Brew News - the Yorkshire Tea blog

It’s an exclusive, once-in-a-lifetime celebration of Yorkshire Tea – and we want you to join us!

On Wednesday, April 24, we’re taking some lucky tea lovers on a magical journey through the world of Yorkshire Tea aboard the world famous Orient Express.

Departing from London Victoria at midday, we’ll travel in luxury, enjoying afternoon tea and tea-based cocktails and mingling with fellow lovers of a proper brew, before returning to the station at 3.30pm.

We have 10 pairs of tickets up for grabs – and we’re picking passengers this Thursday (April 11), so you’d better get cracking!

Here’s what you need to enter:

- You MUST be free on April 24 and able to make your own way to London Victoria before midday

- You and your guest must be over 18.

- Email competition@yorkshiretea.co.uk with the subject line “Train” and tell us in 30 words or less why you love Yorkshire Tea

- If you can, please tell us the name of your guest

A panel of judges made up of Yorkshire Tea staff will pick the 10 best entries. The closing date is midday on Thursday, April 11. You can read the full terms and conditions here.

Do you remember May, 2012?

Things were simpler back then. The internet hadn’t been invented, there was only one TV channel and everyone travelled by horse.

It was back in May that, undeterred by the lack of internet, we asked our Facebook friends to help us pick some designs for a new range of mugs.

Not just any mugs. Big mugs. Big lovely 400ml porcelain mugs which make our traditional mugs look like slightly smaller mugs.

And now, in the blink of an eye (assuming your blinks last 10 months) the mugs have arrived.

We’ve made two types, based on your favourite designs.

There’s one featuring our beautiful box illustration and there’s another one with “LOVE” in big letters.

They’re available at our online collectables shop (for £7 inc UK postage) right now, and we also have 100 to give away.

Just email hello@yorkshiretea.co.uk with the subject line “mugs” to be in with a chance.

Sorry they took so long!

The closing date is Friday, April 19 at 11.59pm – and the full terms and conditions are here.

The new Yorkshire Tea box design has gone down rather well.

We’re really over the moon that people love the main illustration as much as we do.

It’s by the very talented artist, Andrew Hutchinson, and we’ve had some really nice comments about it from Yorkshire Tea drinkers on Facebook.

“I glance at the pack design when the kettle is boiling,” said Marie. “It’s pleasant to see such a lovely watercolour of the landscape I love so much.”

Mark agreed, writing: “Couldn’t get a more English scene.”

And Paul was ever more brief, saying: “One word: beautiful!”

Michelle had a more practical take on it. “That would make a stunning cross stitch chart,” she said. “Especially with the sheep.”

If you’d like to own a copy of the original painting, there are still a few days left to enter our competition to win one of 50 limited edition prints.

It’s all about the creature in the picture above. To enter, just head to our competition page and tell us whether it’s a weasel, a ferret or a stoat.

And don’t worry if you’re not sure – there’s a short video to give you a pretty big clue.

The competition closes at midnight this Sunday (December 16).

Yorkshire Tea’s new packs are on the shelves – and though we’ve tweaked the design a little, the biggest change is the illustration on the box.

It’s a beautiful painting of a Yorkshire scene by the artist Andrew Hutchinson, who only lives a stone’s throw from Yorkshire Tea Towers in Harrogate.

If you look closely, you might be able to spot a few local landmarks.

And for those who don’t live round these parts, here are a few highlights:

• Bolton Castle is a 14th-century castle in Wensleydale, North Yorkshire. It survived the English Civil War – with a bit of damage – and was once home to Mary Queen of Scots.
• Ribblehead viaduct takes rail passengers across the River Ribble. Built in the 1870s to a design by engineer John Sydney Crossley, it is made up of 1.5 million bricks.
• Located in the North Yorks Moors National Park, the beautiful valley of Farndale is famous for its dry stone walls and its wild daffodils, which have had protected status since 1955.

And this last one’s special. If you can identify this mystery animal, you could win one of 50 limited edition prints of Andrew’s full painting.

For a clue, watch our short video (and enter the competition) here.

Despite having left Yorkshire over 20 years ago, cricketer John Thickett still loves a proper brew. In honour of his devotion we sent Little Urn to meet up with him in Florida, where we served up post-match cups of Yorkshire Tea to him and his fellow players…

John’s a very proud Yorkshire man, and a very keen cricketer. He lives in Austin, Texas, but, as Treasurer of the USA Cricket Association he visits Florida to play with the Miami Cricket Club there. He was also involved in building America’s first ever Cricket stadium.

On an average day, he drinks around 5 big mugs of Yorkshire Tea.  He misses England’s long summer evenings, watching the village cricket, and going to the pub.

