PG Tips

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.

Never tried this before! Had my first cup yesterday afternoon and loved it! I can add milk and sugar and still taste the nice flavor of tea. ( When I add milk and sugar to Twining’s Irish Breakfast the tea seems overwhelmed by the additions, which is strange considering that it is supposed to be really strong. )

This is so yummy that I went to bed last night actually looking forward to my PG Tips in the morning! Woke up early today and ALMOST got out of bed at a crazy-early hour just because I was craving this tea. LOL Anyways, this is obviously a keeper and will replace my former morning favorite, Twining’s Irish Breakfast. :)

I only drink this tea in the morning as its quite strong by my standards. I have to add sugar and soymilk as this is the only way I can drink it. PG is not an everyday tea for me but it really wakes you up in the morning.

maybe i got a bad batch or something, but it tasted menthol-fishy. ew.

this is my old stand-by here in Chicago we have pretty good tap water so this turns out GREAT for me, no funny smell, I only steep for about a minute and a half and dont squeeze the bag so its never bitter unless I forget and stew it

This is one of my everyday teas. I like to start the day with a pot of robust black tea such as London Cuppa, Yorkshire Gold, or PG Tips. The trick with the PG Tips is a shorter brewing time – I usually give it three minutes – and add milk. To me it’s brisk, yet smooth. I’ll be drinking a lot of this tea, since hubby gave me a case for Christmas.

not one of my favorite breakfast teas, as this one can easily get bitter

The most middling of teas. Not terrible, but nothing stands out as exceptional. One of the few teas that I prefer with milk, its really not that great without.

Delicious, though I do prefer regular old PG Tips.

PG Tips has a powerful flavor that’s lacking in the high end, and too much harsh astringency. It’s a bit like listening to a band made up of timpani players, with one or two of them also bashing on the cymbals. Not particularly complex. As others have said, be very careful not to over-steep it. Carefully made, it’s an acceptable cup, but with so many great other choices out there I’d only drink it if there weren’t much else around.

I like this one, not as much as the regular PG Tips, but still good. It has a darker flavor (if flavors can be dark), but it’s not bitter, even after I oversteep sometimes like I did today. (I was at work and got distracted.)

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.

Be careful when brewing this. I love a strong cuppa, and Tips fits that bill, but it goes from strong to bitter in just moments. As bagged tea goes, its one of my favorites, but how much of that is really quality of tea and how much is nostalgia, I’ve yet to decide (I discovered it on my first trip to England).

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.

I love this tea. It is my number two bagged tea after Barry’s Classic Blend (I just like the stronger Irish blends more). I know PG Tips is popularly viewed as one of the best blends out there, but I just can’t get into it. It is OK, and if there is nothing else to sip on I don’t feel too terribly dissapointed, but the Special Blend is worth the extra cost as it blows the normal way out of the water. It is smoother and bolder at the same time, and the aftertaste is strong and clean, but not bitter.

It is one of the best black teas in a teabag I have ever had.

reminds me of the hotel I stayed in outside of Windsor, England. milk and sugar please.

Second try with my PG Tips Pyramids. This time I only steeped in for two minutes, but the flavor was still very, very bitter when left alone. Much more tolerable than my first steep, but still with a very strong kick. The tea steeps to a very dark hue, with a surprisingly strong veggie smell. My bag smelled like stewed vegetables when I sniffed it wet. The tea does contain this aroma. It’s not a bad smell, but it’s sort of odd for me from a black tea.

This tea is definitely more complex than a lot of the other bagged varieties out there. The pyramid shape probably lets the tea grow a bit, even if the pieces are somewhat small already. I added some milk again (soymilk, around 3 tsps), and the taste infinitely improved. This tea would probably rank higher for me if I didn’t have to doctor it up with additives. I hate putting anything in my tea, but I really can’t imagine drinking this one without first smoothing it out with either milk or some lemon juice. It was designed to be drunk that way, and I’m having a difficult time accepting that. I drink Irish Breakfast without putting anything in it, so…

That being said, I think I’ll try and do a really short steep of this one and taste the results at a later date, to see if this can indeed be had neat. Someone recommended online using a large amount of water and just pouring off the excess. I might do that.

I’m not going to rate this one quite yet. I drank half a cup today, mainly because I messed up on the steeping time. The pyramid bags are quite cute! But because of their shape, they probably release a lot of juicy, tea flavor at a much faster rate. Well, I sort of wasn’t paying attention, and I let my bag drift around in the cup for a good five minutes. The resulting brew was extremely bitter! I could barely drink it.

I added a bit of milk (a teaspoon, literally), and the tiniest pinch of sugar, but it was still very, very bitter. I could taste some interesting, complex notes, but I really couldn’t get a good read on them, because the entire thing just tasted overcooked.

How long should I steep these guys? There really isn’t much information out there. I’m thinking more like 2 minutes, tops…

I know this tea is tremendously popular, but honestly, I think I’m just not a fan of English Breakfast as a blend.