Tetley Everyday, Softpack, 240 Tea Bags
The softpack is what sets this apart from the carton. A 240-bag box gets opened once and then stands half open for months with the flap tucked in, and dried tea leaf takes up whatever is in the air around it, so the last of the box rarely drinks like the first. A pouch that reseals properly holds that line. What we will not tell you is that the pouch is greener. It uses less material than a carton and is frequently harder to recycle at the kerb, and which of those two weighs more depends on your council rather than on anything we know. The tea inside is sharp, quick and medium bodied, refreshing rather than rounded, and a shade lighter than the fullest everyday blends, so a very heavy hand with the milk will tell on it.
Tetley Everyday, in brief.
Tetley Everyday Softpack is the plain brisk British mug in a resealable pouch rather than a carton, 240 bags to the pack. Picked into the teas.co.uk selection because the softpack is the sensible way to buy 240 bags: it shuts properly each time and folds down as it empties.
Water straight off the boil, three minutes, lift the bag out before five and add the milk last.
The softpack is the reason to choose this over the boxed version, and it is a better reason than it sounds.
Curator notes: we put the tasting profile together ourselves, from the pack as it is now and the brand's published description. This tea normally ships in 1 to 2 working days. The questions below answer the common queries, including how many mugs one pot makes.
Curator’s notes
Read the full write-up
The Story Behind The Pack
Tetley is one of the two names that defined British supermarket tea in the second half of the last century, and its everyday blend has never pretended to be anything other than what it is: a brisk mug with milk, made quickly, in quantity. This is that blend in the format that makes most sense for 240 bags of it.
The softpack is worth a paragraph because it is the only real difference between this and the boxed version. A carton of 240 bags is opened once and then sits half full for weeks, with the flap tucked in and air and kitchen smells reaching the bags every time somebody makes a cup. A resealable pouch closes properly each time and collapses as it empties, which means less cupboard space and better protection for the bags at the bottom of the pack. Tea takes up the smell of whatever it lives beside, so a pack that actually shuts is doing something useful rather than decorative.
The bag count of 240 is solid, so the per-mug arithmetic is solid.
Packaging: Parts of the softpack and its bags may be disposed of in different ways; the printed notes and your local authority set the rules.
Our Commitment To The Planet
- A grey import is not what you get: the pack that arrives is the UK retail pack as it is now.
- A softpack is not automatically the better environmental choice. A flexible pouch uses less material than a carton but is frequently harder to recycle kerbside, and the current pack states which route applies. Read it rather than assuming either way.
Source: teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Tetley Everyday, Softpack, 240 Tea Bags, please cite teas.co.uk.
The story behind Tetley
Tetley invented the drawstring tea bag in the UK and has been a household staple since 1837. The Original 80s and 240s are the everyday picks; the novelty range (Digestive Biscuit, Lemon Drizzle, Cherry Bakewell) is one of the most-distinctive in mainstream British retail. Owned by Tata Consumer Products, Rainforest Alliance certified.
Packaging: Parts of the softpack and its bags may be disposed of in different ways; the printed notes and your local authority set the rules.
Our commitment to the planet
The taste profile
How does it compare
This is a fast blend and it asks almost nothing of you at the start. What it will not forgive is being left in the mug while you answer the door, because fast extraction carries on past the point where anything pleasant is still arriving.
The Mug
The Pot
Made with this tea
The Three Minute Mug
The everyday build, and the only rule a fast blend really cares about.
- 1 Tetley tea bag
- 200 to 250ml water at 100 degrees
- A splash of milk
- Pour the kettle's water over the bag in the mug as soon as it has boiled.
- Leave it three minutes; two if you take it weak, four if you take it strong.
- Press the bag once against the mug's wall, then lift it clear before the five minutes are over.
- Add the milk last, and reseal the pouch while the kettle is still warm.
What you'll end up with: A sharp, properly coloured everyday mug in three minutes, and a pack that is still airtight for tomorrow.
The Pot For Four
Same ratio as the mug, and why every bag comes out before it reaches the table.
- 3 Tetley tea bags
- 750ml water at 100 degrees
- Milk, in a jug
- Warm the pot using a dash of water from the kettle, then tip it away.
- Brew three bags in 750ml with the lid on for three minutes.
- Remove the three bags from the pot first, and only then carry it out to serve.
- Serve with the milk in a jug so everybody takes their own.
What you'll end up with: A pot as drinkable in the fourth cup as the first. With a fast-releasing blend this matters more than with any other tea in the cupboard.
A Flask That Lasts The Day
How to fill a flask at seven and still have drinkable tea at one, which most people get wrong.