He also tells us you can’t get a good cup of tea outside of the house. He buys his Yorkshire Tea locally (although he was a little unsure about how much he pays for it because his wife does all the shopping).

As a parting gift, John very kindly gave us some USA Cricket Association goodies to give away. We’ve got three USACA caps and shirts up for grabs, so to enter the draw simply send an email titled ‘Wicket’ to our Heidi before midnight on 25 June. (T&Cs here.) Don’t forget to include your contact and address details!

As we mentioned in our recent post, Yorkshire bobby turned author Mike Pannett has been out and about promoting the mass paperback release of his book, Not On My Patch, Lad, touring book stores and supermarkets. Of course, we made sure he had plenty of Yorkshire Tea for his journey, and he’s even been giving away special samples of Yorkshire Tea to his fans. (Thanks Mike!)

As promised, here’s another excerpt from Mike’s book, with more to come soon. Don’t forget, to celebrate the book’s release we’re also giving away six signed copies – for a chance to win one, just email your name, address and phone number to our Dom before 3 June. (T&Cs here)

Enjoy!

Not On My Patch, Lad – excerpt 2:

It was a glorious spring morning. With the exception of one last reluctant ash the trees around Keeper’s Cottage had all come into leaf and we were surrounded by greenery. A woodpecker was hammering away in the woods at the bottom of the lane, and I’d just spotted the first of the swallows scouting around for a place to build a nest.

“We’ll have a decision to make there,” Ann said. We were sitting on the log, drinking tea and soaking up the sunshine. Well, Ann was sitting – in what used to be my seat – and I was perched on a nasty little knot at one end. A second bird was darting about under the eaves, flashing its white under-belly at us. “I mean, lovely to see them and so on, but they’ll make a right mess of the windows.”

“Leave `em, I say. We can always wipe a few droppings away.”

She smiled at me. “Glad you said that. Some people get in a total lather, putting up those strips of coloured plastic to scare them off. I mean, why? They’re such beautiful things.”

“Ann,” I said, shifting position on the log, “I don’t mean to change the subject but… what would you say if someone told you I was a kept man?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“It’s something Walt said the other day. He was just trying to wind me up. You know what he’s like. But it got me thinking.”

“It’s got me thinking too. What are you on about?”

“He meant you being on a sergeant’s pay while I’m still a humble beat bobby.”

“Mike, you can’t have everyone getting promoted or specialising or we wouldn’t have any PCs left to pound the beat. We need experienced career PCs more than ever these days. And besides, what’s wrong with being a beat bobby for thirty years? It’s the foundation of the force, you’re on the front line dealing with the public and doing what most of us joined up for.” She put a hand on my shoulder. “Anyway, the way I see it we spend half our life at work so why not stick at doing what you like best?”

“Aye, but….”

“But what?”

“You know how people are.”

“Yeah. Some people are fine. And some are prats. And if some of the prats choose to think badly of you because I got promoted… I mean, what would they say if you’d got promoted and I was still a WPC? Would I be a ‘kept woman’?”

“You know what they’d say. They’d say that’s different.”

“And is it?”

“Well, no, not really.”

“End of conversation then. Tell you what though” – she nudged me in the ribs and handed me her empty mug – “If you are a kept man, you may as well earn your board. Is there any more tea in that pot?”

For a chance to win one of five pairs of tickets to royal wedding campsite Camp Royale worth £150 (plus travel, courtesy of National Express) just tell us what you think ‘Kate’ is saying to ‘Will’ in this pic! Post your answer on the Little Urn tab of our Facebook page or as a comment below before 12pm on Mon 11th April to enter.

From Thursday 28th April to Sunday 1st May, this special campsite on Clapham Common will offer 10,000 happy campers a unique way to celebrate Kate Middleton and Prince William’s wedding.

For £75 per person for 3 nights, Camp Royale will have 24 hour security, hot showers, dedicated family areas, and a giant screen to watch the wedding on, of course. Little Urn can’t be there himself but we’ll still be offering free cups of Yorkshire Tea every morning from a special tea tent!

Terms & Conditions: No applications from agents, third parties, organised groups or applications automatically generated by computer will be accepted. Closing time and date for entries is 2pm, 11/04/11. The prize winners will be drawn at random on 11/04/11 from all entries received before this date. Taylors of Harrogate will notify the prize winners by email by 12pm, 11/04/11 to arrange delivery of the prize. Competition open only to UK residents.

There are five prizes, each consisting of one pair of tickets to the Camp Royale campsite and return travel for two to London with National Express from one of the following coach departure points: Bath, Birmingham, Bournemouth, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Cheltenham, Coventry, Derby, Edinburgh, Exeter, Glasgow, Gloucester, Hull, Ipswich, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester, Middlesbrough, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Norwich, Nottingham, Peterborough, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Preston, Sheffield, Southampton, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland, Taunton, Truro, Wolverhampton, York.

