PG Tips

Boiled ginger and PG tips together. Somehow, the ginger alleviates the bitterness of the tea. I added some sugar too :)

This morning I decided to make tea the way my boyfriend grew up drinking tea. I cut up some Ginger and let it boil for a while before adding PG tips and sugar. Delicious! I should do this more often. :)

Take 2 on the chai making. It turned out perfect! I used less leaf and combined Caranda Usambara, Adagio Maasala chai and chocolate chai. Delicious! PLUS I had some non-fat milk. I had so much left over, I put it in the fridge and had some cold chai.

So I tried to make stovetop chai with this again, but halfway through making it, I realized I had no milk!! I spilled things in the kitchen and left the leaves in too long. Needless to say, this turned into a disaster. Its so bitter – almost like coffee – without the milk to soften the flavors. ahh…

A very strong and concentrated brew since the leaves are crushed up. I steeped for about a minute, and I also added Rishi’s West Cape Chai, sweetner, and milk to balance out the strong black tea. The blend was pretty good! :)

I wanted to try this out so I bought a box at the grocery store nearby. I can’t rate it this time since I used it to make spiced chai the way I like to make it – on the stove. I am studying for my step 2 board exam, which I’m taking on Monday and needed a break. Chai – my comfort beverage of choice!

This is exactly what I needed.

This was f a n t a s t i c! I added 2 heaping tablespoons of this blend. From the box (its a cute box IMO) it smelled like it would be strong and possibly bitter alone… the leaves are all cut up really small – fannings? CTC? Is that what its called? This blend turned out darker than any of chais that I’ve made in the past. It was not bitter! So delicious! Great tea for chai. Well… I think strong tea is great for chai. It balances out all the spices. _

If I were to try this plain, I would probably add half a teaspoon and steep for a short amount of time. Til next time!

Today I have a bad case of tea-order-impatience syndrome. I don’t really want any of the teas in my cupboard, because I just want to have the new teas I ordered. Maybe they’ll come tomorrow….

Until then I’m going drink a few random things, such as these PG Tips. These are fairly decent and malty with a nice caffeine kick.

I like this tea much better at 4 minutes – reminds me much more of an Irish Breakfast tea, very malty and bold.

Decent tea with a fairly malty smell and rich taste. Definitely bold enough to wake me up!

My cupboard says I have drank this tea 25 times, let’s do some math 25 X16=400 cups of PG Tips!
I feel I have crossed over to the expert level on this brew. Brisk, drinkable and my morning go to tea. Don’t let those pyramid bags fool you, the tea will expand to fill up the pyramid. This tea requires a quick 2 minute steeping time. Get your cup ready…raw sugar, a splash of milk, twirl in cup, pour in the tea and watch the caramel color show…perfection in a cup.
When I first started drinking tea, I wanted a good morning cup of tea with consistency. A tea that was coffee like and tea like and would take well to milk. After spending hundreds of dollars on fancier blends, I found this unassuming tea and my morning routine became consistent with a perfect cup of tea each and every morning.
Someone once described this tea as a “ratty” tea.
I have a few ratty teas in my cupboard, they have been there for a while, they are ok, just not what I want to drink. PG Tips is far from being ratty, it is THE one tea I would not be without in my tea cupboard.
What is your one morning tea you will not let yourself run out of in your cupboard?

This has been my morning tea for the past month or so, great brisk flavor. A perfext start to each and every day.

Oh, how I love you PG Tips, let me count the ways….
The rich flavor
The briskness of the blend
The addition of sugar and milk yields a caramel color brew in my cuppa=perfection!
The small white teapot dedicated to pleasing my eye as the tea pours from the spout
And, who could forget the Monkey!? Not me! Everytime, I drink tips , I think of this video clip:
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=BTnRqJLJhCw&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DBTnRqJLJhCw
Spendid!!!!

I love this tea. Smooth, comforting, takes milk really well. If you have trouble enjoying this tea, try making it with 9 ounces of water instead of 6 and a brew time of 2 minutes. I do make this in a small teapot, which I feel adds depth to the brew. Once I stumbled on this ratio, my love for this tea grew. AND you gotta love the monkey!