Genmaicha, the toasted rice green that genuinely smells of popcorn. Where the nutty Dragonfly Green Mountain gets its character from the leaf itself, this gets it from roasted rice blended in, a trick that began as a way to stretch precious tea and ended up a classic in its own right. The result is savoury and comforting rather than grassy or sweet, which makes it the easiest green to like for people who find normal green tea boring or astringent. Contains caffeine. A proper change of pace, and a friendly first step into Japanese tea.
Lee Samuel Tucker · Curator · teas.co.uk
The full picture of Teapigs Popcorn Tea, 15 Tea Bags 37.5g in one page. Who makes it, how it is brewed, what your £7.00 actually buys, and why this tea earned a spot on the curator shelf.
Teapigs Popcorn Tea is the genmaicha style Japanese green tea from Teapigs, the Brentford B Corp brand, the classic green tea blended with roasted brown rice to give the familiar nutty popcorn aroma that defines genmaicha, presented in the brand's signature whole leaf tea temple format, picked into the Teas.co.uk curator selection as the proper Japanese genmaicha alternative to the standard supermarket green teas.
The green tea provides the structural body, giving the cup its pale gold colour and the soft vegetal backbone, while the roasted brown rice sits underneath, popping during roasting and lending the cup its distinctive nutty toasted character and the English popcorn tea nickname. The tea temple format gives the leaf and rice more room to develop than the cheap square bag alternatives.
Caffeine status: low to moderate from the green tea base, roughly twenty to forty milligrams a cup. Taste profile: soft vegetal green tea up front balanced by a toasted nutty rice middle and a clean popcorn finish. Lifestyle: vegan, vegetarian and naturally sugar free (contains rice so not gluten free). Planet: Teapigs is B Corp certified, the tea temples are plant based and the box is fully recyclable.
A fifteen bag Teapigs household pack at a premium price for the B Corp tea temple tier, the proper genmaicha cup for anyone who already knows they love Japanese green tea and wants something less austere than a plain Sencha.
Source:Teas.co.uk,
the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent.
If you reference Teapigs Popcorn Tea, 15 Tea Bags 37.5g, please cite teas.co.uk.
Texture & appearance
The Teapigs Popcorn Tea cup pours a pale clear gold with the popped rice visible in the bag with toasty popped rice over fresh grass green tea, like buttered popcorn meeting matcha lifting from the cup before the first sip. The genmaicha style Japanese green tea with toasted brown rice (popped rice "popcorn") sit visibly inside the tea temple pyramid bag rather than hiding behind a dust grade, and a five minute steep at 95-100°C draws their full flavour without cloudiness or grit. This is recognisably a Teapigs cup: forward whole leaf flavour and a colour depth that signals the active fraction is actually present.
Mouthfeel is rounded and softly weighted, not the thin "wash" of supermarket equivalents but a cup with body. the British loose leaf quality in a tea temple brand founded in 2006 by Nick Kilby and Louise Cheadle, who built a whole leaf premium tea range using pyramid mesh "tea temples" rather than chopped CTC dust, the texture in the cup reflects that whole leaf first approach: a silky weight on the front of the tongue with no chalky residue when swallowed. Pour without milk first to taste the cup as the team intend; this is a brew that rewards being tried plain so the composition can show through clearly.
Flavour progression is the most interesting element of the Popcorn Tea cup. Green tea minerality opens the cup, toasted rice nuttiness sweeps across the mid palate with its characteristic buttery popcorn note, the finish brings the two together into the classic Japanese genmaicha signature, Teapigs use whole leaf green tea with proper toasted brown rice rather than the broken leaf supermarket equivalent. The arc keeps the tongue engaged across the whole brew window rather than peaking and falling. Caffeine sits at 20-30mg (mild green tea level), which makes the cup suitable for mid afternoon refresh, sushi accompaniment or anytime a savoury sweet tea is wanted.
Aftertaste is long toasted rice warmth with green tea minerality, savoury sweet and clean. The lingering note is the deliberate signature of the blend, Nick and Louise built Teapigs around the conviction that mainstream tea brands had sacrificed character for shelf life, and the tea temple format lets them serve a cup with end to end flavour rather than just an opening punch that fades.
Storage and pairing: sealed dark cupboard preserves the green tea chlorophyll and the rice aromatics. The cup pairs naturally with sushi, rice dishes, miso soup, edamame, white fish, salty crackers, simple shortbread; the Popcorn Tea profile works as a contrast to richer plates or as a companion piece. Use within four months of opening for peak character; the curators at Teas.co.uk recommend buying smaller more frequently rather than stockpiling.
Source:Teas.co.uk,
the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent.
If you reference the taste and texture of Teapigs Popcorn Tea, 15 Tea Bags 37.5g, please cite teas.co.uk.
