PG tips has become the latest big-name brand to quietly shrink its product but not the cost – in a step likely to infuriate Britain 's tea lovers . The pyramid teabags are sold on the basis they contain exactly the right amount of tea for a perfect cuppa . But each one now has had its leaves reduced by 0.2g , meaning a box of 80 regular teabags has come down in weight from 250g to 232g . That is the equivalent of six teabags – yet the price of the boxes has stayed the same . The change was made so quietly that it seems even supermarkets were caught by surprise . Rip-off : Each PG tips teabag has had its leaves reduced by 0.2g , meaning a box of 80 regular teabags has come down in weight from 250g to 232g . This week , Tesco stores had shelf labels with a price of £1.99 for a box of 80 PG tips at 250g . But the boxes on the shelf were the new version , weighing 232g . The change was spotted by a former buying director for Tesco , Safeway and Nisa , Melvyn Searle , who said : ' I have never seen anything like this in my many years in the grocery trade . 'They have reduced the weight of tea in the teabag but not the number of teabags in the box . 'People are getting less tea and that must reduce its strength . It is very strange . I really feel that customers are being short-changed . 'This is one of the biggest tea brands in the country and people will rightly want to know where their tea has gone . ' The lighter teabags have resulted in the weight of other PG tips ' boxes coming down , too . A box of 40 is now 116g instead of 125g , the 160 pack is 464g , not 500g , and the 240 carton is 696g , down from 750g . Every day , 165million cups of tea are drunk in the UK . Ninety-six per cent of these are brewed from teabags . This means even a tiny reduction in weight can equate to millions of pounds of savings for manufacturers . But last night PG tips ' parent company Unilever said that the weight change was due to a different mix of leaves – and that the tea still tasted exactly the same . A spokesman explained : 'We 've introduced a new blend and new bags whilst ensuring the same great taste of PG tips . Sneaky : The change was made so quietly that it seems even supermarkets were caught by surprise . Spot the difference : This week , Tesco had shelf labels pricing a 250g box of 80 teabags at ��1.999 - even though the boxes on the shelves were the new 232g versions . 'Our new blend includes a proportion of leaves that have been pressed to release a natural tea juice . 'This , combined with new paper , complements the blend , ensuring that the brewing time is unaffected and flavour of the blend is as great as it 's always been . ' The firm said it had tested its new bags with hundreds of customers who were happy with the flavour . But Which ? consumer group claimed the change was another example of 'Grocery Shrink Ray ' . This is the increasingly popular trend for big-brand manufacturers to shrink their products without offering corresponding cuts in the prices . The net result is a stealth price rise , because customers get less for their money . Other culprits in the last five years have included Cadbury Dairy Milk , which reduced its 140g bar to 120g , Walkers Crisps ( 34.5g to 32.5g ) , Mars Bars ( 58g to 51g ) , Nestlé Munchies ( 150g to 126g ) and Cadbury Creme Egg multi-packs ( six eggs down to five ) . In all cases , the prices remained the same . Which ? executive director Richard Lloyd said : 'Shrinking products can be a sneaky way of putting up costs for consumers because pack sizes shrink but the prices do n't . 'We want simpler pricing so that people can easily compare products to see which is the cheapest . '
Each teabag has had its leaves reduced to 0.2g but prices remain the same . The weight of regular box of 80 teabags has gone down from 250g to 232g . Change made so secretively that even some supermarkets did not notice . Tesco priced 250g box at £1.99 even though new version was on shelves .