoring can vary, but you're basically
looking at in result like this warming, woody, maulty like,
slightly to highly astringent that is sort of a mouth
drying feeling, bright spiced, floral, citrusy kind of beverage. It's
typically served hot, but can be served iced sometimes with
(02:49):
additions like sugar or honey and or lemon slice or
milk or a milk alternative, though people do have opinions
about this. However you serve it, though it could be
consumed alone or with snacks like cookies or small sandwiches
with or after meals, perhaps especially with breakfast. And it
(03:11):
is just the thing on like a crisp morning. You
can also use it as a flavoring for other drinks
or maybe like sweet baked.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Goods something like that.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
It's like it's like a ray of sun piercing through
particularly dour clouds.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Yeah, it's the feeling when you are it's raining and
you're comfortable at home with the blanket in a book. Yeah,
that's what it is. Oh yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Did drink some Lady Gray a variant while writing this outline.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Good.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
It also does taste like by itself if you haven't
put anything else in it, it tastes just a little
bit like fruit loop. And this is not just according
to me, This is according well to me and to
one Todd Chatterson, a former director of the tea program
at eleven Madison Parks. So like a fellow who knows
his tea. Yeah, that's citrus note, you know. But okay,
(04:19):
to explain what's going on with all of this, first,
let's talk about tea. Tea comes from this type of
evergreen shrub or small tree botanical name Camillia sinensis. There
are a couple like botanical varieties of this species and
hundreds of cultivars with various properties, but all types of
tea come from this one specific plant, and the differences
(04:43):
between like white, green, black, and other types of tea
are and how the leaves are treated after they're picked.
Very basically, tea leaves all start out looking a little
bit like rose leaves, like bright green pointed ovals with
these serrated edges. Traditionally they are picked by hand because
(05:03):
machines tend to bruise and damage the leaves and that'll
result in a lower quality tea. There's definitely like a
value versus bulk trade off there, and a lot of
tea these days is processed for bulk, not value, not
not quality. But let's go over the traditional method in
order to understand a little bit about the chemistry that's
(05:23):
happening here. Okay, So as fresh tea leaves are handled
and as they dry out after being picked, they'll begin oxidizing.
That is, molecules of oxygen in the air will start
mucking around with the leaves. Chemistry, it's the same process
by which cut fruit turns brown or rust forms and
(05:44):
depending on what type of tea you're making, like green
tea or white tea, you might not want that to
happen basically at all, but with black tea, which is
what usually goes into earl gray, you do want some
controlled oxidation. In good quality, traditionally made black teas, you
gradually dry down the leaves, rolling them into little needles
(06:08):
to break down some of their cell walls and allow
the enzymes inside to oxidize, and the darker and stronger
you want the tea to be, the longer you leave
them to sit out to dry as in that needle forum,
letting them go from green to beige to tan to
like coppery brown. When they've reached the right level, the
oxidation will be stopped by destroying those enzymes with heat
(06:30):
from hot air dryers, and at that point the leaves
will be dried just about all the way down to
make them shelf stable, and then sorted and packaged for sale.
Green and white teas are made with basically no oxidation.
A white tea is made from leaves picked when they're immature.
Oolong is partially oxidized. Other teas might be smoked or
(06:52):
allowed to ferment a little bit something like that, And
again this is all the traditional method of producing tea,
sometimes called the Orthan method. Because of the time and
labor that it requires, these teas tend to be expensive. Therefore,
most black teas these days are made by the CTC
or crush tear curl method, like eighty to ninety five
(07:14):
percent of black teas. In this method, after the leaves
are withered, they're passed through a machine that bruises, cuts
and twists them into even granules like like a fine gravel.
This isn't ideal for brewing loose leaf tea in a
cup or a pot because it also produces a bunch
of like dust and weird bits of debris that might
(07:35):
not sink as readily as whole tea leaves do, but
it's perfect for tea bags. It also brews quicker and
stronger than whole leaf tea. Experts say that the Orthodox
process creates more flavorful, lighter colored tea, while CTC produces
less flavorful but darker colored tea. So yeah, that's basic
(07:57):
breakdown of how the tea gets into your tea bag
or tin or wherever else you're getting it from. If
a tea is going to be flavored. Oils or other
extracts can be added during or after the drying process,
or pieces of ingredients like dried citrus peel or flower
buds can be blended into the tea leaves before packaging.
