How to Brew Earl Grey Tea: Water, Timing, and Milk or Lemon

1. Start with fresh, cold water. Do not reboil water that has already boiled and cooled, and do not use hot water from the tap. Heat it in a clean glass or stainless steel kettle, so nothing from the pot affects the taste.
2. Warm the pot or cup. Swirl in a little hot water and pour it out. A cold pot cools the water quickly and the tea will not steep properly.
3. Measure the leaf. About 2 to 2.5 g per 250 ml (8 oz) cup. For a stronger cup, add a little more leaf rather than steeping longer.
4. Pour and steep for 3 to 5 minutes, then strain.
5. Serve plain, with a slice of lemon, or with a splash of milk.

Getting the water right

Tea 101 puts the ideal at 208°F, just below boiling. Without a thermometer, bring the water to a boil, then switch off the heat while you warm the pot, and it will have dropped to about the right point by the time you pour.

The water itself matters as much as its heat. Our brewing card for Classic Earl Grey asks for oxygen-rich water: fresh from a running tap, or RO filtered, rather than water that has stood in the kettle.

How much leaf, and how many cups

Tea 101’s rule of thumb is one teaspoon of loose tea per six-ounce cup, adjusted for the size of your cup and how strong you like it. On our brewing card for Classic Earl Grey, 2.5 g is about a teaspoon and a quarter.

At that rate a 100 g pack makes about 40 cups, which is the count on our product page; at 2 g a cup it stretches to 50.

How long to steep

Steeping time is a matter of taste, but most regular Earl Grey drinkers settle on three to five minutes to get the full citrus aroma and taste. Past five minutes, the cup turns bitter.

Our tasters recommend a single steep for Classic Earl Grey. Brew a fresh spoonful for the next pot rather than reusing the leaf.

For Earl Grey loose leaf, use a pot or infuser with room for the leaf to open. For iced Earl Grey, brew it at double strength and pour it over a glass full of ice; more ideas in How to make iced tea. General tips are in How to brew loose leaf tea.

Tea 101 suggests two teaspoons of leaf for every eight-ounce glass of iced tea, twice the hot-tea measure, because the ice will dilute it.

Why loose leaf? Keen wrote that the subtle balance of a good Earl Grey “demands whole-leaf ingredients and won’t be found in a standard tea bag,” whose small fragments release their flavor quickly. We sell Classic Earl Grey as loose leaf.

Lemon brings out the crisp citrus of the bergamot. Milk softens it and suits a full, malty base like ours. Do not add both, because lemon curdles milk.

Earl Grey on a lighter Darjeeling or Chinese base is best plain or with lemon, since milk hides its perfume. For lemon in tea more generally, see How to make lemon tea.

What our tasters suggest

Our own notes lean toward drinking it plain. Tea 101 describes Earl Grey as “a bit tangy and zesty, best consumed without milk.” The product record for Classic Earl Grey marks it for drinking plain, and our 2016 sheet said to “enjoy without any additives.”

So try your first cup plain, then add lemon or milk to taste. The one Earl Grey we built for milk was our Earl Grey Chai, which “you can also drink like a classic chai, by adding milk.”

Tea 101 pairs a strongly scented double bergamot Earl Grey with scones and buttered toast at afternoon tea. For how that meal differs from high tea, see High tea vs afternoon tea.

Our tasters have paired our Earl Greys with sweeter things too. For Lavender Earl Grey they suggested pound cake, vanilla soufflé, honey cake and peach gratin. For the spiced Earl Grey Chai they went bolder, with blue cheese and crème brûlée.

The common thread in those pairings is butter, vanilla and honey.

Food writer Aysha Tanya, writing for our blog in 2016, wondered what an Earl Grey dessert would look like, and her mother turned the idea into an Earl Grey and honey panna cotta, “the most beautiful golden-topped panna cotta.” Their story is on our blog: Cooking With Mom!

Baking with Earl Grey: our plum cake

Brewed Earl Grey works in baking too. One Thanksgiving our team baked this Earl Grey plum cake in a colleague’s kitchen, giving a classic plum cake recipe “a citrusy twist.”