Taylors of Harrogate Yorkshire Tea Victoria Sponge Brew, 40 Pack 112g
Forty bags rather than eighty is the right call, because a flavoured tea is a rotation tea. Drink this all day and it stops registering entirely; keep it to one mug in the afternoon and it does exactly what it was built for. Vanilla leads, soft and buttery and closer to cake crumb than to syrup, and behind it sits a jam edge, which is what separates this from a plain vanilla tea. It carries less lift than the plain blend, and middling caffeine with it, which makes it a mid-afternoon mug and a poor substitute at breakfast.
Taylors of Harrogate Yorkshire Tea Victoria Sponge Brew, in brief.
Yorkshire Tea Victoria Sponge Brew is the vanilla-and-jam member of the Taylors of Harrogate Brew range, picked into the Teas.co.uk curator selection as the softest of the dessert brews and the one that most clearly still tastes like tea.
The base is a proper blend with enough body to take milk, which is exactly what separates this from the novelty end of the category.
Yorkshire Tea Victoria Sponge Brew is a flavoured black tea from Taylors of Harrogate, built to taste of the cake rather than merely to smell of it. Forty bags, 112 grams, and a blend that takes the familiar Yorkshire Tea base and sets vanilla and a jammy sweetness on top of it. It belongs to the run of Brew teas the company has been putting out for several years now, of which Biscuit Brew was the first and by far the best known.
The idea behind the whole range is worth stating because it explains why these teas work when so many dessert-flavoured teas do not. Most flavoured black teas are built on a thin, cheap base, because the flavouring is doing the selling. These are built on a proper everyday blend with real body, and the flavour sits on top of it rather than replacing it. The result still tastes like tea. You can put milk in it without the whole thing collapsing, which is the test that separates a flavoured brew from a novelty.
Curator notes: the tasting profile is our own editorial assessment against the current pack format and the brand's published description. We run same-day UK dispatch on every order placed before 2pm Monday to Friday. Steep times, the milk question and storage are also published in the detailed Q and A tab below.
Curator’s notes
Read the full write-up
The Story Behind Taylors of Harrogate
Taylors of Harrogate is the Yorkshire family firm behind Yorkshire Tea, and it has been blending tea and roasting coffee in Harrogate since the nineteenth century.
The Brew range came out of a simple observation: people already eat something with their tea, so build the something into the tea. Biscuit Brew started it, and Victoria Sponge is the softest and most floral of the family. Where a toffee or biscuit version leans on caramel and bake, this one leans on vanilla and jam, which makes it a better afternoon tea and a worse breakfast one.
Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes.
What You Are Actually Buying
- Forty bags, 112 grams: a standard 40-bag box, so 40 cups, one bag each. That is the pack's own count rather than any arithmetic of ours.
- A real tea base: a proper everyday blend rather than a thin carrier. This is what lets it take milk and what makes it a mug of tea instead of a hot sweet drink.
- Flavoured, not sweetened: it tastes of sponge cake, which is not the same as being sugary. Any sweetness you want in the mug still has to go in yourself.
- What it is not: not a decaf, not a herbal, not a caffeine-free infusion, and not a dessert substitute. It is a black tea with a flavour on it.
Getting It Right in the Cup
- Water temperature: 100 degrees Celsius, freshly boiled.
- Steep: three to four minutes, covered, then remove the bag.
- Milk: yes, and it is worth being emphatic. Milk is what turns the vanilla into sponge cake rather than air freshener, and the base is strong enough to take it.
- Sugar: not needed by most people. The tea tastes sweet without being sweet, and adding sugar tips it into dessert.
- Storage: sealed, cool, dark and dry. Flavoured tea loses its aroma faster than plain tea, so a half-open box on a sunny shelf is the enemy.
- Resteeping: no. The flavouring goes almost entirely into the first cup and a second bag-steep is plain, weak black tea.
- Best with: afternoon, actual Victoria sponge, scones, shortbread, or on its own as the tea that replaces a biscuit.
Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Taylors of Harrogate Yorkshire Tea Victoria Sponge Brew, 40 Pack 112g, 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: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes.
Our commitment to the planet
The taste profile
How does it compare
Flavoured black teas fail in one of two directions. Brewed too short they taste of flavouring with no tea behind it; brewed too long the base turns tannic and the flavouring goes bitter with it. The window is wider here than with most because the base is decent, but it is still a window.
The Mug
The Pot
Made with this tea
The Proper Mug
How to make The Proper Mug with Yorkshire Tea Victoria Sponge Brew.
- 1 Yorkshire Tea Victoria Sponge Brew bag
- 250ml just boiled water
- A splash of milk
- A saucer to cover the mug
- Pour 250ml straight off the boil onto the bag.
- Cover the mug with a saucer and leave it three to four minutes.
- Lift the bag out without squeezing it.
- Add milk and stir once.
What you'll end up with: The cup the blend was designed for: soft vanilla, a jam edge behind it, and a tea base that holds its shape against milk. The saucer is doing more work than it looks.
