PG Tips
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This isn’t a subtle tea, or a nuanced one. It doesn’t taste like sweet potato or chocolate or freshly baked bread. It just tastes like tea. As others have noted, PG Tips really is England’s Lipton—albeit a bolder, deeper version. It really is quite strong—my general stance is the more kick the better, but this one can be a bit much even for me if steeped too long. This has been my wakeup beverage of choice lately, and it’s just the thing for those fuzzy early mornings (and really, when are early mornings any other way?) when you’re not aware enough to appreciate a more refined (or pricey) tea and just need a serious caffeine infusion ASAP.
The BEST everyday tea on the PLANET. Full of flavour, character and I could easily pick this out blindfolded. Excellent value for money, if you like a strong cuppa or even if you don’t, one bag goes a long long way!
Preparation
I overdid it with the puerh yesterday. After I steeped my chenpi to extinction, I moved on to another shou, which was extremely delicious right up until I discovered from first-hand experience that ‘tea-drunk’ skips right over the pleasant intoxication of, say, ‘merlot-drunk’ and goes straight to the hangover.
I’m not even going to review yesterday’s second shou experience, but it did make me go to the corner shop and get a load of digestive biscuits and croissants to fill the snack-cupboard with, lest I encounter puerh on an empty stomach ever again.
This morning I tried to seek comfort and solace in my favourite, gentle, softly-murmuring Oolong, but yesterday’s dizzying memory still haunts me, so I’m settling myself with PG Tips decaf, with a big splash of milk to cool it down and temper any lingering and vicious shards of caffeine, tannins, polyphenols and whatnot.
It’s quite nice, though to get any tea-taste at all, it has to be brewed for a good couple of minutes in a mug of boiling water, whilst poking at the teabag then squeezing it against the side of the mug with a teaspoon.
I’m rating this highly for a mass-market decaf with a watery taste. 65 I think, because although I once opened up a teabag of it and tried to brew the ‘leaves’ in a jug, like loose-leaf, and watched the tiny particles turn to an unhealthy-looking brownish sludge, sometimes it’s exactly what I need.
It’s like the fizzy-fizzy-make-feel-nice of Alka-Seltzer for merlot-lovers, but for intemperate tea drinkers.
Preparation
My everyday lazy black tea. I usually make it in a teapot with enough water for one cup, stir it around until it’s nice and dark, pour out a small cup with milk, and then refill the teapot with more water for later.
Preparation
Ok, so this tasting note actually represents the million or so cups of this I inhaled over the course of Friday and Saturday on the way to and from the Wirral to do social with a bunch of people from the Doctor Who. And I did! With copious amounts of tea.
This may have something to do with the fact that somebody bought me drinks on Friday night and couldn’t bring myself to, like, say no to free champagne. And I kept getting sidelined by people I hadn’t shared a string of terrible jokes with every time I insisted I was going to bed. I love the Doctor Who people who know how to have a good time.
(I also love the half dozen tea bags I totally stole from the breakfast bar at the hotel.)
Ohhhh! you are so lucky t be able to actually associate with DW people. Are these fans or somehow involved in the world of DW?
BLERG. My allegies have hit something fierce, even though I’m taking allergy pills every day. A combination of cat and springtime is killing my senses. Ughhhhhhh.
That said, I filmed an episode of Coronation Street on Friday, and it went really well. I do hope they invite me back to reprise my role sometime. I can’t say much more because spoilers, but hopefully I won’t forget to check when it’s on! Anywho. Hoovered about 5 cups of this throughout the day, and as far as basic tea goes, I do prefer it to some. It’s quite strong, so to be honest I only brew it for a minute while stirring my sugar in and then dump the bag. It’s not got that sort of cardboard taste you get with some basic black teas that I find really blech. It’s pretty strong and smooth.
Also, on an almost totally unrelated note, yesterday was Gentleman’s birthday party, and along with the vegetable lasagne and roast and vegetables and salad and garlic bread and everything, I made a Doctor Who Death To The Daleks quarry cake. It was a dark chocolate and tonka bean sponge sandwiched with tonka bean buttercream, enveloped in dark chocolate ganache, and scattered with a cascading landslide of cornflake-marshmallow cookie crumb soil, and the TARDIS and a small army of Daleks dotting the landscape. I’m stupidly proud of this thing.
https://24.media.tumblr.com/d43a1f975094ef64246f63cedb1a2cd5/tumblr_n50pyp9OIk1qcrdsao5_500.jpg
https://24.media.tumblr.com/114e6b732a5f0e64be7e6cc3a6e8f579/tumblr_n50pyp9OIk1qcrdsao3_500.jpg
https://31.media.tumblr.com/93e9c3d92fd53292db49e0e4030bdc5a/tumblr_n50pyp9OIk1qcrdsao2_500.jpg
Yep.
