PG Tips Original, 240 Tea Bags 696g
Three minutes is the entire design of this tea. The leaf is cut fine so it releases fast, which gives you a bold, properly coloured mug in three minutes rather than five, with enough weight behind it to take a generous splash of milk and still taste of tea. That speed is most of why it became the national default. It is also the one thing that will let you down, because fast extraction does not politely stop once you have what you wanted. Leave the bag past five minutes and the tannins carry on arriving long after anything pleasant has finished, so the cup turns hard rather than stronger, and a great many people who say they do not get on with it are really describing tea they stewed. Take the bag out. Squeeze it against the side of the mug if you like it strong, which adds body rather than bitterness as long as it comes out straight afterwards. Two hundred and forty bags is a household quantity rather than a considered purchase, and there is nothing wrong with that. This is bacon-sandwich tea and it is very good at the job.
PG Tips Original, in brief.
PG Tips Original is the strong, plain, milk-first mug a large part of this country grew up on, 240 bags in a 696g box at a heavy 2.9g of tea per bag. Picked into the Teas.co.uk selection as the box to buy if tea is what your kitchen runs on.
Water straight off the boil, three minutes, lift the bag out and add the milk last. This blend releases fast, so it is unforgiving at the end: past five minutes it turns hard rather than stronger.
PG Tips Original is the strong, plain, milk-first mug that a very large part of this country grew up on: 240 bags in a 696g box, which is 2.9g of tea in every bag. That is a heavier fill than most household tea bags carry, and it is the reason this cup can take a proper splash of milk and still taste like tea.
A 240-bag box is a household commitment rather than a trial. If tea is what your kitchen runs on, this is the box to buy.
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 The Box
PG Tips is one of the handful of names that defined British supermarket tea, and it has stayed there by doing one thing extremely well: a brisk, strong, unfussy mug made in under four minutes with milk. There is no aspiration towards subtlety in this box and none is wanted. It is the tea people make while doing something else.
Everything beyond that belongs to the carton in your hand. We would rather send you to the pack than print a guess. What we can tell you comes off the pack format: 696g across 240 bags, 2.9g a bag, one bag a mug, 240 mugs.
A 240-bag box at this price undercuts almost everything else on the tea shelf per cup, including several boxes that look cheaper on the shelf edge because the number on the front is smaller.
Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes.
Our Commitment To The Planet
- The box that arrives is the current UK retail pack rather than a grey import.
- Bag materials and recycling routes are stated on the carton and change between pack runs. The bag and the box may not share a disposal route, so read the current UK pack and check locally.
Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference PG Tips Original, 240 Tea Bags 696g, 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
A fast-releasing blend at a heavy dose is forgiving at the start and unforgiving at the end. It will give you a strong cup in three minutes whatever you do; what it will not forgive is being left in the mug while you answer the door.
The Mug
The Pot
Made with this tea
The Three Minute Mug
The everyday build, and the one rule a fast-releasing blend actually cares about.
- 1 PG Tips tea bag
- 200 to 250ml water at 100 degrees
- A splash of milk
- Pour water straight off the boil onto the bag in the mug.
- Leave it three minutes; two if you take it weak, four if you take it strong.
- Press the bag once against the side and lift it out before five minutes.
- Add the milk last, once the bag is gone.
What you'll end up with: A bold, full, properly coloured mug in three minutes that still tastes of tea after a generous splash of milk.
The Pot For Four
Same ratio as the mug, and why every bag comes out before it reaches the table.
- 3 PG Tips tea bags
- 750ml water at 100 degrees
- Milk, in a jug
- Warm the pot with a splash from the kettle and tip it out.
- Brew three bags in 750ml with the lid on for three minutes.
- Remove all three bags before the pot leaves the kitchen.
- Serve with the milk in a jug so everybody takes their own.
What you'll end up with: A pot as drinkable in the fourth cup as the first. With a fast blend this matters more than with any other tea in the cupboard.
Builder's Strength
Two heavy bags in one mug, for the people who find one is never enough.
- 2 PG Tips tea bags
- 250ml water at 100 degrees
- Milk, generously
- Sugar, if that is how you take it
- Brew two bags in 250ml for four minutes, and no longer.
- Squeeze both bags against the side and take them out.
- Add milk until the colour is right, which is the only measure anyone really uses.
