Taylors of Harrogate Yorkshire, 40 Tea Bags 125g
Brands economise quietly on small boxes. This one has not: the bags carry the same fill as the big carton, so the forty is a smaller quantity of exactly the same tea rather than a lighter version of it sold at a friendlier price. That matters more than it sounds, because a thinned small pack is how a first-time buyer ends up with the wrong impression of a blend for good. The bite arrives early and then gets out of its own way, and what sits behind it carries real weight instead of the hollow sweetness rounder blends settle for. Forty suits a small household, a second kitchen, a caravan or a desk drawer. A family of four will be back inside the week, and at that rate the big carton is the sensible purchase.
Taylors of Harrogate Yorkshire, in brief.
Taylors of Harrogate Yorkshire is the everyday Yorkshire blend in the forty-bag box, brisk and malty and built to take milk, picked into the teas.co.uk curator selection as the small pack of the tea most British kitchens would name if asked to name one.
Price check: per cup the bigger box wins comfortably, so buy this size for a small household or a second kitchen rather than as your everyday. If your tea has always tasted harsh, suspect your tap before the blend; a filter jug changes this cup more than any change to the timing.
The Yorkshire everyday blend is built to be brisk, malty and capable of taking milk without disappearing, which describes most British everyday teas. What sets this one apart is that the house behind it takes water chemistry unusually seriously. Taylors sell a version of this blend made specifically for hard water areas, which we also stock, and that tells you something: the standard blend is tuned for a particular kind of water, and if yours is at the far hard end of the scale you may be drinking a slightly different tea from the one the blenders intended.
Curator notes: the four scores, from briskness to milk tolerance, are our editorial reading of the small box as sold now, compared with the description Taylors publish. Count on 1 to 2 working days before this 125g box is dispatched. The questions further down give the pot ratio, what to do about hard water and how to build the iced version.
Curator’s notes
Read the full write-up
The Story Behind Taylors of Harrogate
Yorkshire Tea is the blend, Taylors of Harrogate is the family firm behind it, and the two names are used interchangeably by almost everyone. The range on our shelves runs from this everyday blend through the Gold blend, the hard water version, the decaf, the loose leaf and a line of flavoured brews, which is a broader spread than most everyday brands attempt.
The blend components, the countries the leaf came from, the bag material, any certification marks and the allergen advice all have to be read off the current UK pack. We set the dot scores further up ourselves, as an editorial call on the current pack and on what Taylors publish about the blend.
Packaging: This small box may still split into parts for different bins; the pack and your council's rules will tell you which.
What You Are Actually Buying
- Forty bags, a hundred and twenty-five grams: just over three grams a bag.
- Same fill as the big box: nothing has been thinned to hit the smaller price. Three grams and a bit per bag, as in the two hundred and fifty gram carton.
- Tuned for water: the standard blend assumes ordinary water. If your tap runs very hard, the hard water version exists for a reason and is worth a try.
- What it is not: not the Gold blend and not the decaf. Both are listed separately and both taste materially different.
Getting It Right in the Cup
- Water temperature: 100°C, off a fresh boil.
- Measure: one bag per 250ml mug.
- Steep: three minutes standard, four for strong.
- Milk: yes, and generously. The malt gives it something to land on.
- Hard water: the single biggest variable for this blend. Reach for a filter jug before you change tea, and in a very hard water area, move to the hard water version of this blend next.
- Iced: brew three bags in 400ml for five minutes, cool, pour over a full glass of ice with lemon.
- Not resteepable: a cut-leaf everyday bag gives almost everything on the first brew. The second cup is coloured water.
- Best with: buttered toast, digestives, a bacon sandwich, or a slice of parkin if you want to be thorough about it.
Source: teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Taylors of Harrogate Yorkshire, 40 Tea Bags 125g, please cite teas.co.uk.
The story behind Taylors of Harrogate | Yorkshire Tea
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.
Packaging: This small box may still split into parts for different bins; the pack and your council's rules will tell you which.
Our commitment to the planet
The taste profile
How does it compare
Everyday tea is easy to make and easy to make badly, and with this blend the water is the variable that matters most. Three minutes off a fresh boil is the baseline, and a filter jug in a hard water area changes the cup more than any adjustment to the timing will.
The Standard Mug
The Pot Of Four
Made with this tea
The Standard Mug
Three minutes, one bag, a fresh kettle: the basic Yorkshire mug.
- 1 bag Yorkshire Tea
- 250ml freshly boiled water
- A proper splash of milk
- Fill the kettle fresh rather than reboiling what is in it.
- Pour 250ml over one bag of Yorkshire the instant the kettle boils.
- Steep 3 minutes, or 4 if you take it strong.
- Squeeze the bag once, lift it out, then add the milk generously.
What you'll end up with: Briskness early, malt behind it, and enough body to take the milk. That balance is the whole character of this blend.
A Pot Of Four
How to make A Pot Of Four with Yorkshire Tea.
- 5 bags Yorkshire Tea
- 1 litre freshly boiled water
- A warmed teapot
- Milk
- Warm the empty pot with some just boiled water and discard that water before the bags go in.
- Add 4 bags of Taylors of Harrogate Yorkshire, 40 Tea Bags 125g, one per cup, plus 1 for the pot.
- Pour on 1 litre off the boil and steep 4 minutes.
- Lift out all five bags ahead of the first cup.
What you'll end up with: Four even cups. Bear in mind that is an eighth of a forty bag box gone in one sitting, so regular pot makers are better off with the bigger carton.
The Hard Water Rescue
How to make The Hard Water Rescue with Yorkshire Tea.
- 1 bag Yorkshire Tea
- 250ml filtered water, freshly boiled
- Milk
- Run the water through a filter jug before it goes in the kettle. This is the whole recipe.
