Advantages: Refreshing and mellow.
Disadvantages: Occasional floaty bits from bag, but this may be my tea making mess-ups!

...I don't run out of tea bags very often (except when my tea mad parents are visiting!), but today I found just a few left at the bottom of the caddy, so I put 'tea bags' on my shopping list, and looked for good old 'Tetley's' in the shop. Today's purchase was a bag of 160 teabags from Safeway supermarket at the price of £2.67. Oh, and it also had a free decaffeinated tea bag sample attached to the top! ************* Why the Tetley brand is the brand for me ******* I do not buy any other tea brand now, because I have become very fond of the lovely smooth and mellow flavour that Tetley provides. My particular taste in tea is for a refreshing drink. I can not stand strong tea. Some brands I find leave a bitter aftertaste in the back of the throat, whereas Tetley is much milder. *********** Why tea bags... Read review

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Advantages: Taste, colour, and try it free
Disadvantages: none (though might be a little pricey)

.... Now where was I? Oh yes: so now I had the box in my cupboard waiting for my ‘old’ bags (No not you dear!) to finish. As usual it was me who filled the caddy up with the bags (and the loo roll-but that’s another matter). So having filled the caddy up I placed the kettle on to try this British tea out. Flinging the bag in the mug to float in the milk (Always put the milk in first-in my opinion better taste all round!). I added the boiling water, and left it for a minute to ‘soak’. When I took the bag out, I was pleasantly surprised by the colour of the tea. I am the sort of person who likes to see a nice browny colour in their tea, even though I like the average amount of milk. With other teas (particularly Shops own and Brooke Bond D etc) the tea never seemed to colour the milky water, despite numerous dunks! But this one... Read review

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Advantages: Delicious and refreshing
Disadvantages: perhaps a tad expensive

...this is and what they do visit here http://www.twinings.co.uk/aboutusourpolicies.asp So how much will this golden tea nectar set you back? Well it is sold in boxes of 40, 80 and 160 but in our local Sainsbury they only sell the 80 and 160 boxes and they are £1.97 and £3.78 respectively. How much I hear you exclaim? Well yes this is a slight downside to the product but it is still only just over 2p a brew! One thing though, you would think for that price you would have a lovely foil fresh package but no you have a traditional style card box so you do need to decant into a tea caddy to maintain the freshness. For me it's a plus point because it's easily recyclable but some might find that an inconvenience. All in all I am so glad that I switched to this brand of tea and there is another good reason as well - it doesn't seem to stain the cup... Read review

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Advantages: Unique flavour
Disadvantages: The van isn't in every area so probably would have to order on the internet

...and they aren't too expensive and all their products are of excellent quality. The man or woman comes to the door with a basket, full of items. If they don't have what you want they will either go to the van and get them or if they don't have any in the van, they will promise to bring you them next time and they usually do. Also, you can give Ringtons a call to see if there's a van in your area and when he will be around and you ask them to pop in with their goodies. Every now and then Ringtons bring out collectable pieces. Like plates, tin tea caddies, etc. They always nice and they are not too expensive. My gran especially likes buying the collectibles at Christmas for presents for the family. Usually, the van person gives you a leaflet with all the collectibles on or you get through the post. (see pictures for examples of the kind... Read review

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Advantages: Refreshing cuppa, ensures the farmers get a better deal
Disadvantages: None

...of lemon. The product is also neatly pacakaged and comes in it's very own tea caddy enabling easy storage. The Co-op '99 tea range consists of 40, 80, 160 and 240 packs with decaffinated available in 40's and 80's. It is also available in the loose variety in 125g and 250g packs. The price is pretty competitive but obviously slightly more expensive than other supermarket own label tea bags which aren't soundly sourced so more than likely come from plantations with poor working conditions. In Asda and Tescos it's around 99p for 80 of their tea bags but the price varies between £1.29-£1.49 depending on the size of Co-op store, however it's regularly on promotion at 99p or 50% extra free so stock up then. So an excellent product, which represents excellent quality while ensuring that the farmers get a better deal, earning a decent wage... Read review

