The descriptions on Yorkshire's websites (reproduced below) are quite vague. There is a link for "More info" but that simply directs you to betty.co.uk where the same info is reprinted.
Gold is more expensive. Right now, at betty.co.uk, for a box of 160 bags (500g), Yorkshire Gold is £5.29 and Yorkshire tea is £4.29 (excluding shipping and all that). On Amazon.com (USA), the prices (with 5% S&S discount) are $19.09 and $13.00 respectively.
My questions are:
- Do the tea leaves for Yorkshire Tea (red band) and Yorkshire Gold come from different sources?
- Is there any objective sense in which Yorkshire Gold is better (hence justifying the higher price)?
- In taste tests, could one tell the difference between the two? (Right now I happen to be having a cup of Yorkshire Tea and it seems to be a tad weaker than Gold, which I last had a couple of weeks ago, but I could just be imagining things. Briefly Googling, I see some discussions on various forums. Many claim that Gold is better. But some claim it is not as good.)
Descriptions from Yorkshire's website
A proper brew. Pure and simple. To give our blend its refreshing flavour, strength and colour we use top quality Assam and African teas. In the tea trade we’re renowned for paying more to get the pick of the crop. Our experts travel the world to find the people who grow the best teas, which we then blend together using our secret recipe to create a traditional, satisfying brew.
Here at Yorkshire Tea we know that the best tea is about the best blend of leaves. And the finest blend we make is Yorkshire Gold. We choose teas from our three favourite origins and buy them from the top ten tea gardens in the world. Back home in Yorkshire, our master blenders bring these luxury leaves together to make a rich, smooth and incredibly satisfying brew.
Best Answer
Speaking very generally, there are three bands of quality when it comes to black tea in the UK Market.
Brown (Economy) is your lowest grade, it is the cheapest in the shops and usually very dusty and fibrous. The flavor is weak and the color with milk is a dull brown.Teas can come from central Africa, south India, Argentina and the middle east.
Red is the middle of the road tea, covering about 80% of the black tea market. This is your Tetley, PG, Yorkshire Red etc, that have good flavor and strength and is with milk the color comes out red (there's a pattern here).Teas for this type of blend usually originate from central and east Africa.
Gold is the premium quality blend, tasting full of flavor, strength and character. These blends are your Yorkshire Gold, Dorset Tea, Clipper Gold,M&S Gold using the highest quality gardens including Rwanda, Kenya, Assam (North India) and Sri Lanka. In case you haven't guessed already, the color with milk is gold.
There are no official perimeters in place for these categories which means some tea companies abuse this, but with Yorkshire, Gold is definitely better than Red.