PG Tips English Breakfast Special Blends Speciality Black, 70 Tea Bags
The familiar snap is still there on the first mouthful, and it would be strange if it were not, but it lands on something rounder underneath, and the cup keeps its shape instead of going thin at the back. The practical consequence is that it holds up to food. A dry, clean finish means it resets the mouth between bites rather than sitting on top of a plate of eggs. It is a full-caffeine black tea, and the decaffeinated PG Tips lives in an entirely different box, so this is not the one to leave out for an evening guest. Made in a pot for several people it is better than it is in a single mug: the leaf gets room, and the second cup poured is the one that shows what the blend is doing.
PG Tips English Breakfast Special Blends Speciality Black, in brief.
PG Tips English Breakfast Special Blends is the household brand's step away from its own everyday box, picked into the Teas.co.uk curator selection as the fuller, maltier morning blend for people who drink two good mugs rather than six quick ones.
Three full minutes, judged by the clock and not by the colour, then milk.
PG Tips English Breakfast Special Blends is the step PG Tips takes away from its own everyday box. The household blend is built to be quick, brisk and identical in every kitchen in the country; this one is sold as a named style instead, an English Breakfast, which means a fuller, maltier cup that expects a little more time and rewards it.
Seventy bags is an unusual count, sitting between the forty-bag boxes that are bought as a trial and the eighty-bag boxes that are bought as a habit. At one cup a day it is about ten weeks.
Curator notes: the tasting profile is our own editorial assessment against the current pack format and the brand's published description. We run same-day UK dispatch on every order placed before 2pm Monday to Friday. Common questions are answered in the detailed Q and A tab below.
Curator’s notes
Read the full write-up
The Story Behind PG Tips
PG Tips is one of the two or three brands that most British tea drinkers can taste from memory, and that is both its strength and the problem the Special Blends range was created to solve. A national everyday blend has to be the same everywhere and please everyone, which rules out character. The speciality line is where the brand is allowed to make a tea that tastes of a particular style rather than of the brand itself.
English Breakfast names a style rather than a place, so we record the origin as a blend and claim nothing further about where the leaf came from.
Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes.
What You Are Actually Buying
- Count: 70 bags, which is roughly ten weeks at a cup a day. An odd number for a tea box, and a useful one if eighty is more than you get through before it goes stale.
- What it is not: not the orange box, not a decaf, and not a speciality tea in the loose-leaf sense. It is a supermarket breakfast blend from a household brand, done better than the household version.
Getting It Right in the Cup
- Water temperature: 100 degrees, freshly boiled.
- Measure: one bag per 250 to 300ml, two for a large mug.
- Steep: three minutes, four at most.
- Service: with milk. Black at three minutes is brisk and perfectly pleasant.
- Storage: sealed, dry and dark. Seventy bags is a long box, so keep the inner packet closed rather than leaving the carton open on the side.
- Best with: toast, a cooked breakfast, plain biscuits, or the first half hour of the day.
Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference PG Tips English Breakfast Special Blends Speciality Black, 70 Tea Bags, please cite teas.co.uk.
The story behind PG Tips
PG Tips is the Brooke Bond brand that brought the pyramid tea bag to British kitchens and gave us the chimps adverts. Solid everyday black tea, dependable, mass-market and fairly priced. Owned by Lipton Teas & Infusions; the leaf is sourced from Rainforest Alliance certified estates.
Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes.
Our commitment to the planet
The taste profile
How does it compare
The trap with any breakfast blend is that it goes dark before it goes strong. Three minutes looks like four, and a cup pulled at two minutes will be the colour you expect and thinner than it should be. Water straight off the boil, three full minutes, then the bag out.
The Morning Mug
The Pot, and the Second Cup
Made with this tea
The Morning Mug
How to make the standard mug of PG Tips English Breakfast Special Blends.
- 1 bag PG Tips English Breakfast Special Blends
- 250 to 300ml water straight off the boil
- A splash of milk
- Sugar, optional
- Pour 250 to 300ml of water straight off the boil over one bag.
- Steep three full minutes, timed rather than watched. It goes dark before it goes strong.
- Press the bag gently against the side and lift it out.
- Add milk. The malt is what it binds to.
What you'll end up with: A rounder, maltier version of the mug you already know, which is exactly what the Special Blends range is for.
The Pot for Three
How to brew a pot without the last cup being stewed.
