Yes this is what I've got up to on a dull Tuesday night to really spice things up.

I basically put each box away once I'd put a bag in the mug and taken a picture, then muddled up the order. We have Twinings English Breakfast (they had no small boxes of their everyday tea), Ty-Phoo, Yorkshire Tea, Tetley, ASDA essentials tea, and PG tips (the one on the end).

We naturally thought the best tasting tea was PG tips but were blown away at the reveal. We ranked them as follows:

  1. ASDA brand

  2. Yorkshire Tea

  3. Twinings

  4. PG Tips

  5. Tetley

  6. Ty-Phoo

When we saw the top ranked tea was ASDA, and that we placed PG in 4th (was a little obnoxiously bitter) couldn't believe it.

I suspected Ty-Phoo would be shit rightly so, we'd ranked it last, and it was the only one we guessed right. All the other teas were a nice gold, except for Ty-Phoo which was the colour of something you'd find dripping through the drain of a washing machine.

I feel like I'm questioning everything, and we realised our opinions of teas are coloured less by their taste, and more by our pre-conceptions (except for Ty-phoo, an absolute pover-tea).

But yes now we have 100s of tea bags to get through so will have to find a suitable home for some.

by foxfunk

31 comments

  1. Nope. Co-op tea wins…

    But all is forgiven with that motley mug crue!

  4. I knew Yorkshire Tea would be up there because i reckon i’m the best TEA CONNOISSEUR.

  5. Could some brands require more or less time to brew? Particularly with the overly bitter or insipid ones?

    Regardless, fascinating work and good job.

  6. Sounds like your workplace’s break room is about to get a donation of some not great teabags! This is weirdly fascinating to me, I’d love to try something similar at some point with coffee.

  8. We made the mistake (or maybe not) of trying Rington’s Gold tea. We no longer buy anything else and have started buying it in 400 bag boxes (catering size).

    Definitely worth picking some up to add to your experiment.

  9. My wife (a non tea drinker) made me do this, and I couldn’t tell the difference between Tetley and Tesco basics. So now I get basics and save a good few quid each time.

  10. Good work. If you run it again, one person makes the tea and jumbles the mugs and then leaves the room. The taster comes in and tastes without the maker being there.

    Make your notes, then reverse the process (and of course jumble up the mugs). Or even better, use multiple versions of the same plain mug.

  11. Pg tips gradually got worse and worse over the years.. that’s probably why you didn’t notice.

    Heinz beans is another one people are victims of, that stuff is nasty compared to what it used to be.

  12. Need to be more scientific for this important research.

    For example, you used all different size of cups, which would of produced different amounts of water and milk so brew may of been weaker.

    If you gunna do it, do it right.
    Respect the tea

  13. “We naturally thought the best tasting tea was PG tips”

    You should be shot for your crimes

  14. I worry about the inconsistency of the mug sizes here.

  17. Seems reasonable to me that as a major retailer, they might have an agreement with Taylor’s to make a white-label product for Asda to use as their own brand tea.

    Basically, I’m trying to find any excuse that Yorkshire Tea is still number one.

    Asda is headquartered in Yorkshire?

    Edit: quality effort and commitment though to the holy arts of brew making.

  18. I’ve not tried Asda tea but will give it a go now. Yorkshire Tea is my current favourite and I expected it to be high in your list. Twinnings English Breakfast is my second. Tetley I didn’t get on with.. it had a bitter taste to it, so my ranking of that would be close to yours.

  19. Did you measure the amount of water put into each cup? If you’re putting 180ml into one and 300 ml into the other, it’s not a fair comparison, or? Same goes for milk.

  20. Coop own brand tea – Converted to this from Yorkshire tea (and half through price) Never looked back!

  21. Thought you photographed them in order of best to worst and was deeply concerned about Typhoo taking 2nd.

    Relieved to see the actual rankings have it firmly where it belongs.

  22. To add an Irish perspective, Typhoo, Tetleys and PG tips are all awful (honestly it tastes artificial)

    Yorkshire Tea is the only branded tea from England I have enjoyed.

    But over here also I would place our supermarket brand teas at the top along with Barry’s. I always buy the 160 pack from Lidl or Dunnes, cheap af and does the job better

  23. A slight problem with tea is that it also depends on the water you make it with. I live in a hard water area, had some PG tips elsewhere and it was completely foreign to me

  24. Twinings and Yorkshire are my goto’s, not really surprised about the bottom 3 tbh

  25. I like to do this, so far we did it with lurpak and knock off brands. My partner used to like lurpak and he guessed wrong. Luckily I converted him into a butter lover

    Next on my taste testing list are tomatoes and strawberries

  27. Asda being top is a surprise, but anyone would be a fool for thinking PG tips is better than Yorkshire.

  28. Tea as a category is a declining market in the U.K. your post will likely be picked up by a PR team and featured on a tabloid. Good job. I’m going to Asda now.

  30. The results here 🤯 I love the commitment that went into this!

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