Iced Victoria Sponge Tea
How to make Iced Victoria Sponge Tea with Yorkshire Tea Victoria Sponge Brew.
- 4 Yorkshire Tea Victoria Sponge Brew bags
- 500ml just boiled water
- 200ml cold milk
- Ice
- Sugar to taste
- Brew four bags in 500ml of boiling water for four minutes to make a strong concentrate.
- Sweeten while it is hot if you want it sweet, then lift the bags out.
- Cool to room temperature and chill it thoroughly.
- Pour over a full glass of ice and top with cold milk.
What you'll end up with: Vanilla survives chilling where more delicate flavourings do not, so this tastes deliberate rather than like leftover tea. Cold milk rather than hot is the whole trick.
Victoria Sponge Tea Latte
How to make a Victoria Sponge Tea Latte with Yorkshire Tea Victoria Sponge Brew.
- 2 Yorkshire Tea Victoria Sponge Brew bags
- 120ml just boiled water
- 200ml milk or oat milk
- A teaspoon of strawberry jam, optional
- Brew two bags in only 120ml of boiling water for four minutes to make a concentrated base.
- Stir the jam into the hot base if you are using it, until it dissolves.
- Heat and froth the milk.
- Pour the milk over the base and stir once.
What you'll end up with: The jam is optional and it is also the thing that makes this taste unmistakably of the cake. Brewing concentrated matters more than brewing longer.
The Afternoon Pot
How to make The Afternoon Pot with Yorkshire Tea Victoria Sponge Brew.
- 4 Yorkshire Tea Victoria Sponge Brew bags
- 1 litre just boiled water
- Milk
- A warmed pot
- Warm the pot with boiling water and tip it away.
- Add four bags, one per cup, and no extra for the pot.
- Steep four minutes with the lid on, then take all four bags out.
- Pour and let people add their own milk.
What you'll end up with: Resisting the extra bag for the pot is the only rule that matters here. With a flavoured tea it makes the pot cloying rather than stronger.
Victoria Sponge, Made With the Tea
How to make Victoria Sponge, Made With the Tea, with Yorkshire Tea Victoria Sponge Brew.
- 2 Yorkshire Tea Victoria Sponge Brew bags
- 60ml boiling water
- 200g butter, softened
- 200g caster sugar
- 200g self-raising flour
- 4 eggs
- Strawberry jam and whipped cream to fill
- Brew two bags in 60ml of boiling water for five minutes to make a very strong infusion, then cool it.
- Beat the butter and sugar until pale, then beat in the eggs one at a time.
- Fold in the flour and the cooled tea infusion.
- Bake in two 20cm tins at 160 degrees Celsius fan for about twenty-two minutes.
- Cool completely, then sandwich with jam and cream.
What you'll end up with: A closed loop, and it genuinely works: the tea deepens the vanilla in the sponge without making the cake taste of tea. Do not use more liquid than this or the crumb goes heavy.
Brewing the perfect cup
What’s in it, what to know
Inside the pack
| Component | Proportion | What it brings |
|---|---|---|
| Vanilla and sponge flavouring | the declaration is printed on the current box | The defining note: soft, buttery and cake-like rather than syrupy. |
| Jam character | the declaration is printed on the current box | The fruit edge behind the vanilla, and the thing that makes this a Victoria sponge rather than a plain vanilla tea. |
| Pack | 40 tea bags, 112 grams | One bag a cup, 40 cups a box. 2.8 grams a bag, which is a normal dose for a flavoured black tea. |
Ingredients and allergens. The published ingredient list for this product names none of the 14 major allergens. Check the current UK pack before purchase; formulations and allergen advice can change.
Ingredients, as published for this product: Black Tea, Natural Flavouring (7%).
Ingredient and nutrition information for this product, as published on the manufacturer's label. The pack in your hands is the final word.
Pack: Taylors of Harrogate Yorkshire Tea Victoria Sponge Brew, 40 Pack 112g; a vanilla and jam flavoured black tea. Store sealed, cool, dark and dry. Read the ingredient list, the allergen advice and the best-before date off the current UK box.
Characterising components shown; the unquantified black tea base makes up the remaining body.
Sourcing & blend. Yorkshire Tea Victoria Sponge Brew is blended by Taylors of Harrogate, the Yorkshire family firm that has been blending tea and roasting coffee in Harrogate since the nineteenth century. That is company heritage and not a statement about where this box was packed. The tasting profile below is our own editorial assessment against the current pack format and the brand's published description.
What's in Yorkshire Tea Victoria Sponge Brew, 40 Pack 112g, and what isn't:
- In: a black tea blend with vanilla, sponge and jam flavouring, at 40 bags and 112 grams, with the full declaration printed on the box.
- Not a herbal and not a decaf: a full-caffeine black tea despite the dessert name.
- Not sweetened for you: it tastes sweet, but any sugar in the mug still has to go in yourself.
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Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Taylors of Harrogate Yorkshire Tea Victoria Sponge Brew, 40 Pack 112g, please cite teas.co.uk.
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