The Monkeys Know Best (PG Tips Teabags)

Member Name: Shazzy

Product:	PG Tips Teabags
Date:	09/05/02 (606 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Reasonably priced, Brews quickly

Disadvantages: Can't think of any

Slurp! Hold on, just spilt my tea down my best jumper. Bugger it. Where are those tissues? Hmm, don’t have any tissues. Better nip out to the kitchen and get a cloth then. There… that’s better. Now, where were we?

Nowhere? Ah, right… I hadn’t got started. Well I was going to talk about PG Tips before the spillage occurred, so I suppose I might as well carry on.

Evidently, 165 million cups of tea are consumed every day in the UK. I don’t know how the Brooke Bond people know this, but that’s what they’re saying. I probably drink 1 of those. In other words, I’m not a huge tea drinker. In fact, unless somebody else makes it, I usually forget all about it. I am fussy though, and know exactly how I like my tea. One teabag quickly introduced to boiling water, milk and one sugar, please. Some people prefer their tea to resemble mud and even use two teabags in the same cup. YURG!! Others like their tea made in a teapot, brewed properly with a cosy to keep it warm and snug.

Now even though I’m not a connoisseur of tea, I still have the right to decide which brand I want to drink. Plenty of people have tried to persuade me to drink different brands - this is supposed be better, that’s supposed to be even better than this one, but I don’t care. I like PG Tips and am sticking with them. More PG Tips teabags are sold in the UK than any other brand so it stands to reason that they must be half decent at least.

I expect you’re waiting for me to tell you why I like PG Tips in particular aren’t you? What can I say? I like the pyramid bags. It was the shape of the bags that first attracted me to them, and as I think they taste pretty good, I’ve just sort of stuck with them. I’ve tried a few others along the way, but I keep coming back to my old faithfuls. According to the blurb on the pack, “the pyramid tea bag works like a tiny teapot giving the ti
ps of the leaves the room they need to infuse, allowing all their freshness and flavour to be effortlessly released, giving you the best cup of tea ever”. Do they do what it says on the pack? Well they seem to. I’ve definitely found that there’s less need to swirl the bag around in the cup to get a decent brew and apart from the one friend who insists on drinking mud and only one particular brand, most people I’ve served it to have seemed happy enough with it.

The tea inside the bags is finely divided, almost powder like, for quick brewing. Don’t try opening them and using them as loose tea. It doesn’t work. You’ll just end up with powdered tea floating on the top of your cuppa and that isn’t nice, believe me.

Going back to the pack again, we’re told that “only the top two leaves and a bud, known as tips, are chosen for PG Tips, giving you that natural, refreshing taste”. Is it refreshing? Yes, but no more so than most teas I’ve tried. Tea is a naturally refreshing drink, but also contains relaxants (Theophilline and Theobromine). This particular tea has a nice, robust taste to it, without the ‘perfume’ that some teas seem to have.

PG Tips are made from black tea, which is the world’s most commonly produced tea. Originally produced in China, black tea undergoes four stages of processing, withering (reduces the moisture in the leaf), rolling (creates the twisted look of tealeaves and opens them up), oxidation (brings out the colour, strength and flavour) and drying (reduces the total moisture content to about 3%), before it’s ready to be brewed.

Tea’s good for you. Not only does it contain calcium, zinc and various vitamins, it also contains antioxidants, which are thought to combat free radicals. For those who don’t know, free radicals attack healthy cells and can lead to cancer. Fruit and vegetables have always been seen
as a good source of antioxidants, but three cups of tea contains eight times as much antioxidant power as one apple so there’s no reason to feel guilty if you drink a lot of tea.

It’s also good for the heart. A study in Saudi Arabia showed that tea drinkers were 19% less likely to have problems with their tickers than non tea drinkers. Scientists don’t quite know why yet, although they have a few ideas up their sleeves that I’m sure they’re working on.

All in all I’d say PG Tips are as good as most budget brands and a lot better than many. You won’t find PG Tips being produced under ‘own-brands’ either, because Brooke Bond don’t make tea bags for anyone else.

You’ll find PG Tips in most supermarkets and small grocery outlets, available in the following sizes:

40 bags – 125 grams (95p)
80 bags – 250 grams (£1.57)
160 bags – 500 grams (£2.98)
240 bags – 750 grams (£4.24)

Prices are taken from Tesco and may vary slightly, depending on where you shop.

That’s it folks. I think I’ll just go make myself a brew now. Milk and one sugar!


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