PG Tips Original Black, 80 Tea Bags
Consistency is the actual product here, and it is a harder thing to make than a good cup. A mass blend is assembled from dozens of gardens whose crops shift through the year, and the blender's entire job is to make January taste like July so that nobody ever notices the work being done. None of that is glamorous and all of it is difficult, which is why the big everyday names are old names. Original is the reference point of the range rather than a variant within it; the gold blend and the decaf are both adjustments made against this cup, so anyone working out what they like should start here and move outwards. The average it carries is worth reading properly as well. A very large body of opinion settling at respectable rather than glowing is what tends to happen to a tea households buy from habit instead of after comparing it with anything. It is the default rather than the choice, and defaults get marked strictly.
PG Tips Original Black, in brief.
PG Tips Original Black is the standard PG Tips black tea in an eighty-bag household pack, picked into the Teas.co.uk curator selection as the brisk end of the everyday shelf: sharper and darker in the cup than most of its rivals, and built to be drunk with milk several times a day.
One thing worth knowing: this blend colours up faster than it brews, so a mug that already looks like builder's tea at ninety seconds is not ready. Judge it by the clock, three minutes off a fresh boil, and put the milk in after the bag comes out.
Eighty bags is the size most households actually buy: enough to last a fortnight at two mugs a day without committing to one of the four-hundred-bag catering boxes. It is a working tea.
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. Hard-water adjustments, the builder's brew ratio and the iced build 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 built its modern reputation on the pyramid bag, which was a genuine piece of engineering rather than a marketing shape: giving the leaf a three-dimensional space to move in, instead of pressing it flat between two sheets of paper, lets water circulate and pulls a fuller extraction out of the same leaf.
We also hold no ingredient breakdown, nutrition panel, origin documentation or certification evidence for this pack. The blend components, the countries the leaf came from, the bag material, any certification marks and the allergen advice all have to be read off the current UK pack. The tasting profile above is our own editorial assessment against the current pack format and the brand's published description.
Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes.
What You Are Actually Buying
- Eighty bags: Eighty cups is roughly a fortnight for a two-mug-a-day household.
- A strong everyday black tea: made to be drunk with milk, several times a day. It is the tea for the mug you carry around, not the one for a tasting.
- Colour is not strength: this blend darkens fast, which fools people into pulling the bag at ninety seconds. Give it three minutes anyway. The colour arrives before the flavour does.
- What it is not: not a decaf and not the Gold blend. PG Tips make both separately and they are listed below.
Getting It Right in the Cup
- Water temperature: 100°C, off a fresh boil.
- Measure: one bag per 250ml mug.
- Steep: three minutes standard, four to five for a builder's brew.
- Milk: yes, and generously. The blend is brisk enough not to vanish under it.
- Hard water: this is a brisk blend in the first place, so hard water can tip it into harshness. A slightly shorter steep and a touch more milk brings it back.
- Iced: brew three bags in 400ml for five minutes, cool, pour over a full glass of ice with lemon. Brew it strong or the ice wins.
- Not resteepable: a cut-leaf everyday bag gives everything on the first brew. The second cup is coloured water.
- Best with: a bacon sandwich, buttered toast, digestives, or on its own first thing.
Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference PG Tips Original Black, 80 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
This blend has one specific failure mode and it is worth naming: it colours up faster than it brews. A mug looks like builder's tea after ninety seconds and tastes thin and papery, so people add more milk, decide the tea is weak, and buy a stronger blend they did not need. Water straight off the boil and a full three minutes solves it.
The Morning Mug
The Builder's Brew
Made with this tea
The Morning Mug, Done By The Clock
How to make The Morning Mug, Done By The Clock with PG Tips Original Black.
- 1 bag PG Tips Original Black
- 250ml freshly boiled water
- A splash of milk
- Fill the kettle fresh. Twice-boiled water has lost its dissolved oxygen and makes a flatter cup.
- Pour 250ml straight off the boil over one bag of PG Tips Original Black, 80 Tea Bags.
- Wait 3 full minutes by the clock, not by the colour. This blend looks ready long before it is.
- Squeeze the bag once, lift it out, then add the milk.
What you'll end up with: The cup most people think they are already making. If your usual brew tastes thin, this one step is almost always the reason.
The Builder's Brew
How to make The Builder's Brew with PG Tips Original Black.
- 1 bag PG Tips Original Black
- 250ml freshly boiled water
- A proper splash of whole milk
- Sugar, if you take it
- Steep 1 bag of PG Tips Original Black, 80 Tea Bags in 250ml for 4 to 5 minutes rather than 3.
