Whenever the subject of tea comes up in my house, my missus asks me what sort of tea I drink. I always reply “I drink Yorkshire Tea nowadays.”
Why? Well, because I’m a twat but also as a reference to an old Yorkshire Tea advert where a right Hannah Hauxwell would wax lyrical about The Way Things Used To Be (coal in the bath, pigeons down t’pit, steak-and-kidney vests et al) and explain her movement away from Soft, Limp-Wristed Southern Tea towards No-Nonsense, Hairy-Arsed Northern Tea.
Using the north as a kind of short-hand for stuff that’s plain-speaking and straight-forward – the kind of adverts that probably don’t eat any foreign muck – is hardly new and is also currently seen on the Plusnet adverts, but no-one has really mined this seam as thoroughly as Yorkshire Tea. Funnily enough I don’t mind this – parent company Bettys and Taylors of Harrogate is still family-owned and runs a number of small, independent tea/coffee shops throughout Yorkshire. More power to them.
Aside from its irritating ubiquity, there’s something specific about this Yorkshire Tea advert that annoys me however. It’s the trick photography used to show a giant sugar lump being CGI’d into a giant tea mug. If authenticity and doing this properly is your watchword, this strikes me as a cheat.
That’s not enough to put me off sticking it in my shopping basket however. Whether it’s the blend or the blarney, either way, I drink Yorkshire Tea nowadays.