Who's Earl Gray?

Hey, Matt:

I love tea. Who's Earl Gray?

-- Jason Schell, the Net

Earl was a British Prime Minister in the early 1800s. The story goes that a grateful and powerful Chinese gentleman, whose life was saved by a British envoy, made a gift to Earl of some Chinese black tea flavored with oil of bergamot, a fruit in the citrus family. When Twinings began selling it in London, they put the P.M.'s name on it.