PG tips

I finally got a box of this last evening. So though I typically like to brew a pot of loose leaf tea on weekend mornings, and I just got several other fun teas from Tealuxe, I was excited to start the day with this one.

So now begins the experimentation to determine how I like this brewed. I started with a 3 minute steep and I’m having it plain. The flavor is exactly what I want out of a breakfast style tea, but stronger than I expected. I’m probably going to experiment with a shorter steep next time. I will definitely be experimenting with the milk/sweetener as well.

Yay for tea related projects!

So, I’ve stopped just logging my teas if I don’t have anything new to add to because then my log would get a bit out of hand. So don’t think I’m not drinking my tea, I’m just being lazy about posting it.

Anyways, this is getting special notice as I’m on vacation up in N, and forgot to bring this one with me. No worries I’ve got my Jakee Muntz, Valentines, chocolate chai, and some Candy Cane Lane to accompany me. But I missed my PG tips (for the whole day we were separated) so when my dad went to the tiny little market in backwater NH, I asked him to poke around to see if this happened to be there.

And it was! much to my surprise and delight. Some days I can’t even find it in the big chain market and I usually have to look in the international aisle. So, this little mountain town general store had a couple boxes, and now I know what I’m thankful for this Thanksgiving.
I had a nice mug with a bit of milk and settled in front of the fire with my family (and orgo book).

Two cups this morning first thing. Take my daughter to preschool for her first full day then come home to enjoy one of my last lazy mornings before I start work tomorrow. Third cup with a buttery english muffin and some Bible reading. All good things.

I hit a wall with my other english breakfast tea (Mr. St. James repackaged as the London Transport Museum), jumping through dangerous internet hoops of fire to find the origin of this recent morning bagged favorite. In a slight panic mode to find a worthy kick-start replacement, I purchased PG Tips. I figured if this is one of the top breakfast teas in England, then the blend might be very similar as I have all but given up hope of finding this tea. It’s the pyramid PG tips bag. At first when I poured the boiled water over the bag the water was very light. I thought, “Uh oh” I might have to double up. Then a minute later the water transformed into a beautiful deep dark coppery color signaling the robust flavor I had been searching for. The mix is indeed similar, with a little bit more weight on the assam (at least to me, does anyone know of the traditional blend has equal parts Ceylon, Kenyan, and Assam leaves for the formula?). I decided to stop at 3 minutes of steeping fearing the bitter would set in, and might double dare myself to try 4 minutes next time. Caffeine kick on one bag at 3min. is impressive – even with milk and sugar. The flavor shines right through. Although bagged tea is a rough 2nd choice to loose leaf, I am beginning to see that with a “Great” quality bagged tea, I can still get a pretty decent flavor, I just need to make sure I don’t drown the tea bag in too much water.

Picked this up today at the International Food Market after forgetting to pick some up the last few times I went. I swear I always forget something even if I have a list with me.

First tried steeping this for 3 minutes (which is where I start all black teas) because I don’t like really strong tea. But 3 minutes was WAY too long for my tastes. Whoa. It was strong beyond belief to me. I couldn’t even finish a few sips. So I tossed out that cup and tried again with a 1 minute steep time. Much, much better.

This is a good basic black tea for everyday. Nothing extraordinary, but it does the trick of satisfying the tea craving.

Still my favorite tea, ever.
Great for all day sipping.
So glad I’m over this cold, so I can drink milk in my tea again!

Wait a minute — perhaps those iffy bags I recently spoke abut were just flukes. Today, I grabbed bags from the middle of the box and the tea came out GORGEOUS. Even though the bags in my box are all individually wrapped, I wonder if some of the leaves are from another blend or harvest than the good ones of today. Either that or I was abducted by aliens in my sleep and they changed my taste buds through an evil experiment and then returned me to Earth before I woke up.

Another good tea from the “bagged” tea world. When compared to other bagged teas this is a real champion. Consistent mouth-feel, flavor, color, and very easy to brew. I have had worse loose teas.

I would describe it as (and in all cases mildly) caramel, floral, and barky. It has that general “black tea” taste. That was not “generic” it was general.

Worth keeping in the cupboard, cuz sometimes you just gotta have a quick cuppa.

One of the most famous brands of tea is also one of the best tasting. Bought some yesterday for only $2.99 a box at the supermarket. Awesome!

Amazon last year had an incredible sale where i got about 2600 bags of this tea for about $8 total no tax free shipping. This tea is much better than lipton. This tea is also stronger than lipton. I make a lot of iced tea at work and if you throw in about 6 bags of this into making 3 quarts of tea you get some pretty slurry tea. you’ll get some serious work done.

Love this one in the morning, sometimes with a little sugar. But it doesn’t need it, I just do to wake me up some. :-)
It has a nice clean taste, even after steeping until it’s dark, I can’t taste much tannins. A good staple to have on hand, good for bagged tea and you can usually find it at a good price.