Earl Grey Tea
Black tea scented with oil of bergamot, a citrus grown almost entirely for its peel. Tea infuses readily into spirit, and gin takes it particularly well, since the citrus-floral oil sits naturally among gin’s botanicals.
Quick Facts
Flavour Profile
Primary Flavours
Tasting Notes
Brisk black tea under bergamot’s perfumed citrus: floral on the nose, tannic on the finish, and both survive a shaker.
Storage & Handling
Airtight, dark and dry: tea keeps its scent only as long as its seal.
Shelf Life
Loose leaf: best within a year of opening; it fades rather than spoils.
Usage
Infused into gin at about a tablespoon of leaves per 250ml for one to two hours, then strained thoroughly. Brewed at double strength it also lengthens sours, punches and iced serves without needing an infusion.
Bergamot, and a Prime Minister
Earl Grey is black tea scented with bergamot, a citrus grown almost entirely for its fragrant peel oil in Calabria. The blend carries the name of Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey and Prime Minister from 1830 to 1834.
Teas of the kind are documented from the 1800s, though the stories explaining how his name attached, rescued diplomats among them, are almost certainly myth. The tea is real and the anecdote is decoration.
Why Gin Takes It
The bar borrowed it for the bergamot rather than for the tea. Bergamot is a citrus-floral oil, and gin is already a citrus-and-botanical spirit, so the two meet on ground they share.
That is why the infusion tastes integrated rather than added. Put the same tea into vodka and it reads as tea in vodka; put it into gin and it reads as a gin with a botanical nobody has quite placed.
Bergamot is worth knowing on its own account too. It is grown almost exclusively for its peel oil rather than for eating, which is unusual among citrus, and its flavour appears in far more places than most people realise once they can name it.
Infuse Short
The working spec is a tablespoon of leaves per 250ml of gin, for one to two hours at room temperature, strained well.
Past that the tannin arrives and the infusion coarsens. Tea gives up its aromatics quickly and its bitterness slowly, which is the same pattern as pepper in syrup, so the clock matters more here than with most infusions.
Strain Properly
Leaf fragments left in the bottle keep extracting after the infusion is nominally finished, and a batch that tasted right when strained will be bitter a week later.
Where the tea is being brewed rather than infused, brew it at double strength. Dilution and ice will halve it, and a drink built on normally brewed tea tastes of very little by the time it reaches the table.
Loose leaf beats bags for infusing, and not for the usual snobbish reasons. Bag tea is cut fine to brew fast, which is exactly the wrong property in a spirit infusion, since it extracts tannin far quicker than whole leaf does.
Top Tips
- Infuse short: one to two hours in gin pulls the bergamot without the tannin that longer steeps drag in.
- Strain properly: leaf fragments keep extracting in the bottle and turn the infusion bitter.
- Brewed for a drink, brew it double strength: dilution and ice will halve it.
Possible Substitutions
- Any bergamot-forward black tea blend
- Plain black tea plus a strip of expressed orange peel: the approximation
Production Method
Black tea scented with oil of bergamot, a citrus grown mainly in Calabria for its fragrant peel. The blend is named for Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, Prime Minister 1830-1834; how his name attached to it is disputed, and the popular origin stories are probably myth.
Common Questions
What is Earl Grey tea?
Black tea scented with oil of bergamot, a fragrant citrus grown mainly in Calabria. It carries the name of Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, Prime Minister from 1830 to 1834, though how his name attached to the blend is disputed and probably myth.
How do I infuse gin with Earl Grey?
A tablespoon of loose leaves in 250ml of gin, one to two hours at room temperature, then strain thoroughly. Longer steeps pull tannin as well as bergamot and the infusion turns bitter, and leaf left in the bottle keeps extracting.
What drinks use Earl Grey?
The Earl Grey MarTEAni carries the flag: bergamot-infused gin against lemon and sugar. Brewed at double strength, the tea also lengthens sours, punches and iced serves, since ice and dilution will halve whatever strength it went in at.
Can I use teabags instead of loose leaf?
For brewing, yes. For infusing gin, loose leaf is better, and not for snobbish reasons: bag tea is cut fine so it brews fast, which means it reaches the tannin much sooner than whole leaf and coarsens the infusion.
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Often Used With
Guide by Jerry Can Spirits