Brew News - the Yorkshire Tea blog

It’s a problem we’ve all faced: you’re craving a proper brew, but you couldn’t finish a whole teapot.

The solution is easy – just pop a Yorkshire Tea bag directly into the mug, and pour over hot water. 3-5 minutes later, you’ve got a world class brew.

Indeed, Yorkshire Tea is beloved by millions for its ability to release its delicious, full flavour in this exact situation.

But there’s something about a teapot.

Our tea buyers always use a teapot – they like to give the bags extra room to breathe, and they like the ceremony, and that reassuring burst of steam as the rich, golden tea pours from the spout.

It is high time this loveliness was made available to the solo drinker.

And so we present to you the Yorkshire Tea mini teapot. It’s just as beautifully crafted as our big teapot and with its 350ml capacity, it makes an equally proper brew.

It’s the complete, traditional tea experience, for those times when you fancy a cup of luxury for one.

You can buy it, and our lovely new big mugs, from our collectables shop. We’re afraid that’s UK delivery only – but please email hello@yorkshiretea.co.uk for overseas delivery requests.

See that roll above? That’s tea bags, that is. Or at least, it will be soon.

Our Twitter friend Brian asked us a question the other day – why do Yorkshire Tea bags come in pairs?

Simple: it’s so they don’t fall over.

Picture that roll of paper. It’s about as wide as four tea bags, until it feeds into our factory machine and a blade cuts it down the middle. The result is two continuous strips of paper, each as wide as two tea bags.

One of these strips becomes the bottom of the tea bag. It feeds through the machine, where little portions of tea are placed onto it in pairs. A roller applies the other strip on top, sandwiching the tea in. A bit like ravioli.

A spot of heat then seals the edges, a second blade perforates the middle, then the bags are chopped horizontally into pairs, stacked into 80s and popped into the box.

So why pairs? Well, think about the shape of a single tea bag – it’s flat at the edges but plumper in the middle, where the tea is. Stack 40 of those on top of each other and you’d get a pretty wobbly pile.

Pair them up, however, and they’re much more stable. It makes them easier for us to work with, and stops them falling all over the place when you open the box.

Proper tea bags, properly packed, for a proper brew. We think that stacks up rather nicely.

Our tea buyers taste up to 1,100 different teas per day in peak season, so they know when they taste a tea that is truly exceptional. To make Yorkshire Gold, our luxury blend, they are constantly tasting and chasing quality. Once they’ve identified the teas from up to the ten of the best tea estates in the world they expertly combine them to make our very best tasting cup of tea.

So what goes into Yorkshire Gold? Why is the taste so very special? Well, the leaves that go into Yorkshire Gold are mainly grown in three of the best tea producing areas in the world: Kenya in East Africa, Rwanda in Central Eastern Africa and Assam in North Eastern India.

Each particular tea has its own very distinct characteristics that, when blended together, create the really rounded brew that is unique to Yorkshire Gold. One thing all three teas have in common is that they are grown near the equator in perfect conditions.

Tea grows in ‘flushes’. These are when nutrients and enzymes are at their optimum levels that give tea bushes a spurt of leaf growth. For Assam the second flush produces the best and most prized leaves that give Yorkshire Gold its ‘gutty’ strength and wonderfully malty notes.

Now Kenyan tea has a very different flavour. It brings smoothness and balance to Yorkshire Gold. It’s a high-grown tea that represents Kenyan tea at its absolute peak and a real favourite of our tea buyers.

The third origin of tea is Rwanda and we really do take the pick of the crop for our Yorkshire Gold blend. This is another high grown tea grown in rich volcanic soils. The taste is sensational – its wonderfully bright, golden brisk and refreshing – “it’s like turning the lights on in your cup” according to one of our tea buyers.

Expertly blended, teas from these three illustrious origins combine to create a luxurious, full-bodied tea with a wonderfully rich flavour with a truly golden brightness.

It’s not just our experts that think that though. Judges from the Guild of Fine Food Great Taste Awards have repeatedly described Yorkshire Gold as ‘bright, rounded and delivered freshness’. More importantly though, what do you think? We’d love to hear your tasting notes in a comment below.

With all the blending that goes on here, from selecting teas from up to thirty different gardens for Yorkshire Tea, to finding the very best in the world for our luxury blend Yorkshire Gold, a lot of different tea samples pass through our tasting room.

Once our expert tea buyers have a well-earned break from ‘cupping’ and assessing teas, they collect what’s left of some of the more interesting samples together and have a little fun.

“When we’ve a break, we take it in turns at getting really creative. It’s like ‘Ready, Steady, Cook!’ but with the best teas in the world – anything goes” enthused Kate, one of our expert tea buyers.