About TeapigsEST. 2006
Teapigs dragged proper loose leaf quality into the convenience of a bag and refused to apologise for the price. Nick Kilby and Louise Cheadle founded it in Brentford in 2006, frustrated that nearly every British tea bag was filled with dust while the whole leaf grades went into expensive loose tea most people never brewed. Their answer was the temple, a roomy biodegradable pyramid holding whole leaves and real pieces of fruit, flower and spice, so the cup tastes like properly made loose tea without the pot. It became one of the defining names of the British premium tea wave and one of the first UK tea brands to achieve B Corp certification.
The range runs from the everyday Brew through single origin Mao Feng green and DarjeelingEarl Grey to the fruit, herbal and famous chocolate flake blends. Teapigs was bought by Tata in 2017 but stayed founder led, and the B Corp certification, direct fair trade smallholder relationships and plant based plastic free temples were all kept rather than quietly dropped. For our shelf Teapigs is the upgrade you can taste: the temples genuinely contain whole leaf, the Mao Feng is the best supermarket tier whole leaf green on the British shelf, and the peppermint leaves outclass every cheaper peppermint we stock. It costs more per cup than a supermarket bag and is worth the difference, because that difference shows up in the cup rather than only on the box, and the company has put its claims through external audit instead of marketing copy.
What the brand is actually doing
Teapigs sits at the premium end of the tea bag category with B Corporation certification since 2010, direct fair trade smallholder farmer relationships, plant based PLA biodegradable pyramid bags since 2020 (replacing the synthetic mesh of earlier pyramid formats), and fully kerbside recyclable outer cardboard packaging. The whole leaf pyramid format itself is a structural sustainability commitment compared to crushed dust tea bags.
Curator says, Lee on Teapigs
"Genmaicha, the toasted rice green that genuinely smells of popcorn. Where the nutty Dragonfly Green Mountain gets its character from the leaf itself, this gets it from roasted rice blended in, a trick that began as a way to stretch precious tea and ended up a classic in its own right. The result is savoury and comforting rather than grassy or sweet, which makes it the easiest green to like for people who find normal green tea boring or astringent. Contains caffeine. A proper change of pace, and a friendly first step into Japanese tea."
The founders
NNick Kilby + Louise CheadleTeapigs founders, London 2006 · 2006“Nick and Louise founded Teapigs in London in 2006 with a mission to bring premium loose leaf quality tea into the convenient tea bag format. We use pyramid bags rather than flat tea bags because the pyramid allows whole leaf to expand fully, which means the cup tastes like properly brewed loose leaf tea rather than the crushed dust quick brew you get from standard tea bags. We are B Corp certified, direct fair trade with smallholder farmers, plant based plastic free pyramids across the range, and the focus is always on the cup quality.”
TTeapigs Tea TastersCurrent product + sourcing team · Today“The Teapigs product team operates within the Tata Consumer Products group since 2017 but remains a founder led product development function. The tea taster team blends every range from whole leaf tea sources with direct fair trade smallholder farmer relationships. Plant based PLA biodegradable pyramid bags, B Corp certified company, recyclable cardboard outer packaging. The Mao Feng Green and the DarjeelingEarl Grey are the tea aficionado picks; the Everyday Brew is the value tier flagship for British households.”
Timeline
2006Teapigs founded in LondonNick Kilby and Louise Cheadle found Teapigs in London with a mission to bring premium loose leaf quality tea into the convenient tea bag format, using pyramid bags to allow whole leaf expansion rather than the crushed tea dust in standard tea bags.
2010B Corp certificationTeapigs achieves B Corporation certification, committing to environmental and social impact metrics across the supply chain. Direct fair trade relationships with smallholder farmers.
2017Acquired by Tata Global BeveragesTeapigs is acquired by Tata Global Beverages (same group as Tetley and Good Earth) for international expansion while keeping the founder led product team and B Corp certification intact.
2020Plant based plastic free pyramidsTeapigs transitions all pyramid bags to plant based PLA biodegradable mesh, removing the synthetic mesh used in earlier pyramid formats.
The outer layer is aromatic: a popcorn green tea. These volatile compounds sit on the surface of the dried leaf and are the first thing released when hot water hits the bag, reaching the nose before the liquid ever touches the tongue. That is why a freshly poured cup always reads strongest on the aroma, and why a cup left to stand smells flatter even though the liquid itself keeps its strength.
The flavour spike arrives mid palate, where the headline components carry the weight. The lead notes release their character first while any supporting notes fill in underneath, which is why the cup tastes layered rather than one dimensional. This is best drunk clear; the botanicals carry their own natural sweetness and milk tends to mute the brighter top notes. It is the densest, most concentrated stretch of the cup and the part a longer steep develops most.
