Yorkshire Tea

Yorkshire Tea is made by the rather posh sounding Taylors of Harrogate, one of the few remaining family tea merchants in the UK. It is a tea of very high quality, yet is reasonably priced and easily available in all supermarkets and local shops. For me, a several mugs a day woman, it beats the pants off PG, Tetley and all the rest.

So what makes Yorkshire tea so good?

Well, according to Taylors of Harrogate’s marketing department, it’s because the tea is specially chosen to suit our British water!! In fact, so seriously do they take the water issue, that they actually make two different teas for the different types of water found in our fair isles! Their website contains a map that shows what particular blend of Yorkshire Tea you need.

I prefer to think it's so good because it was made for all those hardy Yorkshire pitmen who needed a damn good mash to keep them going throughout their arduous day.

Anyway, back to this water thing. Apparently, if you live in the South East, South Central England or the Midlands, you need special Yorkshire Tea for Hard Water. The rest of the UK can make do with ordinary Yorkshire Tea.

Now I don’t know about this. I live in the Midlands (Stoke-on-Trent, to be exact), and I’ve never seen this special hard water tea, so always buy plain old original Yorkshire Tea, and I find it hard to believe that a different blend would give me any better a cuppa.

Yorkshire Tea (original) is strong in flavour and dark in colour. But it’s not at all overpowering and doesn’t reek of tannin the way some other strong teas do. I don't like my tea too strong so a quick in and out is usually enough for me, and this way you can get two cups from one bag! My sister, though, who likes her tea as intense as curry, likes to leave it to stew and assures me it stews better than any other tea bag on the market.

Although it’s flavoursome and deeply coloured, the taste is actually quite subtle if you don’t leave your tea bag in too long. It is satisfying and very refreshing, a great pick-me-up in the morning and a lovely feet-up treat at any other time of day.

It’s the perfect accompaniment to a bacon sandwich or a chip buttie, and cleans the palate nicely after cheese on toast.

Price-wise it's dearer than your supermarket own brands but on a par with the other big names. I won't give an exact cost as of course it varies from shop to shop.

A real all rounder with a great flavour. It brews quickly in teapot or mug and smells fresh, clean and appetizing.

Highly recommended.

If you visit their website at www.yorkshiretea.co.uk you can have a free sample of either the original or the Yorkshire Tea for Hard B******s (sorry, Water). I’ve ordered some of the latter and will update when I’ve tried it out.