Yorkshire Tea launches campaign for a Proper Brew

Yorkshire Tea are encouraging the catering industry to get its standard tea right following new consumer research which shows that tea out of home lacks taste and strength.

The Campaign for a Proper Brew highlights consumer dissatisfaction with tea out of home, often due to cafés and restaurants using One Cup teabags, which contain less tea than standard-sized teabags and, consequently, weaker tea. But it also reveals the proper profits that can be made by getting tea right.

The Yorkshire Tea survey, conducted in partnership with YouGov, surveyed over 2,000 people across the UK.

Of the respondents surveyed, 44% named tea as their preferred hot drink at home, with just 31% opting for coffee. In contrast, when out of home, only 15% opt for tea the most, with 49% choosing to drink coffee instead. Tea drinkers (40%) said that the last cup of tea they drank out of home was worse than the tea they generally drink at home, with 13% saying that it was much worse.28% of those who have drunk tea out of home were not satisfied with the last cup of tea they were served in this setting and of those that rated their last cup of tea at an out of home establishment as worse than the tea they drink at home, 53% said it didn't taste as good, 49% said it was weaker than they would like it to be and 22% said they did not have access to their preferred tea brand.

Yorkshire Tea is currently the only major standard black tea brand to offer the same strength across all its products, regardless of where a consumer drinks their brew, following a move last year to increase the teabag weight of its One Cup lines to match its retail offering. The brand increased the teabag weight of the Yorkshire Tea One Cup bags from 2.5g to 3.125g, in a move aimed at guaranteeing a proper, consistent brew for all customers both in and out of home, in line with consumer demand for taste and quality. It also removed the One Cup wording from its packaging.

Natalie Cross, out of home manager at Taylors of Harrogate, said: "Our research clearly shows that consumers are disappointed by the tea they drink in cafés and restaurants around the UK and that the industry needs to act to make sure that they are delivering what their customers want. Black tea with milk is still the preferred tea option out of home with 61% regularly consuming this brew and so caterers need to get their standard tea right."