Typhoo

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When I ran out of PG Tips (which I often drink for my morning tea when I am not interested in subtlety, but just need to wake up), I saw a small box of this at the tea shop and decided to give it a try to compare. I’m gonna stick with PG Tips. This is decent, basic black tea in the same sort of style, but it doesn’t have as much flavor to me. I’m just more fond of the PG Tips.

improbably this tea appeared in our local Canadian grocery store a few months ago & i’ve been hankering to try it. it’s a serviceable tea, a tea drinker’s tea. tastes similar to Red Rose, an old family favourite. it is tea I believe my Yorkshire parents would find acceptable. at 4 minutes steeped, with the addition of one sugar cube & a dollop of milk, it is just the right strength. this is the tea you serve to a person who has had an emotional upset. it will soothe them.

First steeping was ok, meaning medium strong flavor. Aroma not that strong, perhaps because the tea leaves were like coffee grounds. I will drink it if I have nothing else. Onward with my tea seach!

I bought this tea at a local English pub with a small shoppe in it selling British goods. A box of this tea, some Quavers, and a Mars bar, and I’m walking out a happy girl after finishing my curry chicken. I actually ordered PG Tips to drink while there as my husband downed a London Porter with his meat pie. When I got the tea I notice the round tea bag and thought it was weird since the PG Tips I have in my cupboard comes in pyramid shaped bags but when I sipped it nothing seemed amiss. When I got home and opened my newly purchased box of Typhoo to try for the first time, I recognized that this is what they served me instead of PG Tips. They both taste very similar and are both similarly strong when steeped for even the shortest amount of time. I pour the water from my kettle directly on to the bag (a process I do with all my tea bags and infusers because I believe it makes it steep faster in my impatient mind) and smush it around with my tea bag tongs for about 10 seconds then throw it away. It packs a punch even with such a minimal steep time. With teas other than PG Tips, Yorkshire, and now Typhoo I usually prefer to leave the tea bag or infuser in the entire time I’m drinking it because I like it strong, but those 3 kick my taste buds butt. Recommend if you like PG Tips and Yorkshire.

Every morning for as long as I can remember, my father’s breakfast has consisted of a pot of black tea and a slice of toast. My mother would put a bag of Typhoo into the pot first thing after stumbling out of bed. Then, after putting the kettle on, her sleep-addled brain would decide she’d forgotten to put a teabag in the pot and she’d go add a second one; then, after packing his lunch, she’d end up adding another one, and a fourth right before pouring the boiling water into the pot. Needless to say, I grew up drinking this brewed very strong. (These days, my father makes his own tea and packs his own lunch, and my mother sleeps in. Quite right, too.)

When I was in high school and stumbling toward my 6:00AM choir practice, I’d pour this into a travel mug and absent-mindedly dump about half the sugar bowl in with it. These days, I try to be better about limiting my sugar to a more reasonable half-spoonful, but whenever I’ve had an absolutely terrible week, I brew up an extra strong pot of Typhoo and go mad with the sugar. Maybe it doesn’t reflect the most refined palette, but it tastes like home.

This one is good. It has a pleasant, hay-like smell in the pouch, and brews up nice and stout. It’s somewhat powdery, so unless your mesh is extra fine, it will leave some little bits of tea in your cup, if it matters to you.

Paul McCartney mentions that he and John Lennon would try to smoke this in his dads pipe. Hmm? I like the loose leaf Typhoo good with milk or without, very powdery and dark, but compared to cheap American tea it is way more flavorful. It tastes like black tea should. The Typhoo tea bags I have found to be way less consistent in quality.

A typical English breakfast blend, similar to PG Tips. It is a finely ground tea, fannings rather than leaf. The first taste is a brisk Ceylon, followed by the maltiness of the Assam. But the tea is rather harsh and somewhat bitter aftertaste, even with honey and two packets of splenda, as well as half and half, to tame it. Oh well, at least it is not bland and tasteless like Lipton or Tetley. When I visited friends in England fifteen years ago, I thought this tea tasted great, so much better than American tea.

Vile and flavorless. Easy to oversweeten.

I think a few of these higher scores must be blinded by their loyalty! The gardens that are used in this blend really arent of the best quality, and for me this clearly shows in the taste. Back to a good old cup of Punjana for me. yet to be beaten.

When I bought this tea, I wondered why the box was labeled “Leaf Tea” rather than “Loose Leaf Tea”. I soon found out when I opened the foil bag inside keeping the “leaves” fresh.

Leaf Quality:
I opened the bag, and what I found was unexpected. The tea was very finely cut/ground, more so than CTC. Some pieces were larger than others, but the tea could be compared to grains of salt. Some pieces were very dark while others were a lighter brown. They smelled better than it looked; almost like a crisp orange pekoe or English breakfast. However, this tea would have gone better in bags, as it is pretty difficult to filter tea so finely ground.

Brewed Tea:
The tea dust produced a dark brown cuppa, with a slight reddish hue. It smelled malty, and a bit chocolaty. There wasn’t much character in the tea. Perhaps there was some Assam in this. It was crisp, just as it smelled, and I had brewed it a bit strong (I have a feeling this tea can withhold longer steepings).

