We’re always banging on at Yorkshire Tea about putting quality tea in to get a quality tea out. But what about the things we put our tea into?

Around 97% of Yorkshire Tea is sold in tea bags. And because it’s such a rich and refreshing blend of the finest quality Assam and Kenyan teas, it needs a tea bag that can handle all that taste and strength.

So while our tea is ‘eight times tested’ (from harvest in the tea gardens overseas to just before it leaves our Harrogate factory) to ensure it hits you in tip top condition, our tea bags are really put through their paces too.

Have you ever seen anyone lift 349 times their bodyweight? In boiling water? For 3 minutes? We thought not. However, that’s precisely what Sarah, and the rest of our Quality Assurance team, put Yorkshire Tea tea bags through every two hours.

Sarah starts testing the ‘integrity’ of our tea bags’ seams by taking random samples and slicing two sides off, to form a loop. She then hangs two tea bags from a suspension bar.

Next comes the painful bit.

Sarah takes two specially made, miniature stainless steel dumbbells that weigh precisely 60g and suspends these through the loop in each tea bag. Then she lowers them into boiling water and leaves them hanging there for exactly 3 minutes. (And if you’re wondering what the balls are in the pic, they’re to stop boiling water splashing Sarah.)

That’s the equivalent of you holding about 24 tons!

If the dumbbell is still firmly in the tea bag’s grip after that time, then that batch has passed. If it isn’t… well, it doesn’t even bear thinking about.

So there you go. That’s the secret of how Yorkshire Tea pumps iron to raise the bar in terms of quality.