Yorkshire Tea
Taylors of harrogate, the mother company of Yorkshire Tea believes in doing good. That means trading in a fair and responsible way, and it also means creating good products – making top quality teas that taste delicious. They’ve stayed true to those beliefs for more than 130 years, as they’ve grown from a tiny family business to a company that sells tea to 50 countries around the world. And because they’re independent, they’ve never had to compromise those family values. They have two unique brands. Taylors of Harrogate speciality teas, offering a wide range of black, green and fruit and herbal varieties. And the UK’s favourite black tea, Yorkshire Tea.
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This is the UK's No.1 Black Tea
Taylors of Harrogate story starts way back in 1886, when a man named Charles Taylor and his two sons set up a tea and coffee company. Back then, the old water networks meant the taste of tap water could vary from street to street – but by buying the best and creating bespoke blends to suit each customer’s water supply, C. E. Taylors & Sons became known for quality. Before long they picked up a national award, winning a gold medal at the London Grocery Exhibition in 1896.
Charles Taylor set up tea and coffee kiosks in towns around Yorkshire, and a flagship store in Harrogate. Known across the region as a destination for tea lovers, it’s still open today as the home of their sister company, Bettys. Meanwhile, they keep the Taylors tradition alive in the factory and offices across the other side of town.
Over a century later, our business is still independent, still family-owned and still based in Harrogate. Taylors of Harrogate has grown a bit since those early days. They now have a few hundred employees, from the trainees who learn the craft for several years becoming tea buyers, to the men and women who keep the factory running, the talented cooks in the staff cafe and the sustainability team who make sure they always buy ethically and find great community projects they can support.
Yorkshire Tea is the most famous tea that they make, but they stay true to Charles Taylor’s legacy by creating a whole host of teas and infusions – from speciality black teas to green teas, and fruit and herbal infusions.
Even though they’re a little bigger today than they were in 1886, their values haven’t changed. Their family company is now in its fourth-generation, and that sense of family still defines how they act.
They think of their business as a legacy, to be handed down to future generations of stakeholders. And by stakeholders, they mean everyone who contributes to the business’s success, from the family owners to the people who work for them, the communities they operate and trade in, their suppliers and their customers. Honouring those values puts them in a different position to many businesses – it gives them the freedom to take time, to put real care into what they do, and to prioritise doing the right thing over pure profit. When you’re protecting a 130-year family legacy, you think about the long term.
And because they’re independent, they’ve been able to stick to that vision. They’ve never compromised on their love of fairness, flavour and quality – and just like their founder, they’re still completely, utterly devoted to the art of tea.