Preparation
This tea has rapidly climbed its way into my top 5 favorites! I love the dusky flavour and the wonderful aroma while it is steeping and even brewing. I have a special teapot that I use only for my PG Tips that I got from a shop located about 45 minutes from my house. At this tea house, appropriately called the British Store, a wonderful lady serves tea on the weekends. She makes just PG Tips and scones (either Pumpkin or regular) and they come with clotted cream and your favorite spreads. PG Tips is the perfect tea time drink for any English enthusiast. Would recommend to everyone.
Preparation
My new early morning cuppa. This has replaced Twinings Irish Breakfast, which had replaced Twinings English Breakfast. This is exactly what I need for my early mornings—a strong cup that brews quickly (when I have to be at work at 4:30 am, anything that helps me save time is good). I drink this English style, with a bit of milk and sugar. I’m not really sure how to rate it, so I won’t give it a numerical rating—it’s not the highest quality or most complex tea, but it’s perfect at doing what it’s supposed to do.
Preparation
Sipdown. Finally!
There’s not too much that can be said about this – a pretty decent English brew. Drank with green milk and a sugar, and chosen because of it’s plainness as my last cup of caffeinated tea for the day. This was the last bag from a box of 160, and has been the last bag for a while – the box went down a lot quicker initially than it did towards the end, as I expanded my range of loose-leaf teas. Actually, by the end of it, I think my partner drank more of it than I did.
Probably won’t purchase again, unless I’m in a pinch money-wise, because I have (in my opinion) some better teabags courtesy of Rington’s which I choose over these if I want a plain cup of bog-standard builder’s brew.
This particular cup was more earthy than I remembered from plain old PG tips, with a tiny bit of a fishy taste at the end of the sip that I don’t much care for. An average cuppa for an average night, and not a sipdown that I’m sad about.
Preparation
Eh…my buddy from England raves about how good this tea is, so I stole one of his tea bags while he was gone. I brewed it relatively modest for a black tea. It was ok…definitely a bit bitter, even with a sugar-in-the-raw packet. Nothing special; tasted like a typical teabag to me. Maybe a little better quality than most of the tea bags I’ve had in my time. But still pretty average. Was picking up hints of a napkin-fabric taste…don’t know if it was from the fibers of the tea bag or not..?
Preparation
It’s good to have this in the house for my friends from New Zealand, it’s what they call a good cup of tea (reminds them of home and visits to the UK I guess) and I agree – sort of. It feels like camping: simple, but good.
Why bother with the fancy stuff if all you want is a taste of home! I am glad I found this at the asian shop. My Rating is not higher because I am not rating the nostalgic feeling this may trigger, and it’s not lower because it’s just comforting to have this tea from time to time, who knows why!
PG Tips is nostalgic for me, and reminds me of my English family (most notably, my Gran, who drinks the tea bag version of this every day).
Having tried the PG Tips tea bags before, I thought I would experiment with the loose tea. The packaging is a little disappointing – with no kind of seal inside and just a cardboard lid, I imagine it will go stale quite quickly if not moved to another container. The tea itself comes in little granules about the size of couscous. I didn’t notice much of a difference in flavor between the loose tea or tea bags, but it’s nice to be able to have better control over the strength of the tea, and I enjoy the process of making loose leaf more so will probably stick to it.
It’s quite strong and easy to over steep (which makes it bitter). This is a wonderful basic black tea – clean, solid, and even better with milk or sugar. It may not the most complex, intriguing, or unique tea, but it’s still my go-to for a basic pot of something comforting. It’s everything it’s advertised to be, and a perfect first cup of tea in the morning.
As my Gran would say, it’s a solid cuppa!
Preparation
As good as any basic black tea could get! I decided to pick this up on a whim at our local World Market just because I’ve heard it’s the “perfect daily cuppa.” I’ve had “better” teas before, yes, but I think this does a wonderful job of being consistently wonderful. It’s a great thing to have on hand when you want something warm in your belly, and, with some milk and stevia, it’s my favorite everyday brew.
Preparation
A nice black tea. It was recommended to me by a half-British woman, who lives in the US, because it’s one of her favorites. And it doesn’t disappoint. The tea has a smooth flavor, and a decent pick-me-up from caffeine. It’s a nice tea for breakfast.
I prefer tea plain, and PG tips can stand on its own when plain. The box recommends trying sugar, honey, milk, or lemon. I still need to experiment on that front.