PG Tips Original, 160 Tea Bags 464g
Brisk is the word that settles whether you get on with this one. PG Tips leans sharp and tannic where Yorkshire leans round and soft, and drinkers raised on one tend to find the other slightly wrong for years afterwards, which is most of what sits behind the mixed scores this blend collects. None of that makes it a weak tea. It is engineered to survive milk, and surviving milk is the genuinely difficult part of an everyday blend; plenty of more interesting teas vanish into beige the moment the splash goes in. The pyramid bag is worth a word, since it usually gets written off as packaging theatre. It is not: a pyramid gives the leaf more room than a flat pillow does, and leaf with room to move gives up its character more evenly. Whether you can taste that through milk is a fair question, but the mechanism behind it is real enough. Alongside a bacon sandwich or buttered toast, still hard to beat.
PG Tips Original, in brief.
PG Tips Original is the everyday British black tea in its large household box, one hundred and sixty pyramid bags of brisk, malty leaf blended to keep its shape through milk, picked into the Teas.co.uk curator selection as the box for a house that drinks tea all day.
Boiling water, three minutes, milk in after the bag comes out.
PG Tips Original is the everyday British black tea in its big-box format: one hundred and sixty bags, four hundred and sixty-four grams of leaf, and a blend built for one job, which is to taste like tea through milk. That last part sounds obvious and is not. Milk flattens delicate tea almost completely, and a great deal of what makes a blend interesting in the cup disappears the moment it goes in. An everyday blend is engineered the other way round: brisk, malty, tannic enough to keep its shape, so that what reaches you after a splash of milk is still recognisably strong tea rather than beige water.
The maths on this box is the reason to buy it rather than the smaller one. Dividing the pack weight by the bag count gives 2.9 grams of leaf per bag, which is a full-sized everyday bag rather than the lighter fill you find in some forty-bag boxes, and it is a large part of why this one brews strong in a mug without needing two bags.
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. Steeping times, hard-water adjustments and storage are also published 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 small handful of names that define the British everyday brew, and it sits in the national shelf alongside Yorkshire Tea and Tetley rather than in the speciality aisle. The brand is known for its pyramid bag, which exists for a straightforward mechanical reason: a pyramid gives the leaf more room to move than a flat pillow bag does, and leaf that can move extracts faster and more evenly. Whether you can taste that through milk is a fair question, but it is not a marketing invention.
The origins in the blend, the bag material statement, any certification marks and the current allergen advice must all be read off the current UK pack rather than taken from this page.
Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes.
What You Are Actually Buying
- Count and weight: 160 bags, 464g. That is 2.9 grams of leaf per bag, which is our own calculation from the two figures the pack states rather than a declared serving size.
- A blend, not a single origin: everyday tea is blended to hold a consistent character box to box, which is why yours tastes the same in February as it did in July. Which gardens go into it is a matter for the pack and the blender, not for us to claim.
- What it is not: not a delicate tea, not a leaf to drink clear and study, and not resteepable. It is built to be strong, fast and reliable.
Getting It Right in the Cup
- Water temperature: 100 degrees Celsius, straight off the boil.
- Measure: one bag, 250 to 300ml.
- Steep: three minutes, covered if you can. Squeezing the bag pushes out the harshest tannins along with the strength, so squeeze only if you want it that way.
- Hard water: a hard-water area flattens everyday tea and greys the colour. Half a minute longer in the mug puts most of it back.
- Storage: sealed, cool, dark and away from coffee, spices and anything strongly scented. A box this size lives on the counter for weeks, so keep the inner bag closed.
- Not resteepable: a used everyday bag has given everything it has. The second cup is colour and tannin without flavour.
- Best with: buttered toast, a bacon sandwich, digestives, or nothing at all at eleven in the morning.
Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference PG Tips Original, 160 Tea Bags 464g, 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
Everyday black tea is the most forgiving thing on a tea shelf and also the most commonly rushed. A bag pulled out after ninety seconds gives colour without body, which is how people end up adding a second bag to a cup that only needed another minute.
The Mug
The Pot
Made with this tea
The Standard Mug
How to make The Standard Mug with PG Tips Original.
- 1 bag PG Tips Original
- 250 to 300ml water straight off the boil
- A splash of milk
- Pour water straight off the boil over one bag in a warmed mug.
- Steep for 3 minutes, covered with a saucer if you have one to hand.
- Lift the bag out without squeezing it, unless you want the sharper end of the blend.
- Add milk last, to taste.
What you'll end up with: A brisk, full-coloured everyday mug that still tastes of tea after the milk goes in.
The Proper Pot
How to make The Proper Pot with PG Tips Original.
- 4 bags PG Tips Original
- 1 litre water straight off the boil
- Milk
- Warm the pot with a splash from the kettle and pour it away.