(08:20):
Speaking of flavoring, Bergamont is a type of citrus thought
to come from a hybrid of bitter oranges and either
lemons or citron or maybe lime. No one is really sure.
The fruit will grow to about the size of an orange,
but with a greenish yellow skin when it's ripe, and
the fruit itself is like super sour and a little
(08:41):
bit bitter. It's mostly grown for its rind, which contains
a lot of very fragrant oil, which has this like floral, musky,
citrusy scent and a slightly spiced sort of flavor. It's
just really pleasant. It's used in a lot of perfumery
and it can be extracted by various methods these days,
usually by cold pressing, but not all Earl Gray tea
(09:06):
contains actual bergamont oil. Some probably a lot is made
with more processed flavorings made up of either natural and
or artificial flavors. And now there's nothing you can see
our whole episode about artificial flavors for more on this.
But there's nothing inherently wrong with natural or artificial flavorings.
(09:28):
Natural just means that it was made from living sources,
including bacteria and yeasts that are grown specifically to create
those compounds. Artificial means that it was made via chemical
and or mechanical processes, and note that the resulting flavorings
can be molecularly identical. They're typically a lot cheaper than
(09:48):
things like real cold press Bergamont oil because they're a
lot easier to produce at scale. If you look at
the ingredients on a container of tea that the term
Bergamont flavor probably means it's not real oil. But whether
you prefer that is up to you. I can't tell
you what to do. I will say that the dried
(10:10):
peel of bergamont is considered an inferior vector for the
flavor and typically is not used. Some blends will use
bits of cheaper orange peel for color and a little
bit of flavor. But yeah, whatever type or types of
tea and bergamont flavoring goes into it. You know, you've
got a cup of earl gray, which is nice hot
(10:33):
or iced And I didn't mean to rhyme that, but
here we are, and speaking of different flavorings, people and
or companies that produce tea blends will add other stuff
to earl gray florals like lavender, jasmine, or rose, sort
of rich flavors like cream or vanilla flavoring, or bright
things like ginger or other types of citrus. And there
(10:53):
are other rifts like the aforementioned Lady Gray, which is
black tea with orange and lemon peel for a kind
of less bitter, sort of zestier flavor. You can also
use earl gray to make a bubble tea or a
London fog, which is an earl gray with vanilla syrup
and steamed milk latte style, yeah, or any number of cocktails.
(11:14):
Tea is excellent, particularly in non alcoholic cocktails, because it
adds a little bit of tannic bite.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Or you could bruce them up to help flavor cakes, chocolates, muffins,
ice cream, lemon bars. Oh I love a lemon bar anyway. Also,
earl gray is a flavor now and you can like
go out and buy natural and or artificial flavors that
are earl gray flavored.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
So I feel like several of you listeners have written
in about this about making like Earl gray favorite flavored
shortbread cookies.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Yeah yeah, absolutely, and that always I'm always like ooh yeah, yeah,
me too.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Well, I guess this is existed, should oh no? Okay,
all right?
Speaker 2 (12:03):
So there are compounds in tea and in bergamot extracts
that can have potentially helpful effects in your body, but
like in moderation because other compounds like caffeine and tannin's
should not really be overdone. Also, I found an example
for this one, so okay, go on. So I mean,
(12:24):
you know savor motto in general, before before imbibing a
medicinal dose of anything, you should consult a medical professional
who is not us. And I'm backing it up with
an example today because in the early two thousands, there
was a medical case report published in the Landset I
believe about this forty something Austrian dude who had been
(12:44):
drinking about four leaders of black tea every day and
nothing but black tea for like twenty five years. That's
like just about a gallon, okay, and he found that
he was experiencing some stomach cake. So he switched to
earl gray, thinking that that would be more gentle, and
(13:07):
then started experiencing these weird muscle cramps and like pins
and needles in his extremities. When he cut back to
no more than one leader per day, he got better,
and after consulting with these medical providers, compromised to two
leaders of plain black tea day as his sole source of.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Liquids.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Oh, I agree with that sound, and I'm just reporting
the facts. But I will say that this is what
I'm talking about when I say a medicinal dose of anything.
