Tea-licious! 17 awesome ways to use earl grey, from ice-cream and cocktails to strudel and salad

As you whitethorn already know, the rubric of Britain’s Best Loaf 2025 was awarded to a brioche that was flavoured with citrus curd and earl grey tea. The inventor – Miyo Aoetsu, who runs a baking concern from her location successful Derbyshire – says the loaf was inspired by a caller Japanese inclination for foods that harvester the flavours of citrus and earl grey. But extracurricular Japan, however galore recipes tin determination beryllium that usage earl grey arsenic an ingredient? Here are 17, conscionable for starters.

The first, and astir basic, is for earl grey itself. The transportation betwixt the beverage and the 2nd Earl Grey, successful whose honour it is sometimes said to person been concocted, is sketchy and perchance nonexistent. There is nary authoritative look oregon authoritative version; it’s conscionable a sanction fixed to achromatic beverage flavoured with bergamot, a benignant of bitter orangish grown extensively successful Calabria. Making your ain is arsenic elemental arsenic leaving immoderate dried bergamot peel successful a jar of achromatic beverage for a bit. The effect volition astir apt beryllium a spot much subtle than store-bought – which usually contains lipid of bergamot – but you whitethorn adjacent similar it.

The relation betwixt earl grey and day beverage is strong, and a fig of recipes diagnostic it successful teatime treats. If the thought of a beverage loaf flavoured with existent beverage doesn’t dependable similar overkill to you, here’s a tasty mentation from Ruby Tandoh successful which the dried effect is soaked successful earl grey for an further extent of flavour.

Anna Jones’s bara brith, a Welsh effect barroom that astir translates arsenic ‘speckled bread’. Photograph: Emma Lee/The Guardian

Traditional Welsh bara brith besides usually contains a beardown cupful of tea. Anna Jones’s idiosyncratic penchant is for earl grey; she recommends 2 teabags and a agelong steep. Benjamina Ebuehi’s earl grey cardamom buns commencement with 4 teabags steeped successful milk. They besides usage a yeast dough, truthful the buns request clip to rise. The syrup to brushwood the tops of the buns requires different teabag.

Also for teatime, here’s a elemental fig and earl grey jam from Lillie O’Brien. It required lone beverage leaves, ripe figs, sweetener and lemon, heated to mounting point, successful this lawsuit 105C.

Earl grey’s singular bergamot scent – primitively deployed, ironically, to disguise inferior teas – tin instantly crook an different overseas pudding into thing recognisably British. In this spirit, Ebuehi offers an earl grey and citrus panna cotta, portion Earl grey “tea-ramisu” is simply a mentation of the classical godforsaken for radical who don’t similar coffee. And Mike Robinson’s earl grey burnt cream is an English translation of creme brulee, infusing the beverage and pick with escaped leafage beverage tied up successful muslin.

A toast, beverage and marmalade breadstuff and food pudding sounds similar the benignant of dessert you could devour for breakfast, and the usage of 2 earl grey teabags lone underscores its associations with the astir important repast of the day. As a compromise, you could service it astatine brunch.

Nikki Duffy pairs earl grey with apricots and mascarpone, for a pudding that mostly makes itself successful your fridge, though you could person a agelong wait: dried apricots are soaked successful the beverage for thing from six hours to overnight, earlier the liquid is drained disconnected and reduced connected the hob. The effect is poured backmost implicit the apricots, which past spell backmost successful the fridge for up to 2 days earlier serving.

Recognisably British … Benjamina Ebuehi’s earl grey and citrus panna cotta with almond tuiles. Photograph: Photograph: Yuki Sugiura/The Guardian. Food styling: Benjamina Ebuehi. Prop styling: Anna Wilkins. Food styling assistant: Áine Pretty-McGrath.

For a dessert requiring alternatively little notice, Felicity Cloake poaches pears successful earl grey tea (about 750ml) spiked with sweetener and citrus zest. If you similar the combination, you could besides effort pear and earl grey strudel with earl grey sorbet.

But portion Earl grey whitethorn enactment arsenic a sorbet, tin you enactment it successful ice-cream? Of people you can! Proving there’s a look retired determination for each idle hankering, here’s 1 for earl grey ice-cream from Cornwall restaurateur Nathan Outlaw.

Perhaps due to the fact that of the bitter tannin opposition it provides, earl grey mostly finds its mode into puddings and different saccharine dishes. But not exclusively. Here, for example, is simply a pear and walnut crockery with earl grey dressing. If you’re the experimental sort, you could effort a tea-brined turkey with tea-and-lemon gravy which requires nary less than 18 earl grey teabags. The look calls for the turkey to beryllium roasted connected a closed barbecue grill, though erstwhile you’ve brined it you could navigator it immoderate mode you fancy.

To finish, a brace of earl grey cocktails. The main contented with putting beverage successful a cocktail is that it volition simply h2o down the drink. Here are 2 antithetic solutions to that problem: Andy Milz’s Mar-tea-ni uses an earl grey syrup made from beverage leaves, blackcurrant jam, vanilla sweetener and pome juice, portion the Come arsenic You Are cocktail starts with earl grey gin – a vessel of gin that’s had a teabag successful it for six hours. Worth the wait, undoubtedly.