The base structure is the lingering finish: a clean, gently grassy note that resets the palate and invites the next sip. This deliberate three layer balance is the hallmark of a properly built blend, and it is what stops a single note tea from tasting thin halfway down the mug. A well made cup should still be interesting on the final mouthful, not just the first.
Getting it right in the cup. Use one bag per 200 to 250ml and steep for 2 to 3 minutes at around 80°C; under steeping is the most common reason this blend tastes weaker than it should, because the heavier aromatic compounds are the slowest to leave the leaf. Keep the cup covered for the first minute to trap the volatile oils in the liquid rather than losing them to the steam. Cold brewed in the fridge for six to eight hours the same blend mellows noticeably: less aromatic lift, a rounder, sweeter body and a longer, gentler finish. Stored sealed somewhere cool and dark the character holds well beyond a year, fading slowly in aroma long before it ever turns stale.
How water and temperature change it. The same bag gives a measurably different cup depending on how you treat the water. Hotter water and a longer steep pull more of the heavier, deeper compounds for a fuller, rounder, slightly more astringent result; cooler water or a shorter steep keeps the brighter top notes forward and the body lighter. Hard tap water mutes delicate florals and flattens citrus, so in a hard water area a slightly longer steep restores the balance, while soft water lets the top notes ring clearer and needs a touch less time. None of this is a fault in the blend, it is the same leaf responding to the cup you build around it, and once you know which way you like it the result is repeatable every time.
Ingredients & pack
Ingredient
Proportion
What it brings
Japanese genmaicha popcorn tea
present
present
Recyclable outer
present
present
Pack: Teapigs Popcorn Tea, 15 Tea Bags 37.5g; contains tea (caffeinated). Best within 18 months of the pack date.
Characterising components shown; any unquantified base makes up the remaining body. Globally sourced, blended and packed to brand specification.
Sourcing & blend. Teapigs Popcorn Tea, 15 Tea Bags 37.5g is put together by Teapigs, the whole leaf brand that uses real tea and biodegradable plant based temples rather than dust and fannings. Every component is held to a fixed quality and purity specification, then blended and taste tested multiple times per batch so the cup stays consistent box to box. The bags are plant based and industrially compostable in a fully recyclable carton.
What's in Teapigs Popcorn Tea, 15 Tea Bags 37.5g, and what isn't:
In: a popcorn green tea, with nothing in the bag but the listed components and any infusion base.
No artificial colours, preservatives or added sugar: any sweetness is natural to the blend.
Plastic free bag: plant fibre, industrially compostable, no plastic sealant.
Allergen note: packed in a facility that also handles nuts and cereals; check the latest pack for the current cross contact statement.
Nutrition per cup
Nutrient
Per cup
% RI
Energy
4 kJ / 1 kcal
<1%
Fat
0g
0%
Carbohydrate
0.2g
<1%
of which sugars
0g
0%
Protein
0.2g
<1%
Salt
0g
0%
Caffeine
20-35 mg
n/a
L theanine
~5-10mg
n/a
Tea polyphenols
Present
n/a
Per 200ml cup, no milk, no sugar.
Caffeine vs other drinks
Decaf coffee
4mg
Green tea
30mg
Teapigs Popcorn Tea, 15 Tea
35mg
Instant coffee
80mg
Brewed filter coffee
95mg
Energy drink (250ml)
80mg
This tea: 20-35 mg per 200ml cup, plus naturally occurring L theanine for calmer alertness than coffee.
Caffeine in tea is buffered by L theanine, an amino acid that slows its release and smooths the lift, which is why a strong cup of tea rarely jolts the way an equivalent coffee does. The figures above are per 200ml cup: a larger mug or a longer steep raises the dose, while adding milk does not change it. Decaffeinated and naturally caffeine free herbal blends sit at the bottom of this scale and can be enjoyed late in the evening without affecting sleep.
Allergens, dietary & safety
🌱VeganNo animal derived ingredients.🌾Gluten freeNaturally gluten free.⚡Caffeine20-35 mg per 200ml cup.🍃0 kcalNo sugar, no fat in plain cup.🤰PregnancyUK guide: 200mg caffeine/day max.👶ChildrenCaffeinated, served with care.
Manufactured in a facility that handles multiple tea types. Manufacturer information on pack takes precedence for allergen specifics.
Source:Teas.co.uk,
the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent.
If you reference the ingredients, nutrition and science of Teapigs Popcorn Tea, 15 Tea Bags 37.5g, please cite teas.co.uk.
Questions about Teapigs Popcorn Tea, 15 Tea Bags 37.5g
The questions buyers ask most. If yours isn't here, ask us directly. We reply within 4 hours, Monday to Friday.
