Pyramid Teabags

This is my every day tea!

This is the first time I have ever tried PG Tips and I’m pretty sure this is the start of a new chapter in my mornings.

This is bold and thick with a wonderful range of flavors to boot. This really delivers!

I was torn in a side by side flavor-wise with my current favorite Yorkshire Gold, but PG Tips has an edge based on the overall heft.

I am surprised, I was expecting this to match up closer with the Yorkshire red than the gold, but instead it seems to be the best of both of those all in one.

What? What? PG Tips, I have you! At long last!

My husband found it for me at a supermarket an hour away from where we live. The last box on the shelf! Hopefully we will manage to discover it closer by when this 40-count runs out, or convince our little neighborhood grocery to carry it. I really wanted to try this because I’ve been a tiny bit obsessed with the idea of a true, proper British cuppa, just like in the thousands of novels and stories I’ve read over the years. At last I can hang out with Bryant and May pondering the latest puzzling perils and political pitfalls faced by the Peculiar Crimes Unit over a steadying, steaming mug of builders.

“When May did so, he found every cup and saucer, plate, vase, and bowl standing arranged across the floor like pieces in a scaled-up chess game.
“The Whitstable family tree,” Bryant explained, entering and setting down his tea tray. “It’s the only way I could get it sorted out in my head. I had to see them properly laid out, who was descended from whom.” He pointed to a milk jug. “Daisy Whitstable is bottom left-hand corner, by the fireguard. Next to her is the egg cup, brother Tarquin… Now, pass me Marion and Alfred Whitstable over there.”
“What’s their significance?”
“We need them to drink out of.”

When not keeping calm and sleuthing on, I wanted this as a dependable antidote for my regular afternoon crash when I just feel like curling up into a ball and going to sleep, and yes, gloriously strong, with sugar and milk and maybe a chocolate biscuit on the side. Zing! This is the authentic article. I was concerned about the limitations of a tea bag format (even the vaunted PG Tips “pyramid” bag), but no worries there; it definitely delivers a good, dark, brisk, strong but tasty potion.

By the way, if you’ve wondered what the “PG” stands for, Wikipedia tells me that in the 1930s it was sold as “Pre-Gestee” – a variant of the original name ‘Digestive Tea.’ The name implied that it could be drunk prior to eating food, as a digestive aid. Grocers and salesmen abbreviated it to PG." Also, “The tea used in PG Tips is imported in bulk as single estate teas from around the world and blended in precise proportions set by the tea tasters to make blend 777, which can contain between 12 and 35 single estate teas at any one time (depending on season, etc.)” Blend 777! It has a code name! Okay!

Recommended by a colleague that will only drink this, I ordered from Amazon. Enjoy at work because it is better to handle tea bags over loose tea. Really enjoying the smooth and malty cup with a splash of milk. Not astringent to my taste buds. Understand that the amount of tea may change in the tea bags (based on some of the postings on the internet) but find that two bags per 16 oz cup is just about right every time for a strong cup.

It’s fine for what it is. Better with sugar, no milk. I used the tea bags, no sure how much that is.

Here is one that has been a long time coming. PG Tips is such an established brand that it is almost impossible for a tea drinker to avoid products carrying the PG Tips name. Even in the middle of nowhere, I can always, and I do mean always, count on at least one or two supermarkets to carry PG Tips products (Twinings of London too). So, at some point, I was going to be reviewing a PG Tips product. It was perhaps as certain as death and taxes.

I did not do anything fancy for this one. I steeped one pyramid sachet in approximately 8 ounces of 212 F water for 3 minutes. I did not attempt any additional infusions.

Prior to infusion, I noticed slight straw and sawdust-like aromas on the nose. One thing I can say is that the PG Tips sachet is more like an enlarged conventional teabag than the silken sachets that many other vendors use. After infusion, I noticed that the dark copper tea liquor produced aromas of straw, toast, sawdust, and molasses. In the mouth, the tea was predictably brisk, tannic, and astringent, offering notes of fresh baked bread, oak, leather, sawdust, brown toast, molasses, straw, and malt before a smooth, drying finish with lingering woodiness, maltiness, and a satisfying creamy note reminiscent of oatmeal.

Honestly, this was far from bad for an ubiquitous supermarket black tea blend. I can see why it is so popular. I would have no problem recommending this to fans of brisk blends and traditional Old World brands alike.

So I bought this at Walmart. I’ve read that PG Tips US is different. Welp it’s weak. Like it wants to be a good tea when it grows up, but it just can’t get there. The flavor is mild and smooth, slightly malty, but the mildness comes off as weakness. I can’t tell if this is overly “mild” on purpose or if it’s just some piss poor weak tea. The packaging is disappointing. It’s like a giant wad of bags in a box. None of them are individually wrapped, and they’re exposed to air. Something tells me this contributes to the flaccid (yes that’s appropriate) taste. Twinnings and Bigelow English/Irish breakfast teas are MUCH better!

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.

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.