It's also what I'm talking about when I say drink
(13:55):
some water. By that, I mean drink some water that
has not been brewed into tea.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Wow. Yeah, okay, all right, Well, we do have some
other numbers for you.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
We do, we do, all right? So I read in
a couple different places that the global market for earl
gray tea encompasses over seven million tons of tea per year,
which is a number that I don't really understand. However,
of that, the classic plane earl gray makes up about
(14:34):
forty percent, which is the largest wedge of the market share,
and in terms of packaging and leaf types, tea bags
make up about fifty five percent of that market share.
All of that earl gray is worth some two and
a half billion dollars and the major brands all hold
(14:56):
about equal parts of the market, which is interesting. Yeah,
I feel like a lot favorites. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah yeah,
and they're they're well spread out.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Also, according to a Yugo survey of Europe from October
of twenty twenty, earl gray was indeed one of the
most popular types of tea around Europe. Specifically, over sixty
percent of people in Sweden and just about half of
Denmark said that they drink earl gray. Also around a
(15:26):
third of France and Germany. Only a fifth of UK
respondents said that they drink it. However, I will say
that that they were heavily skewed towards preferring English breakfast tea,
so that might be it. A different Yugo of survey
from twenty fourteen reported that over a quarter of Americans
(15:48):
drink earl gray, so actually more Americans are drinking earl
gray than Brits.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
This is really funny because the title of our outline
I started, uh, spells gray the American way, and I
read in so many places, how that's just not accepted.
Oh oh, sell it the British way. But it just
cracked me up because I hadn't put too much thought
(16:18):
into it. But yes, okay, all right, I'll accept this.
But what a history, what a twisted, twisted history trying
to untangle this way.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Absolutely, yeah, we're going to get into that as soon
as we get back from a quick break for a
word from our sponsors, and we're back.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you. Okay. So, yes, the
history of tea is a long and complicated one and
is not what we're tackling today. Nope, nope.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
And same for citrus because citrus was being cultivated around
Southeast Asia like four thousand years ago, and it's really
difficult to trace all of its movements and mutations.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Yes see our previous citrus episodes. And yeah, a lot
of the history behind Earl Gray tea is foggy. Oh yes,
more on that later, and almost the stuff of legend,
especially since tea is so important to the UK, although
apparently Earl Gray not as much as I thought. According
(17:37):
to some sources, the practice of flavoring tea goes back
to ancient China. Archaeological evidence suggests that tea was being
brewed in China over two thousand years.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Ago, and that evidence briefly but because this is all
kind of related, okay, So around twenty fifteen, archaeologists on
Earth these Imperial tombs that contained fine riches, including what
would today be considered high grade tea leaves, now tea,
the beverage that we know today might not have been
(18:08):
what was being made with this tea. It's actually more likely,
based on other stuff found with the tea, that it
was being used to make a blend of like of
like barley tea buds and other plants. So flavored tea
is the earliest evidence that we have of tea. It's
(18:31):
possibility that it was more like a soup than a
drink at the time, but tea as a drink was
being written about within like the next hundred years after
this stuff originated.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
So yes, yes, and a lot of the early accounts
are medicinal. But sometime during the six hundreds to eight
hundred CE, drinking tea for pleasure rose to popularity in China,
and this is also the time that tea merchants likely
first oxidized green tea to make black tea, which stood
up to travel better so that they could sell these
(19:01):
teas around the globe.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Also around that time, people in China were definitely still
adding flavorings, but specifically such as citrus peel to tea.
