UK Shelf Tea: Tetley
As part of a regular set of reviews on major UK tea brands you can buy in the supermarket I’ll be reviewing Tetley today. Tetley is very much a ‘builders tea’ which should be drunk strong to make up for its weak flavour.
First a little history
Tetley started its life 1822 when two brothers, Joseph and Edward Tetley started to sell salt in Yorkshire. They started to sell tea as well and became so successful that they set up, in 1837, as the tea merchants, “Joseph Tetley & Co.”. They moved to London in 1856 and set up “Joseph Tetley & Company, Wholesale Tea Dealers”.
Tetley was famous for being the first company that launched tea in tea-bags in the UK in 1953.
In terms of sales in the UK they’re the third largest but in the world they are the biggest by volume and only second biggest by revenue (to Unilever – owners of PG Tips).
Enough History! How does is taste
Mediocre at best but and in the groupings of British shelf teas I’d put it below Yorkshire tea and about equal with PG Tips. Its loose leaf variety has very little difference in taste or feel so don’t be suckered into thinking loose leaf is any better. Its got a richer colour than Typhoo or PG but this doesn’t translate into a richer taste. I’d give this a quite poor:
2/5
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