Earl Grey is the West's most popular tea, most popular black tea, and most popular scented tea, in that order. Named after the 1830s British Prime Minister, Earl Grey is traditionally any tea scented with oil of Bergamot, a fruit which resembles an ugly orange found in Mediterranean climes. Corfu was the center of the Bergamot trade during the same decades it was headquarters for the British Mediterranean fleet, commanded by Lord Grey in London. Successive generations of heirs to the tea firms of Twining and Jacksons of Piccadilly accused one another's ancestors of having stolen Milord's recipe, which seems originally to have been entrusted to Jacksons.
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