They were also arguing deeply about whether it was appropriate
to do.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
So, arguments that continue today. By the sixteen hundreds, tea
was available in the UK.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Meanwhile, Bergamont developed, possibly in southern Italy in the early
fifteen hundreds or maybe earlier, possibly as a fancy ornamental.
It's certainly like the leaves and not imagine the flowers
also smell real nice. But Bergamont water as a perfume
element was in use by sixteen eighty six, and the
(19:50):
tree got its first good botanical description in seventeen oh eight.
Planting of Bergamont and oil production exploded during the latter
half of the seventeen high It was like very posh,
and oil production industrialized starting in the eighteen forties, which.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Brings us to Earl Gray and Oh my, the stories,
the stories legends. Okay, So the popular story behind the
name and creation is as follows. Sometime during the eighteen thirties,
the second Earl of Gray and UK prime Minister at
the time, Charles Gray received Bergamot flavored black tea. The
(20:31):
gift was most likely from a foreign diplomat or dignitary,
most likely from China. After tasting the tea, it became
popular amongst the English court, and soon tea merchants started
formulating their own blends of Earl Gray for the public
at large. Okay, that's the official government story, but there
(20:51):
are other theories behind the name. Theories abound. Oh yes, Oh.
One involves a tea enthusiast from China who somehow gets
in a life threatening situation and Gray saved him. The
enthusiast then gifted him with his own blend of tea.
In a variation of this story, it was the enthusiast's
(21:13):
sun who nearly drowned on Earl's property and was rescued
by one of Earl's men. Arle of has happened in China,
and it was a British diplomat and not the Earl himself,
because by most accounts I read, he never actually went
to China himself. Another story goes that the water at
Gray's estate was very mineral heavy, with particularly high levels
(21:37):
of limescale, and the tea was developed specifically with that
in mind to compliment that water, and was perhaps developed
by a Chinese tea master, or black tea was a
gift from Chinese diplomats after the Earl reformed trade with China,
(21:57):
ending the monopoly of the East India Company, and Gray
went on to request that it was flavored with bergamonte oil,
or black tea being shipped with Bergamont oranges somehow accidentally mixed.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
That doesn't sound like a but sure okay, yeah, yeah, yeah,
it doesn't yeah, Or perhaps a tea merchant named William
Gray was the one to invent it.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Since his Earl Gray was the first known advertisement of
the product in eighteen fifty two. Okay, Bergamont oranges are
from Italy, so it's likely that while flavored Chinese teas
inspired Earl Gray, perhaps even citrus flavored teas, it was
blended in Europe. Most likely, the first known written mention
(22:44):
of black tea with Burgamont oil dates back to eighteen
twenty four. By the eighteen thirties, Bergamont flavored teas were
looked down upon, associated with cheap teas that needed a
flavored oil to mask the low quality allegedly, the company
that first added Bergamont to tea was later prosecuted for
(23:05):
fraud for adding the oil and raising their prices under
the pretense of selling higher quality teas. Oh no, yes,
all that being said, this is very fun, but there's
no real documentation or evidence behind these origin stories apart
from yes, you can look up William Gray's ad in
(23:26):
eighteen fifty two and there was an Earl Gray. There
was an Earl Gray, but most of the like saved
the Sky's life and he made a tea for me.
There's nothing, There's nothing to back that up, and the
name Earl Gray didn't appear until decades after Gray's death.
Some suspect it was named after another family member or
(23:47):
successor of his, or that tea sellers just use earl
to make the tea sound sophisticated, which I could see.
I could see. So those are the like. I'm sure
there's even more, but these are some of the main
stories people like to tell about this tea. However it
came to be, It was popular by the late eighteen
(24:09):
hundreds in the UK, and it made its way to
the US around that time too. Both Twinings and the
Jacksons of Piccadilly claimed to have been the first to
offer Earl Gray tea Big Ta Companies a nineteen twenty
eight ad from Jackson's read that introduced in eighteen thirty
six to meet the wishes of the former Earl Gray,
(24:32):
and that quote the genuine blend can be obtained only
through Jackson's of Piccadilly, so they were really claiming they
were laying down their steak there. Eventually, Twinings purchased Jackson's
of Piccadilly. Of notes, Jackson's also claimed to have the
original recipe after the Earl of Gray tasked them with
(24:54):
making it. So they're kind of like saying the story
is true, but also we've got the original rest. Twinings
introduced a spinoff on Earl Gray Lady Gray in the
nineteen nineties with a lighter flavor, and that's Tea shops
have introduced numerous spins on Earl Gray over the years.
