PG Tips

Here is one that has been a long time coming. PG Tips is such an established brand that it is almost impossible for a tea drinker to avoid products carrying the PG Tips name. Even in the middle of nowhere, I can always, and I do mean always, count on at least one or two supermarkets to carry PG Tips products (Twinings of London too). So, at some point, I was going to be reviewing a PG Tips product. It was perhaps as certain as death and taxes.

I did not do anything fancy for this one. I steeped one pyramid sachet in approximately 8 ounces of 212 F water for 3 minutes. I did not attempt any additional infusions.

Prior to infusion, I noticed slight straw and sawdust-like aromas on the nose. One thing I can say is that the PG Tips sachet is more like an enlarged conventional teabag than the silken sachets that many other vendors use. After infusion, I noticed that the dark copper tea liquor produced aromas of straw, toast, sawdust, and molasses. In the mouth, the tea was predictably brisk, tannic, and astringent, offering notes of fresh baked bread, oak, leather, sawdust, brown toast, molasses, straw, and malt before a smooth, drying finish with lingering woodiness, maltiness, and a satisfying creamy note reminiscent of oatmeal.

Honestly, this was far from bad for an ubiquitous supermarket black tea blend. I can see why it is so popular. I would have no problem recommending this to fans of brisk blends and traditional Old World brands alike.

So I bought this at Walmart. I’ve read that PG Tips US is different. Welp it’s weak. Like it wants to be a good tea when it grows up, but it just can’t get there. The flavor is mild and smooth, slightly malty, but the mildness comes off as weakness. I can’t tell if this is overly “mild” on purpose or if it’s just some piss poor weak tea. The packaging is disappointing. It’s like a giant wad of bags in a box. None of them are individually wrapped, and they’re exposed to air. Something tells me this contributes to the flaccid (yes that’s appropriate) taste. Twinnings and Bigelow English/Irish breakfast teas are MUCH better!

Saw this in the store the other day and decided to see what the British are drinking. It’s not bad. I was told this was a tea made for milk and sugar so I added sugar and a splash of almond milk. The tea itself is fairly good for a teabag. It’s got a malty character and a bit of a fruity character. Maybe not as high a grade as what I’m used to but a higher grade than Lipton.

Brewed two teabags in 16oz of boiling water for 3 minutes.

Tasted like sawdust mixed with poor quality black tea.

In between all the fancy and exquisite teas, there has to be a place for a good, reliable, no-brainer tea. I discovered this on a recent trip to Scotland and can’t go back to any other basic black tea. I use one pyramid bag to 16 oz. boiling water and let it steep for at least four minutes before I pour my first cup. Milk and sugar or sweetener enhances the flavor.

Este té me encanta, solo o con leche y normalmente lo preparo con agua de canela.
Me gusta más que el famoso Twinings.

I thought a new personal review of this tea was needed since PG Tips sort of did a ‘new Coke’ last year. Early in 2015 PG Tips reduced the size of their tea bags from 3.1g to 2.9g. To compensate for this minor reduction and still achieve the same great taste the blend was slightly changed. I must say they did a good job of hiding the change. The tea still brews up into that nice malty/cocoa flavour. The only difference I taste is a slight bitterness if it is over steeped. Otherwise this is the same great cuppa it always has been.
A classic Assam, Ceylon, and Kenyan English tea.

Love this! Replaced my morning coffee. I add milk to this tea and it keeps me wide awake.

Using this as my chaser for my iced black coffee this morning, because I have wall-to-wall Zoom meetings until 11 and I need the extra caffeine boost. PG is my favorite way to make a delicious cup of builder’s tea quickly. No frills, no fuss, just the straight dope. Perfect.

A classic, easy go-to. One of the best bagged black teas commercially available. Prepared as builder’s tea.
This box of bags is very old, and I was apparently storing it next to something flowery, as it came out weak in flavor with a weird floral/ soapy note that is foreign to this blend. Have chucked the last of the unused bags and will re-stock when I get to the store next.

Best. Builder’s tea. Ever. Seriously, this with a splash of skim milk and I feel ready to take on the day . Ready for anything, really. It’s hearty, earthy, strong, sturdy as a rock. It’s the regular drip coffee of the tea world. I had two cuppas this morning. (I need it— we’re short-staffed this week and I am in no mood for peoples’ whining and complaining.)

Onward!

I’ve been meaning to try this one for a while now. I have seen enough BBC television show sets and read enough modern British lit to know that this is the working Englishman’s go-to tea. Also, my boyfriend works with a Scot, an Irishman, and several English people and they have all introduced him to it. “It’s the OG tea,” he told me. “You’ll like it.”

I brewed it up this morning in my purple butterfly fine china teacup with a dash of skim milk. I like the uniqueness of the sachets— it’s a pyramid shape made of meshlike paper— ideal for allowing the water to hit the leaves completely.

The tea liquor was a reddish-brown color, which looked delicious mingled with the opaqueness of the milk. It almost looked pink!

It held its own against the milk very well, flavor-wise. It tasted… strong. Like, it tasted like it could bench 450 lbs. Smooth, not astringent, lots of room to add whatever you want to it— milk, sugar, honey, lemon, etc.

Found my new go-to for Builder’s Tea.

This is my usual Go To Tea for when I do not want any added flavors. I enjoy the richness! I drink tea usually iced but enjoy this warm with milk & honey also.

This is my daily morning cuppa. A strong, basic British tea that’s good with milk, which can be astonishingly hard to find in America at most supermarkets.
It’s not a fancy tea, but in my opinion it’s superior to most readily available teas in the USA. And it’s cheap enough that I don’t have to even think twice about having a cup a few times a day (I’m rarely drink coffee, so this is my version of it).
I buy it on Amazon where you can get two BIG boxes with free Prime shipping. Lasts our household about 6 months, and ends up being cheaper than buying inferior tea at the supermarket!

Great tea for the morning, strong and tasty. It wakes me up like coffee. I slightly slightly prefer the Yorkshire Tea but this one is pretty close.

Just a big travel press mug of this to help kick in my muscle relaxant and try to banish the spasmy, rigid back. Nothing fancy.

40 degree temperature drop overnight plus the first day back at work after a lovely week-and-change off…need the heavy stuff today.

As preferences and tolerances change, I don’t consider this to be the strongest tea in my cupboard these days—there are others with more boot and more bite. But it’s sturdy and black; takes milk well and warms your reluctant bones. Who could ask for more.

This is actually my pick two days ago. Normally, it’s a go-to tea when I have a migraine that digs in and doesn’t want to die, for the caffeine and because it’s so consistent. I don’t like to waste better blacks when I don’t have a clear enough state of mind in order to actually enjoy and appreciate them. The beastie marauding in my skull was scoffing at any meds, so I grabbed PG Tips for good, strong comfort to get me through the school day.

Tuesday’s mug, though, was not delightful. It seemed to have an odd undercurrent of taste that was off-putting. I know it wasn’t some kind of carryover from my mug, because I just royally cleaned it to sparkling, and straight water had no carryover taste. After a few swallows, I pitched it.

This morning I’m starting to think the tea was fine, and it was me. I had an odd smell plaguing me yesterday all day, which I finally placed last night…eau de dead bird. I am starting to suspect I’ve got an infection brewing in my sinus, and not a migraine. Time will tell. In the meantime, I’m sticking with non-malty blacks, because they taste truer than PG Tips is.