The story goes that Earl Grey, the Georgian prime minister, was given cases of this tea by a Chinese Mandarin. He liked it so much he brought it home and asked Twinings to recreate it for him.

Over the last few decades green tea has been subjected to many scientific and medical studies to determine the extent of its long-purported health benefits, with some evidence suggesting regular green tea drinkers may have lower chances of heart disease and developing certain types of cancer.