Yorkshire’s Tea Drinking Habits Revealed

With Yorkshire Day on August 1st, new research into tea drinking habits has revealed that people in Yorkshire drink an average of four cups of tea every day, working out at a whopping 22.5m brews across the county.

The study by carpet specialist, ScS, looked at how many brews are being drunk across the UK as well as the most popular time to pop on the kettle. Yorkshire’s most popular tea-time was found to be 8am, with over a third (35%) brewing at this time. Leeds and York came amongst the top tea drinking cities (5th and 10th in a top ten list).

Top ten tea-drinking regions in the UK and average cups drank a day:

1. Northern Ireland - 7.9 cups per day

2. North East - 5.9 cups per day

3. London - 5.6 cups per day

4. North West - 4.7 cups per day

5. East of England - 4.6 cups per day

6. South West - 4.2 cups per day

7. Yorkshire - 4.1 cups per day

8. Scotland - 4.1 cups per day

9. East Midlands - 4 cups per day

10. Wales - 3.9 cups per day

When adding a spoonful of sugar to the mix, over three quarters of Yorkshire don’t have any, the least of any region of the UK.


Looking at the preferred time to have a brew in Yorkshire, a fifth (22%) confessed to having one at 9pm while curled up on the sofa or tucked up in bed, when most are settling down for the night. However, when it comes to drifting off to sleep at night, 65% confessed that tea disrupts their sleep. But what is it about the public’s beloved tea that is harming their nighttime rest?

Lisa Artis, Sleep Advisor from The Sleep Council, comments on why you shouldn’t drink tea before bedtime:

“Caffeine is a stimulant which blocks the sleep-inducing chemicals in the brain, increasing adrenaline production, and making it harder to fall asleep. Each cup of black tea contains approximately 40 to 70mg of caffeine, which is roughly half as much as is in a cup of coffee. When you drink a cup of tea, the caffeine is absorbed by your body in roughly half an hour. This then disrupts the function of one of the body’s key sleep-inducing molecules, adenosine.

“Every individual has a different reaction to caffeine, so it’s difficult to pinpoint an exact time to stop drinking tea before bed. Ideally, we should stop three to four hours before sleep. However, some may prefer to stop drinking it much earlier on in the day, and others have no problems when drinking tea just before bed! If you’re someone who can struggle to fall asleep, I’d suggest going caffeine-free earlier than you usually would, and see what happens.”

Commenting on the research, Dale Gillespie, from ScS, said:

“It’s no shock to see how much Yorkshire loves tea - I’m sure a lot of people couldn’t go without a cuppa to get them through the day. Although tea might be affecting our sleep, it seems as though nothing could stop the nation from drinking our beloved hot drink entirely, but it’s definitely worth being mindful when drinking lots of caffeine if we’re hoping for a better night’s kip. ”

For more interesting tea statistics, as well as a regional map showing how tea drinking habits differ across the UK, please visit: www.scs.co.uk/lifestyle/timefortea