Yorkshire Tea
Britain's most-loved everyday brew, family-owned for 130+ years.
Yorkshire Tea is the family-owned blend out of Harrogate that became Britain's favourite. The Original is the everyday workhorse; Gold steps it up with stronger Assam character; Hard Water powers through limescale areas. Taylors has been in the same family since 1886, sources ethically through the Rainforest Alliance, and famously refuses gimmicks.
Yorkshire is the British shelf benchmark for proper strong tea. The Original is the cup that survives milk and still tastes like tea, the Gold is the after-dinner upgrade, and the Hard Water variant genuinely does what it says on the box. Family-owned, no gimmicks, consistent year on year. If a customer asks me what tea bag to buy and they don't know where to start, I tell them Yorkshire.
Curator ratings are retailer editorial opinions, not customer-review averages or independent laboratory results. They do not establish health benefits.
About Yorkshire Tea
Taylors of Harrogate is the family tea and coffee house behind Yorkshire Tea, and the two names are one story. Charles Taylor founded the business in Yorkshire in 1886, and it has stayed independent and family-owned ever since as part of Bettys and Taylors of Harrogate, unusual in an industry consolidated into a few multinationals. Yorkshire Tea launched in 1977 and grew into one of Britain's biggest black teas on a stubborn proposition: a strong, full, consistent blend engineered to taste the same in hard water or soft, which is why the Hard Water variant exists at all.
The range covers Original, the stronger and Hard Water variants, decaf, Gold as the premium step up, plus green and a small considered set of others. Taylors has long invested in its growing communities, and its 2025 annual review says the oil-based plastic in its tea bags was replaced with PLA, a plant-based plastic. The wider group also runs the Bettys tea rooms, and that cafe heritage feeds straight back into the blending discipline. For our shelf Taylors is the gold standard for strong, dependable British black tea with genuine integrity behind it. Yorkshire Tea out-muscles most of the mainstream on strength without going harsh, the Hard Water blend is real applied tea science rather than a marketing variant, and the Gold is one of the best value step-ups on the shelf. Family-owned, B Corp certified and stubbornly consistent, it is the brand we point strong-tea drinkers towards first.
Key facts
Top picks
Yorkshire Tea Original is the everyday black tea in the familiar red box, a hearty, no nonsense brew that keeps its character under milk. This 250g box contains 80 tea bags, making…
Yorkshire Tea Gold Blend, 80 Tea Bags 250g is the richer, smoother option in Yorkshire Tea’s core range. Yorkshire Tea describes Gold as its finest blend, selecting teas from Assam, Kenya and…
Caffeine: decaffeinated, so a little caffeine remains and it is not caffeine free; we quote no milligram figure for this box. Caffeine: decaffeinated, so a little caffeine remains and it is not…
Packaging: Sort box and bags by the current pack and your council's rules; they may need separate routes.The base is one hundred percent black tea from top estates in India and Africa,…
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Yorkshire Tea: Frequently Asked Questions
teas.co.uk stocks 20 Yorkshire Tea products, with live prices and stock shown on this page. UK delivery is free over £35.
Taylors of Harrogate is the family tea and coffee house behind Yorkshire Tea, and the two names are one story. Charles Taylor founded the business in Yorkshire in 1886, and it has stayed independent and family-owned ever since as part of Bettys and Taylors of Harrogate, unusual in an industry consolidated into a few multinationals. Yorkshire Tea launched in 1977 and grew into one of Britain's biggest black teas on a stubborn proposition: a strong, full, consistent blend engineered to taste the same in hard water or soft, which is why the Hard Water variant exists at all.
Yorkshire Tea was founded in 1886 in England (Harrogate).
Use fresh, just-boiled water for black teas (around 100°C) and slightly cooler water (75 to 85°C) for green and white teas, steeping 2 to 4 minutes to taste. See the teas.co.uk brewing calculator for the ideal temperature and time for each tea.
