Yorkshire Tea is a black tea blend produced by The Bettys & Taylors Group. It is the second most popular tea brand in the UK, and was introduced in 1886 by Charles Edward Taylor. Founded as CE Taylor & Co., later shortened to "Taylor's", the company was purchased by rival 'Betty's Tea Rooms' which today forms The Bettys & Taylors Group. Taylor's is still based in Harrogate, Yorkshire, in the first 'Betty's' tea room. The group is still owned by the founder of Betty's' family, Fredrick Belmont and is currently chaired by Lesley Wild. The company is one of the few remaining family tea and coffee merchants in the country, whilst competing with the British-owned PG Tips (Unilever) and Tetley (Tata), where Yorkshire Tea is now the second most purchased tea brand in the UK, overtaking Twinings (Unilever) and Typhoo.
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Yorkshire Tea uses varieties of tea grown in Assam, Sri Lanka, and Kenya, blended to form four varieties:
- Yorkshire Tea (commonly known as Yorkshire Red)
- Yorkshire Tea for Hard Water
- Yorkshire Gold
- Yorkshire Tea Decaffeinated
The Yorkshire Tea brand is being extended to include a range of cakes, biscuits, and fruit loaves, sold as being complementary to drinking tea by its parent company The Bettys & Taylors Group, which owns cookery schools and tea rooms.
History
Yorkshire Tea was introduced by Charles Edward Taylor and his brother in 1883, creating their company, CE Taylor & Co., which was later shortened to "Taylor's". The brothers later opened "Tea Kiosks" in the Yorkshire towns of Harrogate and Ilkley, and in 1962, local tea room competitor 'Betty's' took over 'Taylor's', renamed it 'Taylors of Harrogate' and formed The Bettys & Taylors Group, which still to this day, is owned by the family of Fredrick Belmont, who founded 'Betty's Tea Rooms'. The Group now uses the 'Bettys' and 'Taylors' brands in a number of industries including Yorkshire Tea and Taylors Coffee Merchants under the 'Taylors of Harrogate' name and Bettys Tea Rooms, Bettys Cookery School and Bettys Confectionery under the 'Bettys' brand.
When Safeway was taken over by West Yorkshire-based Morrisons in 2004, commentators in the London press noted the amount of shelf space in one former Safeway store that was suddenly given over to Yorkshire Tea.
In 2009, the Prince of Wales granted Yorkshire Tea a Royal Warrant.
Until 2011 Taylor's of Harrogate supplied the tea free to branches of the WI (Women's Institute). The company has also sponsored ITV1's Yorkshire-based Heartbeat from 1998-2001.
By 2015, Yorkshire Tea was the third best-selling tea brand in Britain behind Tetley and PG Tips. By September 2017, it was the second best-selling brand behind PG Tips after having overtaken Tetley on sales in the traditional "black tea" market.
Advertising and popular culture
In 2007, a new TV campaign was created using the line "Try It, You'll See", voiced by Bill Nighy.
Yorkshire Gold is mentioned in the popular Showtime TV series Homeland as a favourite of protagonist Sergeant Nicholas Brody. Ian Brabbin, tea buyer at Bettys and Taylors of Harrogate said: "We were both surprised and delighted to discover that Yorkshire Gold has been given such a starring role in Homeland and are looking forward to seeing the show when it arrives on our screens here later in the year. We are no strangers to the small screen - Yorkshire Tea has also made a cameo appearance on Friends, not to mention our ever growing band of celebrity fans such as Noel Gallagher and Alan Carr."
Also on the celebrity fan list are Russell Crowe, who posted on Twitter about the beverage in 2012, and who visited Yorkshire Teas' headquarters in Harrogate whilst touring with his band. Other aficionados include Martha Reeves, who was also featured on the social media site holding Yorkshire Tea paraphernalia, and Sir Patrick Stewart who indicated Yorkshire Gold as his favourite tea during a Reddit AMA.
Yorkshire Tea is notable for its packaging which features romanticised Yorkshire Dales landscapes, although from time to time it explores other themes. As an official supporter of the Grand Départ of the 2014 Tour de France in Yorkshire, Yorkshire Tea produced a special edition sample pack rebranded as Yorkshire Thé. As well as the name change, the orange on the usual box was replaced with yellow.
In 2016 Yorkshire Tea was made available inside a promotional tea caddy linked to a tree planting campaign with artwork featuring characters from the children's book The Gruffalo and branded Yorkshire Tree.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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