Yorkshire Tea 40 Bags: Hard Water, Brewing and Box Size

Yorkshire Tea 40 Bags: The Small Box and What Your Tap Does to It

Smaller boxes are where brands often trim the fill, and this one has not: forty bags in 125g is just over three grams each, the same as the eighty-bag box. So if your mug tastes different from the one you remember, the likelier culprit is the water it was made with.

Published 26 Sep 2026 Curator-written, not crowdsourced

Yorkshire Tea 40 Bags: The Small Box and What Your Tap Does to It, in summary: The forty-bag box holds exactly the same tea as the big carton, just over three grams a bag. If it tastes harsh, suspect your tap before the blend: hard water dulls the aroma and pushes the tannin forward.

Last reviewed by the teas.co.uk team in September 2026.

Smaller boxes are where brands often trim the fill, and this one has not: forty bags in 125g is just over three grams each, the same as the eighty-bag box. So if your mug tastes different from the one you remember, the likelier culprit is the water it was made with.

Same leaf, smaller box

The blend opens with a quick, dry snap of briskness that fades fast, and underneath sits the warm malt that gives the mug its fullness. It is built to take a proper splash of milk and soften rather than thin out, which is what most people want from an everyday tea. The label is as plain as tea gets, listing black tea and nothing else.

Forty bags make sense wherever a big carton would sit half-used for months: a one- or two-person home, a holiday cottage, the office drawer. A family of four will empty it inside a week, and then the larger box is the sensible buy. The tea is the same in both, so the only real question is how fast you drink it.

Why the same box tastes different in different towns

Hard water is the usual reason an everyday blend turns harsh. Dissolved minerals exaggerate the tannin, flatten the aroma and sometimes leave a dull skin floating on top. Aroma goes first, so a fresh mug with hardly any smell is a clue worth reading: the problem is probably coming out of the tap rather than out of the box.

A filter jug is worth trying before a new brand. The same firm even makes a hard-water edition of the blend, which sits on our shelves, and its existence tells you the standard one is tuned for ordinary water. Use freshly drawn water every time as well, because reboiled water has lost dissolved oxygen and brews a flatter mug.

Brewing it brisk and malty

Give a standard mug three minutes with water that has only just boiled. If you take it strong with a generous splash of milk, stretch that to four; the extra minute is what lets a strong cup carry all that milk. Either way, lift the bag out before anything else goes into the mug.

Milk goes in last. Poured in early, it cools the water just when the leaf is doing its most useful work, and the cup ends up weaker than it should be. With the bag already out, a good splash rounds the tea off instead of watering it down, which is exactly the job this blend was designed around.

The packs we stock

Taylors of Harrogate Yorkshire, 40 Tea Bags 125g (barcode 5010357112009)

What the label says

The published ingredient list for Taylors of Harrogate Yorkshire, 40 Tea Bags 125g (barcode 5010357112009) names none of the 14 major allergens. Check the current UK pack before purchase; formulations and allergen advice can change.

Ingredients, as published: Black tea.

Typical values per 100g	Per 100g
Energy	0 kcal
Fat	0g
of which saturates	0g
Carbohydrate	0g
of which sugars	0g
Protein	0g
Salt	0g

Ingredient and nutrition data for this barcode: Open Food Facts (openfoodfacts.org), ODbL. The pack in your hands is the final word.

What to eat with it

McVitie's Ginger Nuts Biscuits, 250g: ginger heat stands up well to a brisk, malty mug with milk.
McVitie's Rich Tea Biscuits, 300g: a light, plain biscuit for a quick dunk in a three-minute cup.
McVitie's Milk Chocolate Digestives Biscuits, 266g: milk chocolate and a malty everyday tea are an easy match.
Border Butterscotch Crunch Organic Biscuits, 135g: butterscotch picks up the warm malt in the blend.

Elsewhere in the Taylors of Harrogate range

The full range is on the Taylors of Harrogate brand page.

FAQ

Is the tea in the forty-bag box weaker than in the big box? No. At just over three grams a bag, the fill matches the eighty-bag box; the small box simply holds less tea, not lighter tea.

Does hard water affect the taste of tea? Yes, noticeably. It pushes tannin forward and flattens aroma, so a filter jug can make a bigger difference than switching brands.

Does a strong, milky mug need a longer brew? Yes, by about a minute. Three minutes suits an ordinary mug; allow four when you like it strong with a proper splash of milk.

Should milk go in first or last? Last, once the bag is out. Early milk cools the water while the leaf is still brewing.

Does it contain anything other than tea? The published ingredient list for this barcode reads black tea and names none of the major allergens. Check the current pack before buying.

Curator's note: Before blaming the tea, taste the water. A filter jug and a freshly filled kettle fix more disappointing mugs of this than any change of brand ever will. Lee, teas.co.uk, Tunbridge Wells.

In short: Yorkshire Tea 40 Bags: The Small Box and What Your Tap Does to It

Field	Detail
Brand	Taylors of Harrogate
Packs we stock	40 Tea Bags 125g
Category	Everyday Tea Bags
Allergens (as published)	The published ingredient list for this barcode names none of the 14 major allergens.
Caffeine	caffeinated
Brew	Three minutes, four with plenty of milk
Milk	After the bag is out
Suits	Small households and second kitchens