Most mornings, I make a big pot of tea and split it with the husband. But our tea tastes differ on a few big points, the biggest being smoky teas. Recently, we picked up a few bagged teas for him to have on the days I want something smoky – I don’t have to ignore my lovely lapsangs and he doesn’t get tortured by them, so it’s a win/win. I decided that I wanted to sample and compare two of his teas – the PG Tips and the Yorkshire Gold – because really, why not? So that’s what I did this morning. The brewing parameters were identical – one teabag, 6 oz, 4 minutes in a preheated cup, first taken plain then with a bit of sugar and half & half. Of course, this will result in two tasting notes so pardon the repetition.
First up, PG Tips. Out of curiosity, I weighed the bag. 3.2g. ROT, are you paying attention? Popped it in the cup, brewed it up. It’s a lot darker than the YG – I can’t see the bottom of the cup at all and it looks a tad cloudy. The smell is nutty, starchy and a bit flat – very similar to YG’s but a little earthier. Without additives it tasted pretty much liked it smelled. Solidly chewy, a little nutty and fairly flat. It had a bitter aftertaste that made my mouth feel sticky but I was pretty much expecting it to given the fact that it is a bagged tea and I brewed it for so long. Adding sugar and half & half made it taste a bit cardboard-y – not in a bag way but not exactly the cleanest cardboard either. Still ends up fairly flat and one-dimensional but that can be tempered a bit by adding excessive sugar, artificially creating a rounder flavor with the added sweet note.
Ultimately, not really an impressive tea but that’s not surprising. The main points this tea has going for it are caffeine content and a nice weighty body which means it’ll do the job as a morning tea and, as long as enough sugar and half & half has been added, won’t be horrid. Though part of me feels bad that I’ve been making the husband drink this.