- Brew 1 bag of Taylors of Harrogate Yorkshire, 40 Tea Bags 125g for 3 minutes as usual.
- Compare it side by side with a mug made from the tap, brewed identically.
- Shorten the steep by 30 seconds if you are still using unfiltered hard water, and add a touch more milk.
What you'll end up with: The aroma comes back and the dull film on top disappears. If your tea has always tasted harsh, this experiment costs nothing and usually settles the argument.
Iced Tea With Lemon
How to make Iced Tea With Lemon with Yorkshire Tea.
- 3 bags Yorkshire Tea
- 400ml freshly boiled water
- Ice, a full glass of it
- Lemon
- Sugar to taste
- Brew 3 bags of Taylors of Harrogate Yorkshire, 40 Tea Bags 125g in 400ml for 5 minutes, far stronger than you would drink it hot.
- Sweeten while hot if at all. Sugar will not dissolve in cold tea.
- Cool, then chill.
- Pour the chilled tea over a glassful of ice and add a wedge of lemon.
What you'll end up with: Iced tea that still tastes of malt at the bottom of the glass. Brew it at drinking strength and the ice leaves you with nothing.
Yorkshire Parkin With Tea-Soaked Fruit
How to make Yorkshire Parkin With Tea-Soaked Fruit with Yorkshire Tea.
- 3 bags Yorkshire Tea
- 250ml freshly boiled water
- 150g sultanas
- 200g medium oatmeal and 100g plain flour
- 200g black treacle and 100g golden syrup
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- Brew 3 bags of Taylors of Harrogate Yorkshire, 40 Tea Bags 125g in 250ml for 10 minutes and cool, then soak 150g of sultanas in it overnight.
- Melt 200g of black treacle, 100g of golden syrup, 150g of butter and 100g of soft brown sugar together.
- Stir into 200g of medium oatmeal, 100g of plain flour, 2 teaspoons of ground ginger and the drained sultanas, with 2 eggs and 150ml of milk.
- Bake in a lined tin at 160°C for 55 minutes, then wrap and leave 3 days before cutting.
What you'll end up with: Parkin is supposed to be left to go sticky, so the three days are not optional. The tea-soaked fruit adds a tannic edge against all that treacle.
Tea And Pepper Rub For Beef
How to make Tea And Pepper Rub For Beef with Yorkshire Tea.
- 2 bags Yorkshire Tea, opened
- 2 tablespoons flaky salt
- 1 tablespoon cracked black pepper
- 1 tablespoon soft brown sugar
- Snip 2 bags of Taylors of Harrogate Yorkshire, 40 Tea Bags 125g open and tip the leaf into a bowl. The cut is already fine enough to use as a rub.
- Mix with 2 tablespoons of flaky salt, 1 of cracked black pepper and 1 of soft brown sugar.
- Press all over a beef joint or a thick steak and leave 30 minutes at room temperature.
- Sear hard, then roast as usual. The sugar will catch if the pan is too hot for too long.
What you'll end up with: A dark, faintly smoky crust with a tannic bite behind it. Two bags is five per cent of the box, so it is a cheap way to make a joint taste considered.
Brewing the perfect cup
What’s in it, what to know
Inside the pack
| Typical values per 100g, as published | Per 100g |
|---|---|
| Energy | 0 kcal |
| Fat | 0g |
| of which saturates | 0g |
| Carbohydrate | 0g |
| of which sugars | 0g |
| Protein | 0g |
| Salt | 0g |
Ingredients and allergens. The barcode's published ingredients are black tea and no more; the 14 major allergens are not mentioned. Contents and allergy panel can both change over time, so read the current UK pack first.
Ingredients, as published for this barcode: Black tea.
Ingredient and nutrition data for this barcode: Open Food Facts (openfoodfacts.org), ODbL. Your own box takes priority if the details ever differ.
| Ingredient | Proportion | What it brings |
|---|---|---|
| Black tea leaf (blend) | Not stated to us | The whole of the cup: a clean early briskness, the malty middle that is the characteristic Yorkshire note, and the tannin that lets a proper splash of milk read as softening rather than dilution. |
| Fill weight per bag | 3.1g (125g / 40 bags) | Just over three grams, the same fill as the eighty-bag box. Less tea in the carton, not weaker tea in the bag. |
Pack: Taylors of Harrogate Yorkshire, 40 Tea Bags 125g; a caffeinated black tea, forty bags at just over three grams each. Best-before date is printed on the pack.
The 3.1g a bag figure is arithmetic on the pack weight and bag count from our own product record, not a brand claim.
Sourcing & blend. Taylors of Harrogate Yorkshire, 40 Tea Bags 125g is put together by Taylors of Harrogate, the family firm behind Yorkshire Tea. Everyday blends of this kind are built from several origins rather than one, which is what lets the cup stay the same from pack to pack as harvests move around. One thing this house does that most everyday brands do not is treat water chemistry as part of the blending problem: a version of this same blend is made specifically for hard water areas and sits on our shelf alongside it, which is a fair indication that the standard blend is tuned for ordinary water. Every tasting note on this page is our editorial opinion, formed on the current pack and the brand's own published wording.
What's in Taylors of Harrogate Yorkshire, 40 Tea Bags 125g, and what isn't:
- In: black tea leaf in a filter bag, and nothing else declared to us.
- No added flavouring: plain black tea, with no flavour of any kind added to this one. The brand's flavoured brews are separate products.
- No added sugar and no sweetener: any sweetness in the cup is the malt of the leaf, not an ingredient.
Asked about this tea
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Source: teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Taylors of Harrogate Yorkshire, 40 Tea Bags 125g, please cite teas.co.uk.
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