Cultured or common?

I knew there was a place where I had smelled Earl Grey tea long before I ever tasted it.

I KNEW it was a familiar scent. Bergamot.

A few years ago, I planted monarda (bee balm) in my perennial bed, and that smelled like Earl Grey's bergamot. Still, I know that I never smelled bee balm in my childhood, any more than I had smelled Earl Grey tea.

Last week, when we got home from Minnesota, I was taking inventory on what food was in the cupboards, and I found a box of Fruit Loops (not the real ones, the Aldi ones). I opened it to see how much was left and got a whiff of...

Bergamot???

That's it. That's the bergamot I remembered from my childhood days.

Earl Grey tea will likely never taste quite the same again.