Pyramid Teabags

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

I have been drinking tea for 40 years. This is the first time I have sipped PG Tips! How is that even possible? This is what English Breakfast tea is supposed to taste like in my mind. Instant eye opener. O.O Stout enough to kick the butt of even the manliest of teas in your collection. The inside of my cheeks are still tingling. I now understand why people add milk and sugar. I never add milk. I almost did this time. taste mellows a bit as the cup cooled. Love the intense aftertaste.

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

Amidst all the Celestial Seasonings teas, I was surprised to see this tea in my grocery store. I’ve heard a lot about it and I see even Mark T. Wendell sells it so I thought “England’s #1 Tea” was worth a shot. Fortunately, I still have my tea bag tongs.

The Kenyan tea in the blend is what makes this different for me-never had Kenyan in an English/Scottish/Irish blend.

PG promises 50% more room in this pyramid bag, but it seems pretty small as far as pyramid bags go. If you don’t unfold it carefully, you have mainly a basic teabag. This brews a nice, dark mahogany cup in only two minutes, and is probably really loaded with caffeine. The flavor is strong and brisk-it tastes much like Upton’s East Frisian Blend. There is just a slight bitterness on the finish-doesn’t bother me.

I enjoyed this cup. Not sure that I would have this as anything but a breakfast tea, but it’s flavorful and wakes me up. I like it.

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.

Steeped 1 teabag in 9 oz boiling water for 1 min; added 2 tsp white sugar and one tsp evaporated milk. Strong, drinkable, slightly astringent but not to the point of being bitter. I’m VERY glad I read the notes first before steeping, as my typical 4-5 min black tea steeping would have rendered this undrinkable. Even after 30 seconds it looked dark enough by my normal standards.

I surely didn’t need to buy this tea, but I’ve been curious about it, and it was BOGO at Harris Teeter, and therefore half price for one 40ct box. $2.50 seem like an irresistible price based on the prices I’ve seen elsewhere for one box ($5-8, I think?). It will probably be a good base for cold brewed iced tea too if I can get the steeping time/# of bags right. (Actually that will be a project for DH as he’s the sweet tea maker of the household.)

Hi all! Long time no speak! Since I last did a tasting note, I’ve gotten a new job, so it’s been pretty hectic around these parts. I haven’t been drinking much tea (mostly because my apartment doesn’t have AC and it’s been hot as heck in Chicago), so I haven’t been on Steepster much.

Last night a fellow tea-loving friend gave me a few bags of his PG Tips. He loves PG Tips so, so much. It’s his everyday tea and has been since he lived in England for awhile. He had already told me he loves strong, bitter black teas, so I knew that’s what this would be. And honestly, it’s better than I thought it would be. Definitely bitter, but I could see how it would be warm and comforting on a winter’s day.

Perhaps more importantly, this bad boy should be arriving at my house today: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003DTLNI8/ref=oss_product. I’ve been wanting a nice iced tea pitcher for ages now, so I now I’ll be able to drink tea all summer!

PG Tips in pyramid bags taste better than PG Tips in regular bags. I have no idea why. The pyramid bags are also strong enough to make two cups of tea. I like to take milk and sugar in mine, but others like to put in lemon juice. This is a good tea to wake you up. I’m convinced that PG Tips has more caffeine in it than other brands, but I can’t prove this. Sadly, pyramid bags are not available in my part of America. They are one of the teas that I miss about my years in the UK. Went really well with a bakewell tart, too – which you also can’t get in America.

1 bag for 300mL water @100C, steeped four minutes.

A huge box of these teabags came to me from a friend in England. In North America, PG Tips is a pleasant, if dull, supermarket black tea, mostly Ceylon, I think. The English version is quite different.

The liquor is almost red, like a decent Keemun. I wonder of there’s some Keemun in the blend, as there’s a faint – very faint- smokiness and bitterness. Some Assam, I think, giving heft, and something lighter, giving some astringency to the finish. Delicious and full, without coating the mouth as some Assams and Kenyans might. A very pleasant surprise. It reminds me of how Twinings English Breakfast used to taste, many years ago, only much better.

I’ve become rather bored of Twinings English Breakfast every morning and decided to switch to this instead. Maybe I should start alternating my weekly morning black teas because I seem to get tired of the same taste quickly.

I like this tea. I was surprised to find it at my local supermarket and bought it because I hear it’s England’s “official tea” and since I love British things, I had to try it.

Although I rarely add cream to my black tea, this one is definitely best with cream. Just one mini moo will do. Add some honey and it’s pretty tasty. I’d say it’s a good, classic, solid tea. I also really needed the strength and boldness of it today as I am very tired from staying up most of the night with a poor feverish fellow of mine.