- 4 Tetley tea bags
- 1 litre water at 100 degrees
- Milk, separately
- Rinse the flask with boiling water first and tip it out, so it does not cool the brew.
- Brew four bags in a jug of a litre of boiling water for three minutes.
- Remove every bag, then pour into the flask. Bags left in a flask stew for hours.
- Carry the milk separately and add it by the cup, never to the flask.
What you'll end up with: Tea at lunchtime that tastes like tea. Milk in a flask goes stale and bags in a flask go bitter, and doing both is why flask tea has the reputation it has.
Overnight Cold Brew
The right way to turn a brisk blend into iced tea instead of a bitter one.
- 4 Tetley tea bags
- 1 litre cold water
- 1 lemon, sliced
- Ice to serve
- Drop four bags in a jug of cold water, a litre of it.
- Chill for eight hours or overnight.
- Lift the bags out without squeezing them, which is what turns cold brew cloudy.
- Serve over plenty of ice with lemon.
What you'll end up with: A clear iced tea with almost none of the astringency the hot mug has, because cold water never extracts the harsh compounds in the first place.
Fruit Tea Loaf
The overnight soak that turns four tea bags into a cake with no butter in the batter.
- 4 Tetley tea bags
- 300ml water at 100 degrees
- •300g mixed dried fruit
- •250g self raising flour
- •150g soft brown sugar
- •1 egg, beaten
- Brew four bags in 300ml for six minutes, deliberately strong, and lift them out.
- Soak the dried fruit in the hot tea with the sugar, covered, overnight.
- Stir in the flour and the beaten egg the next day until just combined.
- Bake in a lined loaf tin at 160 degrees fan for about an hour, until a skewer comes out clean.
What you'll end up with: A dense, dark fruit loaf with no fat in the batter at all. Slice it thick, butter it, and have it with a cup of the same tea.
Brewing the perfect cup
What’s in it, what to know
Inside the pack
| Typical values per 100g, as published | Per 100g |
|---|---|
| Energy | 4 kcal |
| Fat | 0g |
| of which saturates | 0g |
| Carbohydrate | 0.3g |
| of which sugars | 0g |
| Protein | 0g |
| Salt | 0g |
Ingredients and allergens. Not one of the 14 major allergens turns up among the published ingredients for this barcode. Recipes and allergen advice are not fixed, so the current UK pack should be read before this softpack is bought.
Ingredients, as published for this barcode: Black tea.
Ingredient and nutrition data for this barcode: Open Food Facts (openfoodfacts.org), ODbL. If in doubt, the pack you are holding wins.
| Ingredient | Proportion | What it brings |
|---|---|---|
| Black tea | 100% | The whole of the bag. A brisk everyday blend: sharp and quick rather than rounded, with a medium body that takes milk and a clean grip at the sides of the mouth. |
| Bag count | 240 | One bag per mug of 200 to 250ml, 240 mugs from the pack. This is the figure the per-mug arithmetic rests on. |
| Outer pack | Resealable softpack | A flexible pouch rather than a carton. It closes properly each time and folds down as it empties, which protects the bags at the bottom of the pack. |
| Recycling route | Not stated to us | Flexible pouches and cartons often take different routes, and a pouch is not automatically the greener option. The current pack states which applies. |
Pack: Tetley Everyday, Softpack, 240 Tea Bags; GTIN 5000208069897; 240 tea bags in a resealable softpack, 240 mugs per pack. Caffeinated black tea. The pack carries the best before date.
Characterising components shown; this is a single-component product and the unquantified black tea blend makes up the whole body. Pack weight, dose per bag, nutrition figures, caffeine milligrams, origins, certification marks, bag materials, the recycling route and the full allergen statement belong to the current UK pack and we do not restate them here, having not read it.
Sourcing & blend. Tetley Everyday, Softpack, 240 Tea Bags comes from Tetley, one of the two names that defined British supermarket tea in the second half of the last century, whose everyday blend has never pretended to be anything other than a brisk mug with milk made quickly and in quantity. This listing is about the format as much as the blend: a resealable pouch is the sensible way to buy 240 bags of anything that takes up the smell of its neighbours. What turns up is the retail pack sold in the UK today, not a grey import.
What is in Tetley Everyday, Softpack, 240 Tea Bags, and what is not:
- In: black tea, and nothing else in the bag but the tea base.
- No artificial colours, preservatives or added sugar: plain black tea is all it is, with no flavouring or sweetener added to it.
- Not scented: no bergamot, no added flavouring, nothing aromatic. That is the whole design.
- Not decaffeinated: this is a properly caffeinated cup. For the evening, choose a decaf pack rather than brewing this one shorter.
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Source: teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Tetley Everyday, Softpack, 240 Tea Bags, please cite teas.co.uk.
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