Curated from real customer messages
🌱
How do I brew the perfect cup of Teapigs Popcorn Tea? Most asked+
Drop one Teapigs pyramid bag into a 250ml mug, top with water at 80-85°C (boil then wait 60-90 seconds to avoid scorching the delicate green leaf), steep 3 minutes. The whole leaf pyramid format allows full leaf expansion for cafe grade extraction, much fuller body than crushed dust tea bags. Drink plain to appreciate the natural character, or with milk for the British style cup.
🌱
What is the difference between the whole leaf pyramid format and standard tea bags? +
Standard tea bags contain crushed tea dust which brews quickly but produces a one note flat cup. Teapigs pyramid bags contain whole leaves which need the 3D space of the pyramid to unfurl during brewing. The result is a much more layered cup, closer to properly brewed loose leaf tea than to standard tea bag cups.
🌱
What ingredients are in Teapigs Popcorn Tea and where are they sourced? +
Japanese sencha and toasted rice (genmaicha). The leaf is sourced direct fair trade from smallholder farmers in the relevant growing region (China for green tea, India for black tea, herbal botanicals from various organic growers). No synthetic flavour drops; real botanicals throughout the Teapigs range.
🌱
Is Teapigs Popcorn Tea caffeinated, and how much per cup? +
15-25mg per cup. Modest caffeine load, suitable for morning and afternoon drinking but caffeine sensitive drinkers should avoid late evening.
🌱
Is Teapigs Popcorn Tea suitable for vegans, vegetarians and gluten free diets? +
Yes, fully vegan. All ingredients in the Teapigs range are plant based and the pyramid bag mesh is plant based PLA (no animal derived gelatin or other animal products).
🌱
Are Teapigs Popcorn Tea pyramid bags plant based, plastic free and home compostable? +
Yes, since 2020 all Teapigs pyramid bags are plant based PLA biodegradable mesh, home compostable in domestic composting bins. Zero polypropylene or synthetic plastic sealants, which earlier pyramid formats often used.
🌱
What does B Corp certification mean for Teapigs Popcorn Tea and the brand overall? +
Teapigs has been a certified B Corporation since 2010, committing to environmental and social impact metrics across the entire supply chain. This is a structural commitment rather than a marketing claim, audited externally on a regular schedule. Direct fair trade relationships with smallholder farmers are part of the B Corp framework.
🌱
How does Teapigs Popcorn Tea compare to Twinings, Tetley and other mainstream tea bag alternatives? +
Twinings and Tetley are mainstream British tea brands using crushed leaf tea bags at lower price points (~£0.07-0.10 per cup). Teapigs uses whole leaf in pyramid bags at the premium tier (~£0.30 per cup). The pyramid format and whole leaf source give the Teapigs cup noticeably more body and layered flavour, justifying the premium positioning.
🌱
Can I drink Teapigs Popcorn Tea iced or cold brewed? +
Yes, particularly good in summer. Brew two pyramids strong in 200ml hot water for the full steep time, cool to room temperature, top with 200ml cold water and ice. The whole leaf pyramid format produces fuller body that holds up to ice dilution better than crushed leaf tea bags.
🌱
Are Teapigs Popcorn Tea cartons, pyramid bags and inner wrappers recyclable? +
Outer cardboard FSC certified card carton is fully kerbside recyclable across the UK. Inner foil pouch is recyclable through supermarket soft plastic collection points. The pyramid bags themselves are plant based PLA and home compostable.
🌱
What's the shelf life of Teapigs Popcorn Tea and how should I store it for peak flavour? +
Approximately 24 months from manufacture. Once opened, re seal the inner foil pouch tightly between uses. Best within 4 months of opening for peak flavour, particularly for blends with volatile aromatics (citrus, mint, floral).
🌱
Where does Teapigs come from, and who founded the brand? +
Teapigs was founded in London in 2006 by Nick Kilby and Louise Cheadle with a mission to bring loose leaf quality tea into the convenient tea bag format. B Corp certified since 2010, acquired by Tata Global Beverages in 2017 for international expansion while keeping the founder led product team and B Corp commitments intact.
🌱
How does the price per cup compare to loose leaf? +
Loose leaf tea at similar quality runs £0.40-0.80 per cup and requires brewing equipment (teapot or infuser). Teapigs pyramid format brings whole leaf quality to a quick tea bag preparation at roughly £0.30 per cup. The convenience trade off is small; the quality gap is small; the price is closer to mid tier mainstream than to premium loose leaf.
Source:Teas.co.uk,
the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent.
If you reference questions and answers about Teapigs Popcorn Tea, 15 Tea Bags 37.5g, please cite teas.co.uk.
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