Today I took the brief moment to sample a new box of tea I had bought from a local Asian Groceries & Import Store. I wasn’t interested in any particular brand only that the tea was Earl Grey.

I settled upon this tea brand “Impra” which was the cheaper “generic brand” of tea available. For roughly $4 I got about 50 bags of the Ceylon Earl Grey Tea Brand.

So back to this afternoon– I opened the bag to reveal a not-so-quite tea label attached to the cotton string. “fancy” I thought. I then poured hot water over the bag and instantly smelled a strong aroma of Bergamot & Flowers.

I really had no clue what to expect other then plain old Earl Grey. Previous to this I had been drinking Celestial Seasonings’ Earl Grey blend so with that as a marker I really didn’t expect much. My first sip, however, changed that quite profoundly…

The first sip hit me with the taste of flowers followed by a strong taste of Bergamot then finished with a hint of mint. A real flavorful combination that I didn’t expect at all– Especially from such a cheap tea.

Halfway through the cup, the taste didn’t change much. Every sip was a bombardment of flowery flavor and minty finishes.

It was enough that I decided to take a break and do some research on Earl Grey Teas, Ceylon, and the company “Impra.”

Who was Mr. Earl Grey?

Earl Grey tea of course was named after a person but “Earl” was not his first name. Actually his name was Mr. Charles Grey, Earl was his proper title. Mr. Grey happened to be the second earl in his line. He served England as the Prime Minister to King William IV in the early 19th century. The famed legend of “Earl Grey’s Tea” is that Mr. Grey was given the recipe by a Chinese mandarin with whom he was friends, and whose life he had saved.

That recipe was a blend of Indian and Ceylon (explained later) teas. The tea gets its unusual flavor from oil of BERGAMOT– a small acidic orange. The latest research indicates that the Bergamot orange is a cross between the sweet or pear lemon (Citrus Limetta) and the Seville or sour orange (Citrus Aurantium). The sour orange is native to southern Vietnam, hence the Chinese connection.

The Origins of “Ceylon Tea”:

Ceylon Tea, Ceylons, and the such doesn’t refer to the science fiction “computer race” found on the BattleStar Series, but infact refers to the old name of Sri Lanka (“Ceylon” – renamed in 1972).

According to the Impra Tea Company (Makers of the Earl Grey I’m drinking, “Sri Lanka or the then Ceylon, was a coffee state. The plantation industry in Ceylon began in 1825 with widespread planting of coffee. However in 1839 the head of the botanical gardens in Culcutta India sent several Assam tea plants to the Peradeniya estates in the Kandy district. It is this Assam variety of tea which is now grown on every estate in Sri Lanka.

Tea only received an opportunity due to a leaf disease which spread widely across the country in 1869, thus putting and end to the booming coffee industry in the island. During the next 20 years, planters in Ceylon converted the decimated estates to tea plantations. It is probably due to the experience and knowledge of Indian tea planters and the efforts of the father of tea in Sri Lanka James Taylor that paved the way for Sri Lanka to be in the forefront of tea production today.”

The Impra tea company markets itself as an exporter of Ceylon Tea. They claim to be one of the biggest in the market and aims as being “the most innovative and trusted exporter.” I’ll take it at their word for now because honestly this is a pretty good tea.

So there you have it… A little tea review/Info for your 3’o’clock tea time break.

Enjoy…

~J out

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