{
    "id": 1079399,
    "title": "How to Make Tea for a Crowd: 20, 50 or 100 Cups",
    "slug": "how-to-make-tea-for-a-crowd",
    "type": "page",
    "url": "https://teas.co.uk/wiki/how-to-make-tea-for-a-crowd/",
    "modified": "2026-11-14T01:08:43+00:00",
    "excerpt": "Quantities of tea bags, water and milk for 20, 50 and 100 cups, the urn method step by step, what to do without an urn, and which packs to buy.",
    "content_text": "Tea for a crowd, in short: Allow one tea bag per cup: 20 cups needs 20 bags, 50 needs 50 and 100 needs 100, plus a few spare. At 200ml a cup that is 4, 10 and 20 litres of boiling water. Brew in pots filled from an urn, not in the urn itself, and put the milk on the table.Making tea for a hall full of people is the same job as making one cup, multiplied. One bag per cup, properly boiling water, a few minutes, bag out, milk last. The work is in the planning: enough bags, enough hot water at the right moment, and somewhere for the tea to brew that is not the urn.Last reviewed by the teas.co.uk team in November 2026.The quantitiesCupsTea bagsWith 10% spareWater at 200ml a cupMilk at 25ml a cup2020224 litres0.5 litres50505510 litres1.25 litres10010011020 litres2.5 litresThe bag count follows the UK Tea and Infusions Association measure of one tea bag per cup. The 200ml cup and the 25ml of milk are our planning assumptions, so scale them up if you are serving mugs.Two more things. Cups are not people: at a long event many guests come back for a second, so count cups, not heads. And not everyone takes milk. The association reports that 57% of UK tea drinkers add dairy milk and 10% a plant milk, so the milk column is on the generous side. Our guide to how much milk goes in tea has the detail for a single cup.The urn method, step by stepFill and switch on early. A full urn takes a long while to come to the boil. Check its instructions and time it before the day.Keep the urn for water only. Tea bags left sitting in an urn carry on brewing, so the last cups come out far stronger than the first.Warm the teapots with a little boiling water, then empty them.Bags into the pots. One per cup the pot holds is the standard measure. Yorkshire Tea's home guide uses fewer, two bags in a regular teapot, so cut back if you want a milder pot. See how many teabags per pot.Fill from the urn at a full boil. Black tea wants water at 90 to 98\u00b0C.Brew for three to five minutes, then lift the bags out so the pot does not stew.Pour, and let people add their own milk.No urn? Kettles, pots and flasksFor 20 cups, kettles and a couple of large teapots will do. Divide the litres in the table by the size of your kettle to see how many boils you need, and start the first one before guests arrive.For bigger numbers without an urn, brew in rounds and hold the finished tea, bags removed, in insulated jugs or pump flasks. Our guide to making tea in a flask that still tastes good covers how to keep it from going flat.Milk, sugar and the rest of the tableMilk in jugs, with a plant milk alongside. Whether it goes in first is the guest's business: see milk first or tea first.Sugar and plenty of teaspoons.A decaf pot, clearly labelled. Our best decaf tea guide lists the options.Biscuits. Put out a sharing pack or two. See the best biscuit to dunk in tea.What to buyFor 100 cups, one large pack covers it with plenty left over: Tetley Original, 400 tea bags, PG Tips Original, 400 tea bags or Yorkshire Tea 240. Tetley also makes an 1,100 bag catering pack, which we list but which is out of stock at the time of this review.For 20 or 50 cups an ordinary 80 box is enough. The big packs are compared in the best 400 count tea bags and Yorkshire Tea 240: running a busy kitchen on one box, and every size is on the everyday tea bags shelf.\n\nCommon questionsHow many tea bags do I need for 100 cups?One hundred, plus about ten spare. A 240 or 400 pack covers it with tea left for next time.How much milk for 100 cups of tea?About 2.5 litres if every cup takes a 25ml splash. Not everyone has milk, so that leaves a margin.Can I make the tea in advance?Brew it as close to serving as you can. If you must make it ahead, take the bags out after brewing and keep the tea in insulated flasks without milk.\n\nReference notedThe bag measure, water temperature and brewing time are from the UK Tea and Infusions Association brewing guide and the milk figures from its FAQs; teapot quantities, warming the pot and the four to five minute brew are from Yorkshire Tea's proper brew guide. Water and milk volumes are our own arithmetic.\nMore from the tea wiki\n\nYorkshire Tea Pack Sizes: 40, 80, 160 and 240 Compared\nLoose Leaf Starter Kit: A Strainer and Three Familiar Blends\nWhy tea tastes weak in a big mug (and how to fix it)\nHow many teabags per pot?\nBest 400-Count Tea Bags UK: PG Tips vs Tetley\nYorkshire Tea 240: Running a Busy Kitchen on One Box\nHow Many Cups of Tea a Day?\nThe whole Tea Wiki, A to Z",
    "contentSignals": "ai-train=yes, search=yes, ai-input=yes",
    "links": {
        "apiCatalog": "https://teas.co.uk/.well-known/api-catalog",
        "llmsTxt": "https://teas.co.uk/llms.txt",
        "mcp": "https://teas.co.uk/mcp",
        "mcpSetupGuides": "https://teas.co.uk/ai/",
        "mcpCard": "https://teas.co.uk/.well-known/mcp/server-card.json",
        "primaryAgenticRouteAuthority": "https://teas.co.uk/.well-known/teas-primary-agentic-route-authority.json"
    }
}