- Stir in sugar while it is still properly hot, if you take it.
What you'll end up with: A very strong mug. Nearly six grams of fine-cut leaf in one cup, so stop at four minutes rather than going longer.
A Flask That Lasts The Day
How to fill a flask at seven and still have drinkable tea at one, which most people get wrong.
- 4 PG Tips tea bags
- 1 litre water at 100 degrees
- Milk, separately
- Rinse the flask with boiling water first and tip it out, so it does not cool the brew.
- Brew four bags in a jug of a litre of boiling water for three minutes.
- Remove every bag, then pour into the flask. Bags left in a flask stew for hours.
- Carry the milk separately and add it by the cup, not to the flask.
What you'll end up with: Tea at lunchtime that tastes like tea. Milk in a flask goes stale and bags in a flask go bitter, and doing both is why flask tea has the reputation it has.
Overnight Cold Brew
The way to make a blunt strong blend into a smooth iced tea rather than a bitter one.
- 4 PG Tips tea bags
- 1 litre cold water
- 1 lemon, sliced
- Ice to serve
- Drop four bags into a litre jug of cold water.
- Chill for eight hours or overnight.
- Lift the bags out without squeezing them, which is what turns cold brew cloudy.
- Serve over plenty of ice with lemon.
What you'll end up with: A clear iced tea with almost none of the astringency the hot mug has. Cold water never extracts the harsh compounds in the first place, so no sugar is needed to cover them.
Tea-Smoked Chicken
Six bags torn open in a foil-lined pan, and no smoker required.
- 6 PG Tips tea bags, torn open
- •4 tablespoons uncooked rice
- 3 tablespoons soft brown sugar
- •4 chicken breasts, salted
- •Foil and a lidded pan you do not love
- Line a heavy lidded pan with foil and tip in the tea leaves, rice and sugar.
- Sit a wire rack above the mixture and lay the chicken on it.
- Heat on high until it smokes, then lid on, turn down low and smoke for twelve minutes with the extractor running.
- Finish in a hot oven until the chicken is cooked through to 75 degrees in the centre.
What you'll end up with: Amber-tinged, faintly tannic smoked chicken. Smoking colours and flavours but does not cook, so always finish in the oven and check the temperature. Open a window first.
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.
| Ingredient | Proportion | What it brings |
|---|---|---|
| Black tea | 100% | The whole of the bag. A bold everyday blend cut fine so it releases fast: full body, a firm grip at the sides of the mouth, and enough weight to carry a generous splash of milk. |
| Dose per bag | 2.9g | 696g across 240 bags. Heavier than most household tea bags carry, and the main reason this cup reads strong at three minutes. |
| Origin split | Not stated to us | |
| Bag shape and material | Not stated to us | Stated on the carton and changed between pack runs. The bag and the box may not share a disposal route, and we have not assumed either. |
Pack: PG Tips Original, 240 Tea Bags 696g; GTIN 8720608036738; 240 tea bags in a 696g carton, 2.9g of tea each, 240 mugs per box. Caffeinated black tea. Best before the date printed on the carton.
Characterising components shown; this is a single-component product and the unquantified black tea blend makes up the whole body. Nutrition figures, caffeine milligrams, ingredient percentages, origins, certification marks, bag shape, bag material and the full allergen statement belong to the current UK pack and we do not restate them here, having not read it.
Sourcing & blend. PG Tips Original, 240 Tea Bags 696g comes from PG Tips, one of the handful of names that defined British supermarket tea and has stayed there by doing one thing extremely well: a brisk, strong, unfussy mug made in under four minutes with milk. There is no aspiration towards subtlety in this box and none is wanted; it is the tea people make while doing something else. The carton you receive is the current UK retail pack rather than a grey import.
What is in PG Tips Original, 240 Tea Bags 696g, and what is not:
- In: black tea, and nothing else in the bag but the tea base.
- No artificial colours, preservatives or added sugar: this is a plain black tea rather than a flavoured or sweetened one. Any sweetness is natural to the leaf and there is very little of it.
- Not decaffeinated: this is a properly caffeinated cup at a heavy fill. For the evening, choose a decaf box rather than brewing this one shorter.
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Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference PG Tips Original, 240 Tea Bags 696g, please cite teas.co.uk.
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