Ingredients · Flavouring

Bergamot

Citrus bergamia · Rutaceae (citrus family)

Bergamot
The oil pressed from the skin of a sour citrus fruit, and the single thing that makes Earl Grey Earl Grey. Nine products here carry it. Bergamot is not a flavour that exists in nature elsewhere — it is floral and citrus at once, more perfume than fruit, and a very small amount transforms a plain black tea into the most recognisable blend in the world. It is a hybrid, probably of lemon and bitter orange, and it is barely eaten: almost the entire crop goes to the oil.

What it’s like, and how to use it

The partPeel oil
KindFlavouring
CaffeineCaffeine-free
Where it is fromItaly
TasteFloral and citrus at once — closer to perfume than to fruit, with a clean bitter edge

How to use it

Almost exclusively in tea. It is the flavouring in Earl Grey and, with cornflower, in Lady Grey. Also used in confectionery. A very small amount does the work; too much tastes soapy.

With food

Lemon and orange. Shortbread and butter biscuits. Dark chocolate. Cream. Lavender. Honey.

With spices

Lemon peel, which is practically family. Lavender. Vanilla. Cornflower, for Lady Grey.

With tea

Ceylon and other black teas, its home. Rooibos, for a caffeine-free Earl Grey. Green tea and matcha.

Its story

Where it comes from

Production is on a large scale in the Ionian Sea coastal areas of the province of Reggio di Calabria in Italy, to such an extent that the fruit is a symbol of the entire city. The name comes through French bergamote from Italian bergamotta, named for Bergamo. No lot origin is named in our notes.

What happened

Bergamot's other career is in fragrance, and it got there first: it is a major component of the original Eau de Cologne, composed by Jean-Marie Farina at the beginning of the eighteenth century, and it has been in the top note of perfumes ever since. One practical note, since it is an oil and not just a flavour: used on the skin, bergamot increases photosensitivity, and the compound responsible is bergapten. That is about bergamot oil on skin, not about drinking a cup of Earl Grey.

On the shelf with it

Every product it goes into.

Every ingredient in the shop

Explore

Other ways in

Ingredients Every plant, seed, bark and salt in the shop on one page — what it is, why it is in the blend, and where it comes from. See them all Collections Every shelf in the shop on one page — teas by leaf and flavour, spices by kind and cuisine. Open any shelf to see what is on it. Browse the shelves The Showroom The whole shop on one floor — every tea, spice and blend, filtered by what you are after, with the basket beside you. Open the Showroom Elsewhere Seventeen short trips — a place, a moment, a feeling — each with the teas and spices that get you there. Take a trip