(25:14):
That's just one of them. Oh definitely, And this brings
us too the fun unexpected nerd tangent. I was not expecting.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Oh see, I knew about it, but.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Uh huh, I know, I was so happy. Okay, So
in nineteen eighty nine, Star Trek the Next Generation aired
the episode Contagion, which is the first time Captain Picard
orders tea Earl Gray Hot, and it went on to
become kind of a saying and a fave of his characters.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
Yeah, okay, so this occurred relatively early on in season
two and right, and became sort of a whole meme
because just the way that you have to order things
from replicators is so stilted and funny. Uh And you know,
it's Patrick Stewart and he's being so serious in this
(26:10):
role of Jean le Bicard and he's tea or gray hot.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
You know, it's just it's it's a whole thing.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
It's it's easily rifted upon, right, I mean, and so
it continues, and you know, like by the Star Trek
Picard series said a couple of decades later, the character
switches to decaf. It's a whole thing. And by a
whole thing, I mean, okay, Like, for example, there's a
fan theory that Picard doesn't actually like Earl gray tea
(26:36):
that much, but rather like replicates some as a sort
of affectation or like soft power move when he's trying
to impress upon visitors that he is like this urbane
Earth figure. Apparently he only orders it once when he's
(26:57):
by himself in this in the history of the show,
So like Beverly Crusher points out that he prefers coffee
with his breakfast. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
Conspiracy.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Beverly knows better than I do, So I don't know.
I don't know what to say about all of that.
But tangent into our tangent and I and I know
this partially because one of my I don't know, does
it come as a hobby. One of the things that
(27:29):
I enjoy doing in my off time is hanging out
with a dear friend of mine and just watching like
DS nine and Next Gen, just just just watching it.
Just yeah, hanging out and doing that.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
So yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
The drinkwear that Card uses on Star Trek the Next
Generation was actual commercial drink wear that was available at
the time.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
It was chosen by the crew for its like modern
or futuristic looks.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
And is annoyingly unavailable and or expensive now. The glass
cup with the minimalist black plastic handle was designed in
nineteen seventy four for Botom's Bestro line and discontinued in
twenty sixteen. You can find them on eBay are similar
for varying prices. The white porcelain tea set with like
(28:17):
the cups that nest into the sides of the teapot
was from Singer Porcelain. I think I'm saying that right.
It's called the Design two set.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
It is still.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Available and will run you over four hundred dollars list
price of four fifty. Also just saying, if the found
prop design of Star Trek and its cultural implications to
this day is a thing that interests you, oh my gosh,
have people written about it?
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (28:47):
I mean also there are like there are essays about
like the imperialist implications of Picard drinking Earl Gray tea
given tea's history on Earth.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
M hmm.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
I mean I wasn't even looking for this and it
came up and I found a lot of written about it,
and I was like, I think Lauren will take this
for me. Done and done. Yep, Yes, so thank you
appreciate it. Very interesting. I learned there's a Upper Card
(29:24):
day where people drink all great team Oh great.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Yeah. So let us know listeners, if you have some
of these this d set.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
Absolutely, yeah, it was really pretty. It is really pretty anyway.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Mm hmm. Okay, So that brings us to the London Fog,
which I had actually never heard of. But I recently
went to Seattle with some friends and one of the
friends was determined to get a lot of fog from
a specific place, and we did get it, and great.