Every day, hundreds of 20g samples arrive in envelopes from far-flung places such as Kenya and India and some were growing on the tea bush just four days before we receive them. Many of these fantastic teas are used by our tea buyers to do a little informal experimentation.

“Around 3pm, we often put a hand blend together. Maybe a pinch of this, a dash of that and a sprinkling of the other. Then we see what the rest of the team think. They’re not all successes by any means and they’re quick to say if it’s not right” said Kate.

“Henry might magic up a really refreshing white tea blend, or Simon a really beautifully balanced one with a hint of Jasmine.“

This is actually how one of the more unusual Taylors speciality tea blends are created. For example, our Bettys Celebration Blend – which people ordered for weddings – was a blend of second flush Darjeeling and orthodox tippy Assam teas with a scattering of rose petals

You can actually give blending a go yourself, even with tea bags. “My mum likes to makes a pot with two Yorkshire Tea bags but also pops in an Earl Grey. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea (Kate really did say that), she just likes a hint of it”.

When the buyers buy a tea that is so fabulous that they can’t wait for it to be shipped over – like a Rwandan Gisovu that’s in Yorkshire Gold, or a dry weather East of Rift Kenyan tea – they’ll often grab what’s left of the tasting sample and make a pot. As Kate always says of really great teas “They taste so fantastic, it’s like they’re singing in your mouth”.

So there you are. Our tea buyers don’t sit around drinking tea all day (actually they stand when they’re tasting), but when they do get a break, they blend tea. Now that’s dedication.

We’re always banging on at Yorkshire Tea about putting quality tea in to get a quality tea out. But what about the things we put our tea into?

Around 97% of Yorkshire Tea is sold in tea bags. And because it’s such a rich and refreshing blend of the finest quality Assam and Kenyan teas, it needs a tea bag that can handle all that taste and strength.

So while our tea is ‘eight times tested’ (from harvest in the tea gardens overseas to just before it leaves our Harrogate factory) to ensure it hits you in tip top condition, our tea bags are really put through their paces too.

Have you ever seen anyone lift 349 times their bodyweight? In boiling water? For 3 minutes? We thought not. However, that’s precisely what Sarah, and the rest of our Quality Assurance team, put Yorkshire Tea tea bags through every two hours.

Sarah starts testing the ‘integrity’ of our tea bags’ seams by taking random samples and slicing two sides off, to form a loop. She then hangs two tea bags from a suspension bar.

Next comes the painful bit.

Sarah takes two specially made, miniature stainless steel dumbbells that weigh precisely 60g and suspends these through the loop in each tea bag. Then she lowers them into boiling water and leaves them hanging there for exactly 3 minutes. (And if you’re wondering what the balls are in the pic, they’re to stop boiling water splashing Sarah.)

That’s the equivalent of you holding about 24 tons!

If the dumbbell is still firmly in the tea bag’s grip after that time, then that batch has passed. If it isn’t… well, it doesn’t even bear thinking about.

So there you go. That’s the secret of how Yorkshire Tea pumps iron to raise the bar in terms of quality.

Remember when you were little, and you were always told never to touch things? Usually when you were being dragged around the shops or at an aunt’s house?

Well, we’ve a bit of a hands-off approach at Yorkshire Tea, too.

Our tea leaves are a bit like fine bone china in many ways. They’re not just the best quality, they’re incredibly delicate too. That’s why our tea has been handled with almost obsessive care before it arrives at your supermarket.

At Taylors of Harrogate, we believe that the less tea is handled, the better the quality. This starts when it’s carefully plucked from the tea bush by nimble hands, then gently spread out and left to ‘wither’ naturally before being processed.

Then, to treat our leaves with even greater TLC, we developed our very own leaf grade. Tea is ‘graded’ by being passed through a series of vibrating sieves which get finer and finer. but as we  really only buy two or three different grades of tea from each supplier, it’s pointless separating them any more than that because we blend them back together anyway back in Harrogate. So we have some sieves removed and only use the ones we need, which reduces the amount our leaves are bashed about in grading.

Then there’s how we blend it. After precisely weighing out the various different tea leaves to our secret recipe, they are very gently mixed together in one of our special blending drums. These drums rotate very slowly and precisely, twelve times. Any less and the teas would not be properly mixed. Any more and the leaves could bruise and affect the flavour.

We’ve even been canny in reducing the number of bends in the pipes that transport our tea around our factory so they travel in as straight a line as possible. This avoids unnecessary bruising when the leaves hit bends in the pipes.

So next time you’re making a proper brew, remember this… tea is delicate, and needs handling gently. In fact, some say ‘tea has ears’, so speak in soft tones too.

At least if anyone catches you whispering to your tea bag as you gently place it in your mug, cup or teapot, you can now tell them the full story why.

In fact, if you’ve a story about how much you care for your Yorkshire Tea, we’d love to hear it – just whisper a comment in the box below.

