PG Tips

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.

This is just a standard, everyday kind of tea. It’s the second-favorite of the bagged imports I’ve bought. It’s good, strong, and consistent.

Some nights a strong brew of PG Tips with too much sugar and more milk than normal is just the way through. Clearly, this is one of those nights.