He loved it. He loved it. So the history of
(30:05):
the Earl Gray latte or the London Fog is pretty
murky as well, but the story goes that it was
invented in Vancouver, Canada, at the Buckwheat Cafe by a
pregnant woman named Mary Loria Lauria. Named Mary Lauria Lauria
frequented the cafe with her husband and one day she
(30:25):
requested Earl Gray tea and steamed skim milk and mixed
the two together. It's often put like this was a
pregnancy craving that she had. She loved the combo and
went on to order it several more times, adding things
like vanilla sugar. She liked it so much she recommended
it to friends and to other cafes until the London
(30:47):
Fog caught on. No one really seems to know where
the name comes from. Though not even hurt, because she
says once she saw it on the menu, she had
no idea what it was. But anyway, as the drink spread,
regional variations popped up, like the Mexican Fog, which uses
the gave sweeten it, and the Halifax Fog, which uses
(31:08):
maple syrup. Some of these variations forego Earl Gray Tea altogether,
using a different type of tea. There are even yes
cocktail versions. Starbucks added a version of this to their
menu sometime around two thousand and seven. In twenty twenty four,
(31:28):
the eighth Earl of Gray endorsed Twinings as the original
blend Wow Yeah. The Twinings website includes this quote from
the seventh Earl of Gray. Twinings has been blending my
family tea for years. Legend has it that my ancestor,
the second Earl Gray, was presented with this exquisite recipe
(31:50):
by an envoy on his return from China. He liked
it so much he asked Richard Twining to recreate it
for him. Generations of my family have in enjoyed Earl
Gray tea, and today I am proud to continue the
tradition with the tea celebrated throughout the world known as
Twining's earl Gray. Wow, this is fascinating to me because
(32:13):
there's so many stories we already went over of how
this might have happened. And I don't know. I wasn't
there not saying he's crafting a falsehood. But it is
interesting how even in your own family you might not
you might get kind of you might have sales legs and.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
There right absolutely, I mean also, marketing is a hell
of a drug.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
So he is a hell of a drug. That is true.
That is true, And as mentioned at the top, it's
worked for earl gray because these days, earl gray is
a flavoring in all kinds of things outside of drinks,
mostly desserts, but it shows up all over, so it's
really made it. It's made it.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
Yeah, it comes and goes in waves. I feel like
twenty twenty four was a heavy earl gray year, like
a fog.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Yeah. Yeah, I feel like I would love to hear
from listeners because for me, I feel like it is
a kind of comfort tea, a comfort tea. So maybe
in years where you're kind of stressed, you lean harder
on the earl gray. But I don't know, I would
really love to hear from people around the world your
(33:30):
experience drinking Earl Gray, what it means to you, What
do you associate it with? Yeah, how do you make it? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (33:39):
I personally it depends on my mood. But I personally
usually either like it just black or with a little
bit of milk. By milk, I mean unsweetened, don't milk,
because that's what I roll with. But I know that
someone is mad at me for saying all of those things, so.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
Sorry about it. I think we have a little bit
that will be cut out of this where I was
making a horrified face when Lauren was saying people have
strong opinions about this, and I remembered some of those
strong opinions I saw when I was in the UK.
They are quite strong. Yeah, I've read that lemon, just
(34:17):
lemon is preferred, largely preferred in the UK for O Gray.
