Tetley, Yorkshire Tea, Typhoo and PG Tips compared to supermarket's 1p tea bags

Costs of everyday staples have gone through the roof and tea bags are no different, with nearly all the supermarkets increasing the price of their cheapest packs over recent weeks, including Lidl and Tesco, who put theirs up by 14p a box and 10p a box respectively.

In light of that, I decided to compare the cheapest tea bags to the priciest and best-known to see which one would taste best. That meant comparing Lidl's Knightsbridge Red Label tea bags against Tetley, Typhoo, Yorkshire Tea and PG Tips. You can also read how McVitie's digestives compared with Asda, Aldi and Lidl versions here.

They all come with various instructions on the boxes, ranging from 'best brewed for 1-2 minutes' on the PG Tips box to 'allow to brew for 3-5 minutes' with Typhoo. I followed what I'd usually do when making a brew: pouring in the water, stirring, leaving for a little while before giving it a final squeeze on the edge of the mug and then adding the milk. I've never had any complaints.

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Taste wise, they all make a decent brew and I wouldn't turn any of them down, especially if someone else was making them. The Typhoo one was a little weaker than the others, but perhaps that's because I didn't follow the instructions to a T and leave it for up to five minutes. But I'd spend half my life in the kitchen if I did that every time I made a cuppa.

If I had to pick a favourite of the big brands though it would have to be Yorkshire Tea, which I felt had the strongest yet smoothest flavour. But when you weigh up the cost of a box these days - £5.49 for a pack of 210 at Tesco and Aldi - the difference between Yorkshire Tea and Lidl's Knightsbridge in no way justifies the added cost. When a box of 240 from Lidl costs £2.79, little more than a penny per bag and less than half the price, I know which ones I'll be sticking with.