Tea Blog

At just about a century and a quarter, British tea company Taylors of Harrogate could be considered a relative youngster, especially when you consider that there are British tea merchants who have been doing their thing for more than 300 years. Things got underway for Taylors of Harrogate in 1886, when brothers Charles and Llewellyn Taylor went into the business of importing coffee and tea. The popular Yorkshire Tea brand came along in the 1970s, and these days the company claims that British tea drinkers consume more than ten million cups of that beloved brand daily.

As a recent article in the company’s hometown paper noted, Yorkshire Tea has been around for a while but it could hardly be accused of being set in its ways. As the article reports, the company has wholeheartedly embraced social media, particularly Twitter and YouTube, and is said to be the beverage of choice of a number of pop music luminaries, including such mega-stars as Madonna and Ozzy Osbourne.

Yorkshire Tea is one of a number of much loved and rather iconic British tea brands but here on the other side of the Atlantic it’s not nearly so well-known. Which is a situation the company is working hard to resolve. One of their strategies for drumming up interest among us Yanks was to send out a converted ice cream van last year, which traveled the country, dispensing tea and good cheer and promoting brand awareness. The Little Urn served up a river of tea and racked up nearly 5,000 miles before it was all said and done. While it may not have come to your town, you can recreate some of those moments in videos featured at the company’s YouTube channel.

If you need any more proof that Yorkshire Tea is a distinguished brand, consider that, in 2009, as the company points out, “The Prince of Wales granted us the Royal Warrant of Appointment for supplying Clarence House – his London residence – for over five years.” In this matter they join other such tea-related Royal warrant holders as Twinings of London.

While it’s not directly related to the matter at hand, here’s an interesting snippet from a 1901 edition of The Smart Set magazine. It notes that the menu for a Yorkshire tea (the meal, not the brand), is to “Put everything eatable in the house on the table.”

See also:
Taylors of Harrogate Know Tea

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