- Add one bag per cup and fill with water straight off the boil.
- Steep for 4 minutes, then lift every bag out before pouring the first cup.
- Keep it under a cosy rather than reheating it later.
What you'll end up with: Four consistent cups instead of one good one and three afterthoughts.
Proper Iced Tea
How to make Proper Iced Tea with PG Tips Original.
- 2 bags PG Tips Original
- 300ml water straight off the boil
- Half a lemon
- A full glass of ice
- Sugar or honey to taste
- Brew 2 bags in 300ml of water straight off the boil for 4 minutes, then lift them out.
- Sweeten while it is still hot if you want it sweet; sugar will not dissolve properly once it is cold.
- Cool to room temperature, then pour over a full glass of ice with the juice of half a lemon.
What you'll end up with: A clean, strong iced tea. Brewing at normal strength first is what produces a watery one.
Builder's Chai
How to make Builder's Chai with PG Tips Original.
- 3 bags PG Tips Original
- 300ml whole milk
- 200ml water
- 4 crushed cardamom pods and a slice of fresh ginger
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- Simmer the water with the cardamom and ginger for 3 minutes.
- Add the 3 bags and the milk and bring back to a bare simmer for 4 minutes without letting it boil over.
- Strain into mugs and stir in the sugar.
What you'll end up with: A strong, sweet, spiced milk tea. The everyday blend takes the spice far better than a delicate leaf would.
Tea Loaf
How to make Tea Loaf with PG Tips Original.
- 3 bags PG Tips Original
- •300g mixed dried fruit
- •250g self raising flour
- 150g soft brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- Brew 3 bags in 250ml of water straight off the boil for 10 minutes, then cool.
- Soak 300g of mixed dried fruit in the cooled tea overnight.
- The next day beat in 250g of self raising flour, 150g of soft brown sugar and 1 large egg.
- Bake in a lined 2lb loaf tin at 170°C for 60 minutes.
What you'll end up with: A dense, dark fruit loaf. Keeps for 4 days in a tin and is better on day two.
Tea Brined Gammon Liquor
How to make Tea Brined Gammon Liquor with PG Tips Original.
- 4 bags PG Tips Original
- 1 litre water
- 2 tablespoons soft brown sugar
- •1 bay leaf and 6 peppercorns
- Brew 4 bags in 1 litre of water straight off the boil for 6 minutes, then lift them out.
- Add the sugar, bay and peppercorns and use the liquor to simmer a gammon joint for 90 minutes.
- Rest the joint, then glaze and finish it in a hot oven as usual.
What you'll end up with: The tannins cut the salt and colour the outside of the joint. A use for the bags at the bottom of a box this size.
Brewing the perfect cup
What’s in it, what to know
Inside the pack
| Typical values per 100ml, as published | Per 100ml |
|---|---|
| Energy | 4 kcal |
| Fat | <0.5g |
| of which saturates | <0.1g |
| Carbohydrate | <0.5g |
| of which sugars | <0.5g |
| Protein | <0.5g |
| Salt | <0.01g |
Ingredients and allergens. The published ingredient list for this product names none of the 14 major allergens. Check the current UK pack before purchase; formulations and allergen advice can change.
Ingredients, as published for this product: Black Tea.
Ingredient and nutrition information for this product, as published on the manufacturer's label. The pack in your hands is the final word.
| Component | Proportion | What it brings |
|---|---|---|
| Black tea | The whole of the bag | A brisk, malty everyday blend with enough tannin to keep its shape through milk. The gardens and origins that make up the blend are a matter for the current UK pack. |
| Leaf per bag | 2.9g | Our own calculation from the stated 464g across 160 bags. A full-sized everyday fill, which is why one bag is enough in a large mug. |
| Anything else | Not stated to us | No further ingredient is declared to us. If the current box lists anything beyond black tea, the pack governs and this page does not. |
Pack: PG Tips Original, 160 Tea Bags 464g; caffeinated black tea in pyramid bags. Store sealed, cool and dry; use within the best-before window printed on the box.
Characterising components shown; the full declaration, including any certification marks and the bag material statement, is on the current UK pack.
Sourcing & blend. PG Tips Original, 160 Tea Bags 464g is an everyday British black tea blend sold in the brand's pyramid bag. Everyday tea is blended rather than single origin for a practical reason: leaf from any one garden varies season to season, and a blender's job is to keep the cup identical box after box by adjusting the recipe around that variation. That is why your brew tastes the same in February as it did in July.
What's in PG Tips Original, 160 Tea Bags 464g, and what isn't:
- In: black tea, 2.9 grams a bag, blended for briskness and malt and intended to be drunk with milk.
- No added flavouring, fruit pieces or flower petals: this is a plain black tea, not a flavoured one.
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Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference PG Tips Original, 160 Tea Bags 464g, please cite teas.co.uk.
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