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Advantages: Taste, attractive colour, one bag makes two good cups
Disadvantages: Not the cheapest, no foil, no details of its origin

...of tea. Black with lemon then. Packaging and pricing:It comes in a distintive rectangular yellow and gold cardboard box in quantities of 40, 80 or 160 bags. I buy mine in Tesco where the 80 bag size often works out cheaper than the 160 thanks to their promotions. I last paid £1.49 for 80. Not the cheapest of course but good value for its quality taste. The box, which is marked as being recyclable, stacks easily on the larder shelf. To keep your tea fresh it is best to transfer the contents to a caddy or airtight container since there is no foil inner wrapper. Summary: Far better than just "everyday" based on my review as ImVeryNice on dooyoo.co.uk... Read review

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Advantages: affordable, tasty, available as caffeinated and decaffeinated
Disadvantages: not as good as Demmers

...cups, although I have found that a mug at breakfast is also acceptable, and the flavour is not tarnished by having a bog standard mug as a drinking receptacle. I generally get this in teabags, as they are the most practical, although obviously you can use teabags in a teapot. I tend to not leave the bag in for too long – about two minutes maximum, whilst I leave English Rose in the infuser for around three. So as for the availability: Twinings is available at most good supermarkets (and a few rotten ones too!) either in teabags or tealeaves, or from Twinings direct from their website (www.twinings.com). It is available either loose, or in teabags, and there is also a decaffeinated version available, and gift caddies (made of metal and look great in the kitchen!) with 50 bags available too. 50 tea bag caddies set you back £3.99 (ca. €6... Read review

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Advantages: Freeze Dried is quicker but bags are better flavour overall
Disadvantages: Freeze dried are a lot more expensive than bags

...first open it and the lid keeps it that way time and time again, a handy hint is to keep it in the jar rather than transfer to a caddy, the tea tends to go hard if you do this. So the packagings of both are similar and have the same aim, simple to use and to retain quality. Conclusion ~ Both types of tea are of a high quality and easily achieve my desired result with tweaking here and there. High standards are evident in both and I feel that as I have used Tetley tea bags more often than granules, it will take a while to get used to the idea of freeze dried tea. Overall I still prefer my tea bags but I will always have a jar of granules in the cupboard. In case of emergency break glass and all that!! Squidget 2002 :o)... Read review

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Advantages: Good northern brew
Disadvantages: You may have to order online

.... The first places they would search would be the attics and cellars. They usually found antiques which they could sell – let me tell you that they were two lucky bu….ers! One house they bought produced a selection of very old Ringtons teaware – tea pots, jugs and tea caddies. These were in the famous Ringtons blue and white design and were worth a lot of money. There are examples of these in the Sunderland Museum. As far as I am aware, I think she still owns these. Now, Ringtons keep bringing out various pieces for collection. For example, my mam bought a Millennium commemoration plate (blue and white) for herself and one for me. She keeps buying me little bits and pieces which I keep for my old age (just in case they become valuable). She bought a lovely Rington’s van money box for my eldest grandson which he keeps at my house – just... Read review

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Advantages: Lurvely Cuppa
Disadvantages: None

...'s it like?" I hear you say! It is a lovely good stong cuppa tea! If you dont like strong tea, then let it infuse for just 2 minutes, but for a really full strength cuppa tea with a lovely woody smell, then 4 minutes is plenty of time. The tea bags are squarish and unbleached (why other companies bleach them is beyond me) and having tipped them into my tea caddy, the box is empty - by that I mean there is not a load of tea dust sitting there that has escaped the teabags. My husband was very sceptical when he unpacked the shopping to find this tea and with a frown and 'yeuk' expression asked "what is this?". Well he has been drinking it now for the last week and agrees that it does make a lovely cuppa. ~BONUS TIME~ On the bottom of the box are instructions on how to make iced tea. Funnily enough I have never used this method... Read review

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