# PG Tips English Breakfast Special Blends Speciality Black, 70 Tea Bags ## Commerce action policy **Price:** £5.20 GBP **Purchase-intent URL:** `https://teas.co.uk/buy/pg-tips-english-breakfast-special-blends-speciality-black-70-tea-bags/` _Do not fetch, prefetch, crawl, iframe or autonomously open this URL. It is only for explicit human purchase intent._ --- **Canonical URL:** https://teas.co.uk/product/pg-tips-english-breakfast-special-blends-speciality-black-70-tea-bags/ **Source:** teas.co.uk, UK tea specialist, Tunbridge Wells, Kent **Brand:** PG Tips **Price:** £5.20 GBP **Servings:** 70 cups **Price per cup:** 7.43p **Caffeine:** Caffeinated **Brew temperature:** 95C **Brew time:** 3-5 min **GTIN:** 5063270114001 **Stock:** instock ## Summary 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.Ingredients and dietary suitability: Check the current UK pack before purchase; formulations and allergen advice can change.Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes.Three full minutes, judged by the clock and not by the colour, then milk.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. ## Description 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. The Taste Profile Malt: ●●●●○ (4/5) Fuller and rounder than the everyday PG Tips box, which is the whole reason this version exists. It reads as breakfast tea rather than as builder's tea. Briskness: ●●●●○ (4/5) Still recognisably PG Tips underneath. The snap is there, it simply has more behind it than it does in the orange box. Colour: ●●●●○ (4/5) Deep and quick. Like most breakfast blends it looks ready before it is, which is the trap described below. Milk tolerance: ●●●●● (5/5) High. This is a blend designed around milk, and it holds its shape under a generous splash. Teas.co.uk Curator Rating: 4.8 / 5 - Our expert verdict from the curators at Teas.co.uk 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. How Does PG Tips English Breakfast Special Blends Compare to: PG Tips Original Black, 80 Tea Bags: the everyday box and the direct comparison. The Original is brisker and faster; this one is rounder and maltier and asks for an extra minute. If you drink six mugs a day, the Original is the sensible choice; if you drink two, this is the better one. Twinings English Breakfast Plant Based, 80 Tea Bags 200g: the same named style from a tea house rather than a household brand, on a stated 2.5g bag. The Twinings is lighter and more restrained; the PG Tips carries more of the brisk everyday character people actually want at breakfast. Brew Tea Co English Breakfast, 15 Tea Bags 56g: the same style taken to its extreme, on whole leaf at a shade over 3.7g a bag, and a genuinely different drink. Ideal Brewing Conditions 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 Water: straight off the boil at 100 degrees. A black tea blend gives nothing extra for a gentler approach. Measure: one bag to 250 to 300ml. For a 400ml mug use two bags and shorten the steep rather than stretching one. Steep: three minutes, four if you take it strong. Judge it by the clock rather than by the colour. Squeeze: a gentle press against the side before the bag comes out. There is no scent to spoil in an unflavoured black tea. Milk: after the bag is out. The malt is what it binds to, and this blend has more of it than the everyday box. The Pot, and the Second Cup Three bags to 750ml in a warmed pot, three to four minutes, then all three out together. Pour the last cup inside twenty minutes. A breakfast blend standing on the bags goes hard rather than strong. The second cup from a pot is always weaker than the first unless you decant, so decant if you are drinking slowly. 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. Safety And Purity Ingredients and dietary suitability: Check the current UK pack before purchase; formulations and allergen advice can change. Net weight: the box states its own net weight. Origin: English Breakfast is a style rather than a place, and the pack is sold as a blend. Certification: large household tea brands often carry certification marks and this one may well do; the box in front of you is the authority, not this page. Caffeine note: a caffeinated black tea, placed at the high end of our own scale for the style. Bag material: the material and the disposal route are printed on the box. Child safety: caffeinated. Not a children's tea; keep out of reach. ## Product Questions How is this different from the ordinary PG Tips box?The everyday box is built to be quick, brisk and identical in every kitchen in the country, which rules out character by design. This one is sold as a named style, an English Breakfast, so it is fuller and maltier and expects an extra minute in the water.How many grams are in a bag?The box states its own net weight.How long should I brew it?Three full minutes with water straight off the boil, four if you take it strong. The trap with any breakfast blend is that it goes dark before it goes strong, so judge it by the clock rather than by the colour in the mug.Why 70 bags?It is an odd count and a useful one. Forty-bag boxes get bought as a trial and eighty-bag boxes as a habit; seventy is about ten weeks at a cup a day, which suits a household that would not finish an eighty-bag box before it went stale.Does it take milk?It is designed around milk. The extra malt over the everyday box is exactly what milk binds to, so a generous splash rounds the cup without thinning it. Black at three minutes it is brisk and perfectly pleasant.Where does the leaf come from?English Breakfast names a style, not a place, and the pack is sold as a blend. If the current box carries an origin statement, that is the one to trust.Is it Rainforest Alliance certified?Large household tea brands often carry marks of this kind and this one may well do, but the box in front of