Pat schrieb:
> I'll take your word for it regarding the bergamot oil, but what do
> machines have to do with the recipe? I wasn't referring to how the tea
> is manufactured, just the recipe itself.
There's a great great difference between those "modern" tea bag
optimized teas, harvestet by machines and chopped not rolled leafs, and
orthodox produced teas.
> Teekanne owns Redco Foods, the licensee of Red Rose and Salada teas in
> the US. The only other Teekanne products I've ever seen here are their
> Pompadour herbal infusions. Any idea where I can buy some of their
> Earl Grey to sample? Is it available online?
I don't know. They own several companys now (had an organizational
restructuring just a few years ago). They have several product lines
(e.g. Pompadur, Sir Winston etc.) and one product line with loose leaf
teas, but maybe only for the German market.
<
http://www.teekanne.de/html/de/sorti.../teekanne_los=
e=2Ephp?aktiv=3D2&uaktiv=3D1>
Maybe you can email their English speaking customer service.
They have also a Sir Winston Earl Grey which is not so good as the
other -- well, in my opinion not so good at all, but as far as I know,
they also use real bergamitte oil for that so far.
> And, BTW, the bergamot orange is native to Vietnam, not Italy, based on
> what I have read.
Nope. It's produced in Italy (on a 100km coast string of Calabria
(between the Ionian and Tyrrhenian sea from Villa San Giovanni to
Gioiosa Jonica), and is a cross between lemon and grapefruit.
It is one of the ingredients of Eau de Cologne (K=F6lnisch Wasser) since
the 17th or 18th century.