But write in listeners, give us your strong opinions.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Yeah, please, please please, But that is what we have
to say about Earl Gray for now. We do already
have some listener mail for you, though, and we are
going to get into that as soon as we get
back from one more quick break for word from our sponsors.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
And we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you, and
we're back with this. Oh yeah, m hmm. Okay, I
have to say when we did the SpongeBob episode, I
(35:12):
was very excited to hear from you listeners, and you
have not failed. And in fact, I am so thrilled
that so many of you are low key kind of
angry at me. Now I'm not mentioning certain things. Oh
because listen here, I want to come back. And super
(35:32):
producer Andrew was like, did you talk about this? And
I said no, So I know there's things that got
left out, and I'm really really thrilled that you all
are writing in about them. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
Absolutely, I have so much story as we had, so
please keep those, keep those coming.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
We might revisit. I would love to revisit. Oh yeah,
I think we should. Why I think we should? I
think we didn't even talk about the sayings like tartar sauce. Anyway. Okay,
so Colleen wrote in about the SpongeBob episode, this must
be my favorite episode, and I suspect you will be
(36:16):
swamped with emails, So as a major SpongeBob fan, I
will just tell you one funny SpongeBob incident. There was
a Nickelodeon SpongeBob Marathon Festival tenth anniversary celebration where they
played every episode in a row for twenty four hours
a day over three or four days, which I decided
to watch as many as possible. After about two days,
(36:40):
my husband said, politely, could you please not play the
theme song every time? I of course began to mute
it for him. It had been playing in my dreams
at night. He is now also a fan. Okay, yes,
in so many ways, because they're relatively short episodes, so
(37:04):
the theme song comes up a while a lot. Yeah, yes,
So I've also tried to get pretty good at like
muting the theme song so that it doesn't get stuck
in someone's head. Are irrecovely, but that's amazing. I remember
when that happened.
Speaker 2 (37:25):
They do those marathons occasionally. That's not the only They've
done that a few times. And I can see the
propensity for just really leading in.
Speaker 1 (37:37):
Yeah. And also, as mentioned in that episode, there are
several that make you feel like you might be losing
your mind. And I can imagine if you're watching a
lot of this that might really get to you.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
Oh, yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
I also forgot to mention I have a friend whose
birthday as we record this as tomorrow, we used to
celebrate joint birthdays, oh, because our birthdays were so close.
In one year in high school, we did a SpongeBob
themed birthday and we had a SpongeBob themed ice cream
(38:10):
cake that her mother maid and her mother was an
artistic design and oh wow great. So it was really good. Yeah,
and it was lovely. Everybody there was having a great time.
But yeah, I'm glad. I'm glad that your husband wasn't
turned off by the theme song being played constantly and
(38:34):
is now a fan.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
Yes, oh yeay, Yes, SpongeBob joy is very real. Julie wrote,
I enjoyed your Hostess cupcake episode, and it brought back
some childhood memories. I definitely liked them better than Twinkies
and so much more than ho hos, But I didn't
like the filling in either. I remember I had a
(38:58):
method for eating the cupcakes which went like this. First,
break off the frosted top, then eat the chocolate cake
up to the filling, throw out the filling or give
it to sisters who liked it, and lastly, eat the
frosted top. Perhaps I was weird lol. I deconstructed oreos
in a similar way, although it was actually consistent with
their jingle A Kitt'll eat the middle of an oreo first. Anyway,
(39:21):
it was a trip down memory lane for my sixty
five year old self.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
Oh I love this. I know we've said this before,
but multiple listeners have written in about their specific ways.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
Of eating some different things.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
Yeah, yeah, I love it. M hmm. It's so great.
I'd be curious if you've had one recently and if
you still maintain to this method, if you still stick
to this yeah, or if this was a kid only
kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
I feel like I feel like as a as a teenager,
like like young adult in college, which is when I
was really exposed to them, I also had some kind
of method of eating them that was definitely not the
entire thing at once. It was definitely I think I
didn't like the the chocolate frosting, and I feel like
that's the part that I gave to other people.
Speaker 1 (40:15):
Mm hmm. And you've got to find your other person,
you do you do? Because I don't like the icing
and oreo, so I'd find that person. Yes, people really
love the icing they do, so just got you gotta.
Speaker 2 (40:28):
It's a barter system of trees between that and Halloween
candy halls. Yeah, m work out your systems of trade.
Speaker 1 (40:36):
It's very important. It is very important, and we love
hearing about it. So yes, thank you. Thanks to both
of these listeners for writing in. If you would like
to write to as, you can or emails hello at
saberpod dot com. We're also on social media.
Speaker 2 (40:52):
You can find us on Instagram and blue Sky at
saber pod, and we do hope to hear from you.
Savor is production of iHeartRadio podcasts my Heart Radio. You
can visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows. Thanks as always to our
super producers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you
for listening, and we hope that lots more good things
are coming your way.
Savor News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.