Trouble brewing! Yorkshire Tea finds itself in a pot of bother as its new eco-friendly teabags SPLIT in hot water to the despair of drinkers left with leaves floating in their cuppas
- New eco-friendly teabags have left many loyal customers stewing in despair
- The bags no longer rely on plastic to stay sealed and are now biodegradable
- They’re splitting when dunked in hot water creating a sludge at the bottom of cups and mugs
It promises a ‘proper brew’ to a nation of tea fanatics.
But Yorkshire Tea’s new eco-friendly teabags have left many loyal customers stewing in despair.
The bags, which no longer rely on plastic to stay sealed and are now biodegradable, are splitting when dunked in hot water – creating a filthy sludge at the bottom of cups and mugs.
One Twitter user, Elizabeth Alker, said: ‘Has anyone else noticed that Yorkshire Tea bags are quite burst-able? I’m suffering with my second box of it and my decaf ones aren’t very reliable either.’
Yorkshire Tea’s new eco-friendly teabags have left many loyal customers stewing in despair
Another poster uploaded a picture of their split bag and wrote: ‘What’s going on? This is the second dodgy batch I’ve had in the last couple of months.’
One recent convert to the brand wrote: ‘I’ve been drinking your tea the last month or so (having been a Tetley drinker all my life) and I really enjoy the taste – what I don’t enjoy is the number of split teabags I’m getting. Every third or fourth bag split – what’s that about?’
BT Sport football commentator Darren Fletcher wrote: ‘Shocking developments this morning in the Fletcher household – the normally reliable Yorkshire Tea Gold is shambolic. Every tea bag we have used has split. Dodgy box – or is it new paper? Things may never be the same again!’
Yorkshire Tea is the second biggest seller in the UK, after PG Tips, and last year accounted for 23 per cent of all tea bought in the UK.
Last night the company admitted to changing the make-up of its teabags by removing the oil-based plastic used to seal them.
Olympic triathletes Alistair and Jonny Brownlee are ambassadors for the Yorkshire Tea brand
Responding to the online criticism, the company wrote on Twitter: ‘We’re sorry about this! We’re replacing the plastic that sealed them, to make them biodegradable. It’s early days so we’re really keen to hear feedback – and we promise we’ll make it up to you.’
According to another company post on Twitter, all premium Yorkshire Gold tea bags made since October are biodegradable. Other products in the Yorkshire Tea range are thought to be phasing in the eco-bags.
Yorkshire Tea’s parent company, Bettys and Taylors, told The Sun: ‘We’ve had a technical issue with a batch of tea bags which are becoming unsealed during brewing.
‘This has occurred due to a combination of factors including the fact that we’ve started to switch to plant-based tea bag paper. But this alone has not caused the issue.’
The teabag storm follows the decision last year from the makers of Yorkshire Tea to increase the pre-printed price on packs of 40 bags supplied to convenience stores by 7 per cent, from £1.39 to £1.49.
The decision was thought to be due to the falling value of the pound after the vote to leave the European Union and cost pressures on tea growers in Asia and Africa.