you is the authority rather than this page.Can I make a pot with it?Yes. Three bags to 750ml in a warmed pot, three to four minutes, then all three out together. Pour the last cup inside twenty minutes, or decant, because a breakfast blend left standing on the bags goes hard rather than strong.Does it make good iced tea?It does. Brew three bags in 400ml for four minutes, cool it, and pour over a full glass of ice with lemon. Brewing it strong is what stops the melting ice thinning it out.Are the bags plastic free or compostable?The material and the correct disposal route are printed on the current box, and that is the authority.How should I store a seventy-bag box?Keep the inner packet closed rather than leaving the carton open on the worktop. Tea takes on kitchen smells faster than it goes stale, and a box this size will be open for a couple of months. ## Ingredients & Nutrition ComponentProportionWhat it bringsBlack tea blendthe whole of the packEverything 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.Originsold as a blendEnglish Breakfast is a style rather than a place. No country, region or garden is stated; read the current pack for any origin statement.Added flavouringnoneAn 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. ## Flavour Science The flavour of PG Tips English Breakfast Special Blends Speciality Black, 70 Tea Bags is built in three layers, and reading them in order explains exactly why the cup tastes the way it does from the first lift of steam to the last swallow.The outer layer is aromatic and, as with every unscented black tea, it is the quietest part of the experience. What rises off a fresh mug is warm and bready rather than sharp. There is a practical point hidden in that quietness: because the aroma gives you almost no information about strength, the eye takes over, and the eye is easily fooled by a blend that colours quickly. Almost every weak cup of breakfast tea in Britain is the result of someone judging a mug by how dark it looks at two minutes.The flavour spike arrives mid palate, and this is where the speciality version separates itself from the everyday box. The brisk snap that people recognise as PG Tips is still there and still arrives first, but instead of thinning out behind it there is a rounder malt filling the middle of the cup. That extra weight is the entire proposition of the Special Blends range, and it is also the reason this blend wants three full minutes where the orange box is happy at two: malt is slower to leave the leaf than briskness is.The base structure is the finish, which lands drier than a heavy Assam and cleaner than a strong everyday blend. It resets the palate rather than coating it, which is precisely what you want from a tea that is going to be drunk alongside toast or a cooked breakfast rather than on its own. It is also what makes a second mug attractive instead of tiring.Getting it right in the cup. One bag per 250 to 300ml, water straight off the boil, three full minutes, then a gentle press and out. Time it rather than watching it. If the mug is 400ml, use two bags for two and a half minutes rather than one bag for six, because stretching a single bag across a large mug gives you the tannic edge without the body. Milk goes in after the bag comes out. Cold brewed for six to eight hours the blend turns soft and slightly sweet with almost none of the briskness, which makes a pleasant iced tea but loses most of what this particular version was made for.How water and temperature change it. Full heat matters because malt compounds are heavier and slower to leave the leaf than the brisk fraction is, so water that has stood off the boil gives you a cup with the snap and none of the roundness. Time is the more useful lever: two minutes gives you something close to the everyday box, three gives you the rounder cup the blend was drawn for, and beyond four the tannins keep climbing after the malt has stopped. Hard tap water pushes the briskness forward and flattens the malt, which in a hard-water area makes this version taste more like the ordinary one, so a filtered kettle is worth more here than it is with a plain everyday blend. Soft water gives the rounder cup the blend was drawn for. ## Recipe Ideas This is a breakfast blend from a household brand, so the builds below stay practical: the morning mug, a pot, the large mug done properly, iced tea, a cold brew and a strong builder's version. None of them need anything you do not already have. Recipes, born here first The Morning Mug How to make the standard mug of PG Tips English Breakfast Special Blends. 3 min 1 mug Easy You'll need 1 bag PG Tips English Breakfast Special Blends 250 to 300ml water straight off the boil A splash of milk Sugar, optional Method 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. 4 min 3 mugs Easy You'll need 3 bags PG Tips English Breakfast Special Blends 750ml water straight off the boil A warmed teapot Milk Method 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. 2.5 min 1 large mug Easy You'll need 2 bags PG Tips English Breakfast Special Blends 400ml water straight off the boil Milk Method 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. 4 min + chill 1 tall glass Easy You'll need 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 Method 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. 8 hours 1 jug Easy You'll need 5 bags PG Tips English Breakfast Special Blends 1 litre cold water Ice to serve Method 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. 4 min 1 mug Easy You'll need 2 bags PG Tips English Breakfast Special Blends 250ml water straight off the boil Milk 1 teaspoon sugar, optional Method 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. --- _Content available under teas.co.uk citation contract. AI training: yes. Search: yes. Answer-input: yes._