Triangular tea bags make better tea than round ones: UK advertising watchdog

The UK advertising watchdog, Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) this week ruled on a matter involving the claims of Unilever's PG Tips which makes triangular (tetrahedric) tea bags in a long-running dispute with a rival.

The tea maker claimed in an advertisement on TV that its tea bags were better at brewing tea than round tea bags. Rival Tetley, which makes round tea bags, contested the claims.

The advert shows roly-poly funnyman Johnny Vegas's monkey mate say "there's no other tea to beat PG".

Vegas asks his pal, "Monkey, you know how you always say, 'there's no other tea to beat PG' … What if you're lying'?"

The monkey then demonstrates how the pyramid gives the tea leaves more room to circulate.

Tetley claimed rival PG Tips' advert, was misleading and exaggerated the difference in 'brewing power' between a pyramid and a round tea bag.

The ASA however, ruled in favour of Unilever, the parent company of PG Tips.

It said: ''We considered consumers would interpret the demonstration [in the PG Tips advert] to mean that, in general, a pyramid tea bag was more efficient at brewing tea than a round tea bag.

"Unilever provided test results which showed that the infusion of tea, at 40 seconds and two minutes into brewing, was greater when using a pyramid tea bag than when using a round tea bag.

"We therefore concluded that the ad... was not misleading."