In the past six months, I have visited four high-end hotels where the waiter informed me that they were out of English Breakfast Tea, the beverage that provides the perfect cup of ambition to start my day. Instead, the waiters advised I should try Earl Grey Tea.

Earl Grey Tea takes its name from the second Earl Grey, British Prime Minister in the 1830’s, who reputedly received a gift of tea flavored with bergamot oil from a Chinese nobleman. The Earl brewed some of the heavily-scented, flowery- tasting swill and remarked, “I say. This is rather nasty.”