Smoky Earl Grey Tea

I must have friends in high places, or with deep pockets, or both. I found some Fortnum and Mason teabags in my cupboard, specifically Smoky Earl Grey. Their website claims:

Created in response to a request from the Palace for a smokier Earl Grey, this unique blend combines traditional bergamot with a touch of Lapsang and Gunpowder tea. For years its unique smokiness has been popular for very good reason.

Fortnum and Mason bears the royal warrant of the late Queen and of the current King in his capacity of Prince of Wales. Whether the palace in question is Buckingham or Kensington one cannot tell. Basic research suggests that the request came in 1935, when an Earl Grey “with real oomph” was sought. The upmarket department store was pleased to accept the challenge.

The smokiness is very obvious. I enjoy smoky bacons and cheeses; a tea of that nature is a novelty, and one I am inclined to dismiss, though its pleasure may grow with time. Quite why King George V (or one of his relatives) should request a smoky tea when he lived in the smokiest and smoggiest city on earth puzzles me. Nevertheless, it is a truly distinctive flavour at a time when many common teas taste like floor-sweepings.

Smoke in scripture is generally associated with judgement. Of it we read in the Sodom, Sinai and Ai narratives. Asks Asaph in Psalm 74:1:

O God, why have You cast us off forever? Why does Your anger smoke against the sheep of Your pasture?

It is a picture employed by the prophets:

“And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: blood and fire and pillars of smoke…” Joel 2:30,

While the Apocalypse associates it with hell itself:

And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace. So the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit. Revelation 9:2

Although some references are not about judgement, the majority are. The message from heaven’s Palace is that the fire and smoke of judgement are coming to earth: imbibe now the cup of salvation before the cup of wrath is drunk by all who reject the Saviour.

And another angel followed, saying, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” Revelation 14:8