This popular flavored tea blend has its roots in 1830s Great Britain. As the legend goes, the British Prime Minister Earl Grey II had rescued the young son of a Chinese Mandarin from drowning (or the son of an Indian Rajah from a tiger, depending on who’s telling the story). The grateful father brought him a gift of blended Indian and Ceylon teas flavored with oil of bergamot, extracted from the rind of bergamot oranges.
The bergamot orange is not orange! Its skin is green in color and it is rather shaped like a pear. Bergamot oranges are almost exclusively grown in Italy. Probably more than you needed to know about the essential flavoring that makes Earl Grey tea so special, but there it is!