I decided to add a lemon slice, and a tiny squeeze of lemon juice. This lightened the color a bit, and made the tea more pleasant. As I mentioned before, this tea lacks the character that other teas possess. There wasn’t anything in particular that stood out to me. However, I’m sure this will make a nice iced tea.

This is not my favorite tea, but it was nice to drink something to soothe to my sore throat and my terrible cough.

I got this at the Middle Eastern market where I go to buy all my cheap teas. I just got it a month ago and the expiration label already says Feb 2012 so that was clearly my mistake.

It is strange that the leaves in this loose leaf pack are ground up so fine, it’s like they just used the same tea that they would use for teabags. Is it necessary to be THAT cheap?

Anyway I digress. I steeped this for 4 minutes with boiling water and it is generically average, mundane is definitely the word that comes to mind (see my rating scale on the right). I wouldn’t choose to bring this with me on a desert island but if it was there I would most likely drink it. :)

I think it might be a Ceylon, there is a bit of briskness in the cup, a slight bitterness. I did run off to get some soymilk to throw in this, but oddly enough I liked it better plain. I don’t know if this is my tastebuds adapting or what.

I’ve been thinking about doing an art project with tea and this would be a likely culprit. Though I reckon the tannins in tea would eat away at paper and such over the years.

This is the standard British black tea I drink multiple times per day w milk & half teaspoon sugar

Hearty without being earthy. Rather, smooth and rich. Good for daily caffeine intake. Lacking for subtlety.

Typhoo wasn’t allowed in our home when I was growing up. My father wouldn’t allow it. Not because he thought it was a bad tea (although it is), it was due to the fact that he hated the tele ads. He used to say that he’d lose an IQ point for every Typhoo advertisement he heard or saw. I have to agree with him. Since it was banned at home, I considered it forbidden fruit so I drank it at friends’ homes and any other such times that it was available to me. I never liked it, but it was forbidden to me and therefore was to be imbibed as often as possible. Call it rebellous youth. :)

Love this tea without milk or sugar. I take it when I wanted something simple, clean, just a good cup of straight forward tea.

Since I thought Typhoo was a little weak at 2 1/2 minutes, we decided to try it at 4 minutes. It is definitely stronger, but I can’t say I like it any better! I wouldn’t even want it without milk and sugar, and even with milk and sugar I would rather have a glass of water! I was glad for the opportunity to try it, though!

I am drinking this tea courtesy of a lovely couple we just met in a stained glass shop. They live in Ireland (he is Irish, she is British) and vacation here every year, and bring their tea with them! They shared several sachets of Typhoo when I mentioned that I like tea.

I only steeped this for a couple of minutes due to my experience with Clipper Gold, which needs merely to be shown the hot water and then whisked away. I think it is a little on the weak side, so next time I will steep longer. It is not a tea full of nuance, but rather a very standard tea – not nearly as strong as the English breakfast teas I have had. Still, it is good to taste a new tea on the trip, and the best part was meeting sweet new people!

A treat—-was able to pick up an experimental ounce bulk at my getting-better-all-the-time favorite little health food store. Looks just like PG tips—ground fine, but used in the same proportions, seems to be just a tetch lighter and brighter in flavor (not in appearance). Would have to do a side-by-side comparison to be sure, and tea geeky as I am, I’d love to do that, but time is going to be a tight commodity this week. (Sigh. Not a great thought for an early Monday morning.)

smooth and mild

I ran across this several months ago, and having an interest in British teas (and the cheap price tag) I picked up a box. Just today I finally tried a cup.

As soon as I opened the bag I had second thoughts. It looked worse that the tea in the teabags that I get at many of the local restaurants… the tea was tiny and granular. I wondered for a second if maybe it was instant. Rereading the box I realized it was not, but didn’t see how it would stay in a strainer. I got the finest mesh one in my possession and brewed up a cup to see how it would go.

It brewed very darkly! It looked more like coffee than tea. Typically, when learning about a cup of tea I start with it plain, then add things in to see if creamer or sweetener enhances the flavor. This one I just went straight to the doctoring up phase.

And you know what? It was actually pretty good. It’s not something I’d really look forward to having, but if it were rainy or cold out and I just wanted a basic cuppa, it would hit the spot! So I guess I’ve learned my lesson about preconceived notions…. this one will end up staying in my pantry until I finish it!

My second favorite tea. It is Similar to PG Tips, But it definitely has its own taste.

Found these on offer, which is sadly the way I find most my teas, and now I have a whole bag of them left over.

Not my cuppa tea. Its reasonably strong but that’s is about all it has going for it. The flavour can only be described as brown. Nothing to make me go ‘OO’ in this tea bag.

Since I know so many people like this brand I won’t slate it awfully as I may get tea related hate mail or worse. Anyway this is not really what I was expecting or wanted when I saw the bags going cheap.

Oh well, not too much of a dent in my wallet and maybe I can palm them off onto a mate that likes it a bit more than me.