- 3 bags PG Tips English Breakfast Special Blends
- 750ml water straight off the boil
- A warmed teapot
- Milk
- Warm the pot, add three bags and 750ml of water straight off the boil.
- Steep three to four minutes and lift all three bags out together.
- Decant into a second warmed pot if you are drinking slowly.
- A breakfast blend left standing on the bags goes hard rather than strong, and decanting is the only real fix.
What you'll end up with: Three mugs of the same strength instead of one good one and two hard ones.
The Large Mug, Two Bag Method
How to fill a 400ml mug without thinning the tea.
- 2 bags PG Tips English Breakfast Special Blends
- 400ml water straight off the boil
- Milk
- Use two bags rather than stretching one across the mug.
- Steep two and a half minutes only, because two bags reach strength faster.
- Lift both bags out and add milk.
- One bag in 400ml for six minutes gives you the tannic edge without the body. Two short is better than one long.
What you'll end up with: A full-size mug at proper strength rather than a watery one with a hard finish.
Iced Breakfast Tea
How to make iced tea that survives the ice.
- 3 bags PG Tips English Breakfast Special Blends
- 400ml water straight off the boil
- A full glass of ice
- Lemon
- Sugar or honey to taste
- Brew three bags in 400ml of just boiled water for four minutes.
- Sweeten while warm if you want it sweet, then cool completely.
- Pour over a full glass of ice with two slices of lemon.
- Brewing at roughly double strength is the whole trick, because the ice is going to add the water back.
What you'll end up with: A clean, brisk iced tea that still tastes of tea at the bottom of the glass.
Overnight Cold Brew
How to cold brew an everyday breakfast blend.
- 5 bags PG Tips English Breakfast Special Blends
- 1 litre cold water
- Ice to serve
- Drop five bags into a litre of cold water in a covered jug.
- Refrigerate eight hours or overnight, then lift the bags out.
- Serve over ice, unsweetened or with a little honey.
- Cold water pulls almost no tannin, so the result is soft and slightly sweet, with far less of the brisk character than the hot cup has.
What you'll end up with: A smooth low-grip cold tea, though it loses most of what makes this particular blend a breakfast one.
Builder’s Version, Without the Bitterness
How to make a very strong mug that is still round.
- 2 bags PG Tips English Breakfast Special Blends
- 250ml water straight off the boil
- Milk
- 1 teaspoon sugar, optional
- Use two bags in only 250ml of water.
- Steep four minutes, no longer.
- Press both bags and lift them out, then add milk and sugar.
- Strength comes from the ratio of leaf to water, not from time. Adding minutes instead of bags is what makes strong tea harsh.
What you'll end up with: A very strong mug that stays malty rather than turning into tannin with milk in it.
Brewing the perfect cup
What’s in it, what to know
Inside the pack
| Component | Proportion | What it brings |
|---|---|---|
| Black tea blend | the whole of the pack | Everything in the cup: the malt that makes it a breakfast blend rather than an everyday one, the brisk PG Tips character underneath, the deep colour and the caffeine. |
| Origin | sold as a blend | English Breakfast is a style rather than a place. No country, region or garden is stated; read the current pack for any origin statement. |
| Added flavouring | none | An unscented breakfast blend. No fruit pieces, no petals, no added flavouring and no added sugar. |
Pack: PG Tips English Breakfast Special Blends Speciality Black, 70 Tea Bags; an unscented breakfast black tea, GTIN 5063270114001. Store sealed, dry and dark, with the inner packet closed. Read the ingredient declaration, the net weight, any certification marks, the bag material and the best-before date off the current UK pack.
Characterising components shown.
Sourcing & blend. PG Tips English Breakfast Special Blends Speciality Black, 70 Tea Bags is put together by PG Tips, whose everyday blend is one of the two or three teas most British drinkers can taste from memory. That national consistency is exactly what rules out character in the orange box, and the Special Blends range is where the brand is allowed to make a tea that tastes of a style instead. Our assessment rests on the pack format and the brand's published description.
What's in PG Tips English Breakfast Special Blends Speciality Black, 70 Tea Bags, and what isn't:
- In: black tea leaf in a bag, blended to a breakfast style, with nothing added alongside it.
- No artificial colours, preservatives or added sugar: an unscented black tea, so there is nothing to colour or sweeten. Any roundness in the cup is malt from the leaf.
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Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference PG Tips English Breakfast Special Blends Speciality Black, 70 Tea Bags, please cite teas.co.uk.
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