Canstar Blue’s latest tea bags review compares Nerada, Tetley, T2, Lipton, Twinings, Bushells, Coles, Dilmah and Woolworths on range variety, taste, packaging design, value for money and overall satisfaction.
Aussies have rated Nerada best in Canstar Blue’s tea bags review, scoring the brand five-star reviews for taste, value for money, and overall satisfaction.
Tea drinking is almost like a ritual on a cold day – boiling the kettle, sitting down on the couch, wrapping yourself up in a blanket and opening up a good book. It’s also nice to simply catch up with friends over a nice cup of tea. So, step aside coffee lovers – with an endless variety of blends to choose from, there’s bound to be something for everyone, whether it’s a hearty black tea for breakfast, or a nice herbal tisane before bed. But finding ‘quali-tea’ isn’t always easy, and that’s where our annual tea bags review comes in.
To find out which brands are rated best in Australia, Canstar Blue asked more than 1,300 Aussie consumers for feedback on the different brands of tea bags they’ve purchased (from a grocer or specialty shop) and tried over the last three months. Survey respondents rated brands on taste, variety, packaging design, value for money and overall satisfaction. Those that met the minimum required survey sample size (30 responses) are included in the results. So, what did we find?
Aussies rated Nerada as ‘tea-riffic’, with five-star reviews for taste, value for money, and overall satisfaction!
Here are the best brands of tea bags in Australia, as rated by consumers in Canstar Blue’s latest review:
Nerada claimed the top spot after scooping up five-star reviews in most research categories, including overall satisfaction. Most other brands ended on four stars overall, while Coles, Dilmah, and Woolworths finished on three stars. Although, T2 took a bite out of Nerada’s winnings, rating best for variety (as did Twinings) and packaging design.
Brewing fresh and sustainable teas is what keeps Nerada tea going, offering a wide selection of black and green teas, organic tea, probiotic tea and herbal infusions. The brand also takes advantage of the subtropical climate in North Queensland to produce unblended single-origin tea, and claims to use pesticide-free farming methods, as well as to source its water from natural rainfall (rather than irrigation). Most products come with 50 tea bags, although there are packs of 20 or 40 alternatively available. You can additionally find loose-leaf versions.
Some flavours from Nerada’s range of tea bags include:
Nerada achieved five-star reviews for taste, value for money and overall satisfaction. It also got four stars for variety and packaging design.
There are many different types of tea out there, with brands getting more experimental by adding in different flavours, fruits and spices to jazz things up a little. Here are the most common types of teas explained.
Black tea is perhaps the most popular of all varieties and is where classic favourites such as English Breakfast and Earl Grey fall under. Black tea is fully oxidised, and is most commonly produced in India. There are three types of black tea produced in India – Darjeeling, Assam and Nilgiri. Ceylon is another popular variety from Sri Lanka. Even within this category there are many subcategories – ones even the biggest tea buff would have trouble being an expert in. For a classic cuppa out on the deck, you can’t go wrong with black tea.
Black tea is perhaps the most popular of all varieties and is where classic favourites such as English Breakfast and Earl Grey fall under. Black tea is fully oxidised, and is most commonly produced in India. There are three types of black tea produced in India – Darjeeling, Assam and Nilgiri. Ceylon is another popular variety from Sri Lanka. Even within this category there are many subcategories – ones even the biggest tea buff would have trouble being an expert in. For a classic cuppa out on the deck, you can’t go wrong with black tea.
Oolong tea is perhaps the most complex tea out there to perfect, and there’s a lot of variety. Oolong tea can be very lightly oxidised, or heavily oxidised to give the desired characteristics and profile. Oolong tea generally needs to be steeped multiple times to get the most from it, with aromas and tastes commonly fruity. As a fun fact, ‘oolong’ comes from the term ‘Wu-long’, which is Chinese for ‘black dragon’. So, get some fire in your belly and sip on an oolong.
Gaining in popularity in Australia are herbal teas, so what are they? Well, herbal infusions are extra ingredients added to the process other than tea leaves. The technical term for herbal tea is ‘tisane’. Here you’ll find teas such as chamomile, peppermint and lemongrass and ginger among other flavours. Really, the possibilities are endless, with flavours as exotic as rose, liquorice, choc mint and beyond.
It’s fine to drink tea daily, as long as it’s consumed in moderation. Due to the caffeine content in tea, it’s generally recommended to have no more than four cups of tea (250ml each) every day. You should have even less if you’re a coffee drinker or enjoy other products with caffeine like energy drinks, weight loss shakes, or even dark or milk chocolate.
This report was written by Canstar Blue’s home & lifestyle journalist, Tahnee-Jae Lopez-Vito. She’s an expert on household appliances, grooming products and all things grocery and shopping. In addition to translating our expert research into consumer-friendly ratings reports, Tahnee spends her time helping consumers make better-informed purchase decisions on all manner of consumer goods and services, while highlighting the best deals and anything you need to be aware of.
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Picture credits: Africa Studio/Shutterstock.com,/Graphbottles/Shutterstock.com,/Vinne/Shutterstock.com,/Antonova Ganna/Shutterstock.com.
Canstar Blue surveyed more than 3,000 Australian adults across a range of categories to measure and track customer satisfaction, via ISO 26362 accredited research panels managed by Qualtrics. The outcomes reported are the results from customers within the survey group who have purchased (from a supermarket or grocer) and consumed tea bags in the last three months – in this case, 1,349 people.
Brands must have received at least 30 responses to be included. Results are comparative and it should be noted that brands receiving three stars have still achieved a satisfaction measure of at least six out of 10. Not all brands available in the market have been compared in this survey. The ratings table is first sorted by star ratings and then by mean overall satisfaction. A rated brand may receive a ‘N/A’ (Not Applicable) rating if it does not receive the minimum number of responses for that criteria.
Here are the previous winners of Canstar Blue’s tea bags review:
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