Tetley

Tetley is the tea most British kitchens have actually run on. The brothers Joseph and Edward Tetley began selling tea in Yorkshire in 1837, and in 1953 the firm introduced the tea bag to Britain, the single change that reshaped how the country makes tea more than any blend ever has. It followed up with the round bag in 1989 and the drawstring bag in 1997, small pieces of practical engineering aimed squarely at the everyday mug. Tetley is now part of Tata Consumer Products, the group behind Teapigs and Good Earth, which gives a humble Yorkshire blend the sourcing scale of one of the largest tea businesses in the world.

The range is breadth at a sensible price: the famous Original, decaf, Extra Strong, a well-regarded redbush, green and a wide herbal and fruit line. Sourcing sits inside the Tata programme with Rainforest Alliance certified black tea and a move to recyclable cartons and lower-plastic bags. For our shelf Tetley is the honest benchmark for value black tea. It will not out-texture a pyramid or out-muscle a Yorkshire-strength blend and does not pretend to, but it lands the same consistent, milk-friendly cup hundreds of times in a row, which is harder than the premium houses admit. The redbush punches well above its price and the Original is one of the most reliable everyday brews in British retail. It is the tea you buy when you want the cup uncomplicated, dependable and genuinely cheap without being nasty.