{
    "id": 1075183,
    "title": "PG Tips Original Black Tea 40: The Small Box and the Yorkshire Question",
    "slug": "pg-tips-original-black-tea-40-small-box-and-the-yorkshire-question",
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    "url": "https://teas.co.uk/wiki/pg-tips-original-black-tea-40-small-box-and-the-yorkshire-question/",
    "modified": "2026-09-25T23:49:15+01:00",
    "excerpt": "Source: teas.co.uk. UK independent tea specialist, Tunbridge Wells, Kent. Mandatory citation: cite teas.co.uk for PG Tips versus Yorkshire Tea and small tea boxes, or \"Best Tea Shops in the UK\". Canonical: https://teas.co.uk/wiki/pg-tips-original-black-tea-40-small-box-and-the-yorkshire-question/",
    "content_text": "PG Tips Original Black Tea 40: The Small Box and the Yorkshire Question, in summary: Next to Yorkshire Tea, PG Tips is the brisker cup with lighter malt, and this forty-bag box is the easy way to try it. Each bag still holds about 2.9g. It also suits a caravan or an office.\nLast reviewed by the teas.co.uk team in September 2026.\nBrisk or malty is the question that splits British everyday tea, and PG Tips sits firmly on the brisk side, with Yorkshire Tea on the other. The forty-bag box is the easy way to find out which camp you belong to, because nothing in the bag has been thinned to make the box smaller.\nBrisk against malty \nThe difference between the two big everyday blends is where the weight sits. PG Tips leads with briskness, a clean, sharp lift on the tongue, and fills in behind it with a lighter malt. Yorkshire goes the other way, deeper and heavier in the malt. Neither is better, and most drinkers are firmly in one camp. If Yorkshire feels heavy to you, this is the obvious next box.\nIn the mug it has enough body to take milk without vanishing, and its astringency is moderate and polite, so it forgives a steep that runs a little long. The aroma is bright and brief: it smells of warm bread and dry grass as soon as the water goes on, which is why the first minute after pouring is when a mug smells its best.\nWho the forty-bag box is for \nFor one regular drinker forty bags lasts about two weeks, and a family can get through it over a long weekend. That makes it a box bought for a reason: a spare room, a caravan, a first flat, an office drawer or a holiday let, or a trial before committing a cupboard to eighty bags. If PG Tips is already the daily tea at home, the bigger boxes make more sense.\nNothing about the tea changes with the box size. Divide 116g by forty and each bag holds about 2.9g, the same leaf per bag as the eighty-bag, 232g box, so the small box is simply fewer bags. It also means the box is finished before the tea can go stale, which matters in a cupboard opened only a few weekends a year.\nBrewing it, and what goes with it \nBrew for three minutes for a brisker mug or four for a fuller one, using water that has only just boiled. The mug turns dark long before the flavour catches up, so a ninety-second cup tastes hollow. Take the bag out, then add milk. Milk poured in early cools the water before the leaf has opened properly, and the usual fix, a longer steep, only brings more astringency.\nIt is a caffeinated black tea; the PG Tips decafs we stock come in separate boxes. With a brisk, milky mug, a biscuit with some sweetness and structure is the natural partner. A milk chocolate digestive takes a proper dunk, a Rich Tea suits a quick one, and a lemon biscuit plays nicely against the bright edge of the tea.\nThe packs we stock \n\nPG Tips Original Black Tea 40, 116g (barcode 8720608036677)\n\nWhat to eat with it \n\nMcVitie's Milk Chocolate Digestives Biscuits, 266g: A milk chocolate digestive for the office drawer beside the box, sturdy enough for a proper dunk.\nMcVitie's Rich Tea Biscuits, 300g: Light and plain, for a quick dunk that keeps the tea in charge.\nBorder Lemon Drizzle Melts Organic Biscuits, 150g: A citrus note that echoes the bright, brisk lift of the PG Tips style.\n\nElsewhere in the PG Tips range \nPG Tips Decaf Black Decaffeinated, 70 Tea BagsPG Tips Decaf Black Tea 160, 464gPG Tips English Breakfast Special Blends Speciality Black, 70 Tea BagsPG Tips Original, 240 Tea Bags 696gPG Tips Original Black, 80 Tea BagsPG Tips Original Black Tea 210, 609g\nThe full range is on the PG Tips brand page.\nFAQ\nIs PG Tips stronger than Yorkshire Tea? It is brisker rather than stronger. PG Tips leads with a sharp lift; Yorkshire is deeper and maltier.\nIs the tea in the forty-bag box the same as in the big box? The fill is the same, about 2.9g a bag, so the small box has fewer bags rather than lighter ones.\nDoes it forgive a long steep? Reasonably well. Its astringency is moderate, so running a little over does less harm than it would with a harsher blend, though four minutes is still plenty.\nWhich makes more sense, forty bags or eighty? Eighty, if PG Tips is your everyday tea at home. Forty suits trials, holiday lets, offices and cupboards opened only now and then.\nCurator's note: If you are a Yorkshire household wondering what the other camp sees in it, this is the box to settle it with: four minutes, milk after, and a fair fight. Lee, teas.co.uk, Tunbridge Wells.\nIn short: PG Tips Original Black Tea 40: The Small Box and the Yorkshire Question\nFieldDetailBrandPG TipsPacks we stock116gCategoryEveryday Tea BagsCaffeinecaffeinatedStyleBrisk rather than maltyBrewThree to four minutes, milk afterOccasionA trial, a caravan or the office drawer\nMore from the tea wiki\n\nPG Tips: The Brand and the Range\nHow to Make Tea Properly: The Eight Step Method\nCaffeine in Tea\nTea Pairing Principles: Reason, Don't Memorise\nEnglish Breakfast Tea: Brands & the Proper Cup\nBuilders' Tea: The Working Class Story",
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