Henry, our trainee tea buyer, has been with Yorkshire Tea for eight months now. As part of his training, Suzy, one of our experienced tea buyers, decided to put his developing palate through its paces with a blind tasting. Play the video to see how our Henry, and his taste buds, got on…

Videoblog produced by simonand.com

You’d be surprised. Until relatively recently, if you lived in a hard water area you’d be staring at scum floating in your brew every time you took a sip. Our Yorkshire Tea for Hard Water helps reduce that effect, ensuring the whole of the UK can enjoy a proper brew. But just how do we do it and why is it something that literally divides the country?

Let’s start with water. The East of the country is mainly hard water, especially the southern end, and the West soft water. Hard water is pumped from bore holes and has filtered through rocks, like limestone, picking up calcium and minerals on the way. So the water is ‘denser’ and creates more residues caused by polyphenols in tea reacting with calcium. Soft water is basically rainwater that collects in reservoirs and has less than 60mg of calcium per litre. It’s this density of water that has a significant affect on the taste and appearance of tea.

So how do we blend Yorkshire Tea for hard water areas? Over to Suzy, one of our team of expert tea buyers: “Before we can blend it, we taste every single tea we buy, not once but twice. We taste up to a thousand different teas a day, once made with hard water and once with soft water to decide which teas will provide the perfect combination of flavor and appearance for each water type. Hard water tends to make tea darker and thicker, whereas soft water makes a lighter brisker tea – so you can not only taste but also see the difference.”

In Harrogate, where Yorkshire Tea is tasted and blended, it’s a soft water area. Therefore, we have tanks of the hardest water in North Yorkshire delivered to us by Yorkshire Water especially for tasting. We have ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ instead of ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ taps in our tea tasting room and we religiously test the hardness of each batch of water delivered.

Suzy adds: “The interesting thing about hard water is that it reveals a lot about tea as it brings out any taints, flavours and characteristics that soft water might mask.”

So now you know why wherever you are in the country, you can enjoy a proper brew.

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You’d be surprised. Until relatively recently, if you lived in a hard water area you’d be staring at scum floating in your brew every time you took a sip. Our Yorkshire Tea for Hard Water helps reduce that effect, ensuring the whole of the UK can enjoy a proper brew. But just how do we do it and why is it something that literally divides the country?

Let’s start with water. The East of the country is mainly hard water, especially the southern end, and the West soft water. Hard water is pumped from bore holes and has filtered through rocks, like limestone, picking up calcium and minerals on the way. So the water is ‘denser’ and creates more residues caused by polyphenols in tea reacting with calcium. Soft water is basically rainwater that collects in reservoirs and has less than 60mg of calcium per litre. It’s this density of water that has a significant affect on the taste and appearance of tea.

So how do we blend Yorkshire Tea for hard water areas? Over to Suzy, one of our team of expert tea buyers: “Before we can blend it, we taste every single tea we buy, not once but twice. We taste up to a thousand different teas a day, once made with hard water and once with soft water to decide which teas will provide the perfect combination of flavor and appearance for each water type. Hard water tends to make tea darker and thicker, whereas soft water makes a lighter brisker tea – so you can not only taste but also see the difference.”

In Harrogate, where Yorkshire Tea is tasted and blended, it’s a soft water area. Therefore, we have tanks of the hardest water in North Yorkshire delivered to us by Yorkshire Water especially for tasting. We have ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ instead of ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ taps in our tea tasting room and we religiously test the hardness of each batch of water delivered.

Suzy adds: “The interesting thing about hard water is that it reveals a lot about tea as it brings out any taints, flavours and characteristics that soft water might mask.”

So now you know why wherever you are in the country, you can enjoy a proper brew.

Not you personally, of course. We’re talking about your kettle.

A furred up bottom inside your kettle is a key indicator that you have hard water. In other words, your tap water contains more calcium and other natural substances than the water that comes out of the tap in other regions. This is nothing to worry about of course, but it does make a difference to a few things – your kettle gets scale on it, your bubble bath isn’t as bubbly, and worst of all, your tea tastes different and sometimes gets little floaty bits on the top.

That’s where Yorkshire Tea for Hard Water comes in. Since the day we were founded in 1886, we’ve been tasting tea in different water types to work out which brews better in what, and our Hard Water blend consists of teas that have been specially selected because they work with the mineral content in the water rather than against it. We even work to find teas that don’t create that floaty stuff on the top!

But what if you’re not sure whether you’ve got hard water or not?

Well, if those other signs aren’t helping, have a look at this map we’ve created. It’s only a rough guide, because your water can often change depending on where it’s coming from that day, but it’s a good start. If you want to know more, try your local water board.

Hope that all makes sense! If you have questions, let us know.

And don’t forget our competition to win a year’s supply of tea and a new kettle is open till 7 Feb here.