Personal contact details will only be kept on file by Taylors of Harrogate and will not be passed on to any third parties except for the purposes of supplying the prize itself. In the event of non-acceptance if the prize winner is not contactable, Taylors of Harrogate reserves the right to reallocate the prize awarded to a newly selected entry. No purchase is necessary to enter. You can only be entered into the competition once. Multiple registrations will only result in one entry. Taylors of Harrogate will not accept responsibility for the loss of entries through technical fault, transmission delay or incomplete entries. Names and counties of the prize winners will be available if required by interested party sending a stamped addressed envelope to Yorkshire Tea, Taylors of Harrogate, Pagoda House, Plumpton Park, Harrogate, HG2 7LD.

Employees and their families of Taylors of Harrogate, its agents or anyone professionally connected with the promotion are not eligible to enter. No alternative cash prize will be offered. By entering this promotion all participants will be deemed to have accepted and be bound by the terms and conditions. The right to amend, withdraw or terminate any aspect of this prize draw without prior notice is reserved if factors beyond the Promoter’s control require them to do so. The decision of the Promoter is final and binding in all matters. Correspondence will not be entered into.

Promoter: Taylors of Harrogate, Plumpton Park, Harrogate, North Yorkshire, HG2 7LD.

Fancy a free pair of tickets to London’s Country Living Spring Fair? We’ve got five pairs of day tickets to give away. For a chance to win a pair, just send us your address and contact details in an email with ‘Tractors’ as the subject to heidi.dyson@bettysandtaylors.co.uk before midday on Wednesday 16th March.

The Country Living Fair is a showcase of specially selected independent British designers and small producers, running from 23rd to 27th March at the Business Design Centre in Islington. Not only is it a great place to shop for everything from traditional furnishings and accessories to handmade crafts and fine foods, but we’ll be there too! For the fourth year running we’re bringing a little bit of Yorkshire to the capital by welcoming visitors to our spring tea room where they can enjoy a proper brew. Hope to see you there.

Good luck!

For us, making a proper cake is all about those special ingredients – like the plump and juicy vine fruits that make our Tea Loaf so deliciously moist, the Seville orange marmalade that makes our Marmalade cake so sweet and fruity, or the rich and sticky treacle that makes our Ginger & Treacle cake so, er, rich and sticky.

But we know we’re not the only ones who have favourite ingredients, and we thought it would be fun to ask you to share your yummy secrets.

In return, we’re offering up a very special prize: a visit from Yorkshire Tea’s Little Urn, our specially converted ice-cream van, filled with tea and cake!

That’s right – if you’re the lucky winner,  just invite your guests round and we’ll turn up in Little Urn to help you throw a tea party! And we’ll also reward the first 100 people who enter by sending them all three of our cakes for free!

But there’s a creative twist to this cakey competition. We don’t just want you to tell us what your favourite ingredient is – we want you to write a message using the ingredient itself, then post a photo of it on our facebook wall. To help explain (and this is something we’ve always wanted to say) ‘here’s one we made earlier’.

The deadline for entering is 31st October, after which a panel of judges from our bakery will pick the overall winner. But don’t hang about – send your photo in quickly and you might be one of the first 100 to win three free cakes each!

Please note that Little Urn is very busy so if you’re lucky enough to win, the date of the visit would be subject to arrangement of course! For all other T&Cs click here.

It’s giveaway time! We’re offering 10 pairs of tickets to the Baby Show in London, the UK’s biggest event dedicated to babies and pregnancy. Taking place at Earls Court from Friday 22nd to Sunday 24th October, it’s great for anyone who’s expecting or already has little ones.

As with previous shows, we’ll be there, alongside many of the best baby and parenting brands, spreading the word and giving out free samples of Yorkshire Tea decaf – always a popular choice for mums who need to watch their caffeine intake but still want a proper cup of tea.

As well as being a unique opportunity to shop for essentials and pick up helpful tips, leading experts Annabel Karmel and Clare Byam-Cook will be there giving comprehensive advice on nutrition and breast feeding. They’ll be joined by a number of other experts too such as leading authority on parenting, child care, and women’s health Dr Miriam Stoppard OBE.

To enter the draw to win a pair of tickets to the show, just send an email titled ‘Baby Show’ to our Heidi with your contact details and we’ll pick ten winners out at random.

Good luck!

Tickets are on sale now for The Baby Show and are available from the box office on 0871 231 0844 or at www.thebabyshow.co.uk

Competition closes on Friday 15th October. Please note the prize doesn’t include travel. For other T&Cs click here.