Earl Grey Imperial Tea - Airtight Tin

Citrusy, slightly sweet blend of Black Tea, scented with bergamot.Babingtons’ version of the world’s most famous black scented tea, the Imperial Earl Grey is an intense and citrussy, yet very well balanced, all-natural blend.Like all Babingtons blends, the Imperial Earl Grey recipe is unique and prepared with carefully sourced ingredients, coming from trusted suppliers, mixed and packed in the United Kingdom.

Earl Grey Tea is the most recognized scented tea in the world. Its origins go back to the mid 1800, its uniqueness to be found in the combination of black tea and bergamot fruit. When creating our Imperial Earl Grey, we wanted a bergamot tea in which the flavour of the tea wasn’t overwhelmed by the scent of the other ingredients. As a base we chose a Ceylon black tea from Sri Lanka to which we then added bergamot essence, lemon peel and flower petals, to make our blend delicious and good looking!

• Taste: intense and citrusy, with a subtle sweetness
• Predominant Hints: bergamot
• Colour: medium brown
• Goes well with: savouries: smoked salmon, wild rice salad, salads Sweets: biscuits, Apple cake and apple pie, carrot cake, lemon pie, key lime pie
• Time of day: ideal morning and afternoon
• Beneficial properties: black tea, known as “red tea” in China, is produced with fully oxidized leaves of the Camelia Sinensis. The tea plant contains vitamins, minerals, polyphenols and caffeine, which help us improve performance and concentration.

  Common thought is that black tea contains more caffeine than green or white teas; this however is not the case. Caffeine is present in all teas and the quantity of the caffeine depends on many factors such as the quality of the teas, the altitude (often high grown teas are more premium), the terroir, the age of the tea plants, and most importantly the brewing (water temperature and infusion time).

• Storage: keep in a cool, dry and dark place, in an airtight container
• Recommended teapots: silver, enamel, Sheffield, porcelain or glass

When Isabell Cargill and Anna Maria Babington opened their tea rooms in 1893 in Rome, they were serving black tea from India, Ceylon and China. Most of the tea they imported at the time was not scented, except for a small quantity of

Earl Grey for the very special occasions. Today, as in the past, Earl Grey Tea is the most recognized scented tea in the world. Its origins go back to the mid 1800 and although there are many intriguing stories about how he actually came to be so famous in the tea market, this blend was named after Charles Grey, the 2 nd Earl of Grey and British Prime Minister from 1830 to 1834. Although he was the author of the Reform Bill and the Slavery Abolition Act, the world knows him because of the tea named after him!

The success and uniqueness of this scented blend are to be found in the combination of black tea and bergamot, a citrus fruit originally cultivated in the South of Italy, as well as in the aristocratic aura that this tea brings with it. (As a matter of fact its said that HM Queen Elisabeth II has Earl Grey for her breakfast every morning).

As a base for our Imperial Earl Grey Tea we chose a Ceylon black tea from the Uva plantations in Sri Lanka, a small island just off the Indian coast, where the British first introduced tea plants in the mid 1800.Teas from this area are appreciated worldwide for their brisk, slightly citrussy aftertaste. The perfect combination for a bergamot blend.To celebrate this best-beloved blend we then added lemon peel and flower petals, to make sure we were treating our eyes as well as our palates.

Delicious both with savoury and sweets, when sipping your Imperial Earl Grey you will be cast into the intensity of the sweet bergamot and the Ceylon tea. A gift from the Far East!