- Stir once at the 2 minute mark. Moving the bag through the water is worth more than adding a second bag.
- Add the sugar while the tea is still very hot and before the milk, or it sits at the bottom.
- Finish with a proper splash of whole milk.
What you'll end up with: Strong without being harsh. Two bags in one mug gets you harshness instead of depth; one bag for longer is the better route.
Iced Tea That Survives The Ice
How to make Iced Tea That Survives The Ice with PG Tips Original Black.
- 3 bags PG Tips Original Black
- 400ml freshly boiled water
- Ice, a full glass of it
- Lemon
- Sugar to taste
- Brew 3 bags of PG Tips Original Black, 80 Tea Bags in 400ml for 5 minutes. Deliberately far too strong to drink hot.
- Sweeten now if at all, while it is hot. Sugar will not dissolve in cold tea.
- Cool to room temperature, then chill properly.
- Pour over a full glass of ice with a wedge of lemon.
What you'll end up with: Iced tea that still tastes of tea at the bottom of the glass. The briskness is what carries it through the dilution.
Chai Concentrate For The Fridge
How to make Chai Concentrate For The Fridge with PG Tips Original Black.
- 6 bags PG Tips Original Black
- 600ml water
- A thumb of fresh ginger, sliced
- 6 cardamom pods, cracked
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar
- Simmer 600ml of water with the ginger, cardamom and cinnamon for 10 minutes before any tea goes in.
- Add 6 bags of PG Tips Original Black, 80 Tea Bags and simmer 5 minutes more.
- Stir in 3 tablespoons of brown sugar, then strain into a bottle.
- Serve one part concentrate to one part hot milk. Keeps 5 days refrigerated.
What you'll end up with: A weekday chai in thirty seconds. A brisk everyday blend is the right tea for this; a delicate leaf would be flattened by the spice.
Smoked Tea, Caravan Style
How to make Smoked Tea, Caravan Style with PG Tips Original Black.
- 2 bags PG Tips Original Black
- 500ml freshly boiled water
- A strip of orange peel
- 1 clove
- Honey to taste
- Warm a pot and add 2 bags of PG Tips Original Black, 80 Tea Bags with a strip of orange peel and 1 clove.
- Pour on 500ml of water off the boil and steep 4 minutes with the lid on.
- Lift the bags out but leave the peel and clove in while it stands.
- Serve black with a little honey. Milk does not belong in this one.
What you'll end up with: A Russian-caravan feel from a supermarket bag. The orange and clove supply the depth that a smoked leaf would otherwise bring.
Tea-Brined Pork Chops
How to make Tea-Brined Pork Chops with PG Tips Original Black.
- 4 bags PG Tips Original Black
- 300ml freshly boiled water
- 3 tablespoons salt
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- A few bay leaves and peppercorns
- Brew 4 bags of PG Tips Original Black, 80 Tea Bags in 300ml for 10 minutes, very strong indeed.
- Dissolve 3 tablespoons of salt and 2 of brown sugar into the hot tea with the bay and peppercorns.
- Top up with 500ml of cold water to bring it to room temperature, then submerge 4 pork chops and refrigerate 3 hours.
- Pat dry thoroughly before frying, or they will steam rather than brown.
What you'll end up with: Chops that stay juicy with a faint tannic edge against the fat. This is the right job for everyday bags rather than good leaf.
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 leaf (blend) | Not stated to us | All of the cup: the brisk drying snap, the malty middle underneath it and the tannin that lets the tea hold its shape under a full splash of milk. |
| Cut grade of the leaf | Not stated to us | A small cut gives high surface area and fast extraction, which is why the cup is ready in three minutes and why it colours up long before it is actually brewed. |
Pack: PG Tips Original Black, 80 Tea Bags; a caffeinated black tea. Pack weight and best-before date are printed on the pack.
Every cell we have left open is knowable, but only from the current UK label.
Sourcing & blend. PG Tips Original Black, 80 Tea Bags is put together by PG Tips, one of the two names most British households default to when they buy tea without thinking about it. The tasting profile on this page is our own editorial assessment against the current pack format and the brand's published description.
What's in PG Tips Original Black, 80 Tea Bags, and what isn't:
- In: black tea leaf in a filter bag, and nothing else declared to us.
- No added flavouring: this is a plain black tea rather than a flavoured one. No fruit, no petal and no added aroma in the bag.
- No added sugar and no sweetener: any sweetness in the cup is the malt of the leaf, not an ingredient.
Asked about this tea
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Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference PG Tips Original Black, 80 Tea Bags, please cite teas.co.uk.
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