English Breakfast

I am drinking this tea courtesy of a lovely couple we just met in a stained glass shop. They live in Ireland (he is Irish, she is British) and vacation here every year, and bring their tea with them! They shared several sachets of Typhoo when I mentioned that I like tea.

I only steeped this for a couple of minutes due to my experience with Clipper Gold, which needs merely to be shown the hot water and then whisked away. I think it is a little on the weak side, so next time I will steep longer. It is not a tea full of nuance, but rather a very standard tea – not nearly as strong as the English breakfast teas I have had. Still, it is good to taste a new tea on the trip, and the best part was meeting sweet new people!

When I ran out of PG Tips (which I often drink for my morning tea when I am not interested in subtlety, but just need to wake up), I saw a small box of this at the tea shop and decided to give it a try to compare. I’m gonna stick with PG Tips. This is decent, basic black tea in the same sort of style, but it doesn’t have as much flavor to me. I’m just more fond of the PG Tips.

I bought this tea at a local English pub with a small shoppe in it selling British goods. A box of this tea, some Quavers, and a Mars bar, and I’m walking out a happy girl after finishing my curry chicken. I actually ordered PG Tips to drink while there as my husband downed a London Porter with his meat pie. When I got the tea I noticed the round tea bag and thought it was weird since the PG Tips I have in my cupboard comes in pyramid shaped bags but when I sipped it nothing seemed amiss. When I got home and opened my newly purchased box of Typhoo to try for the first time, I recognized that this is what they served me instead of PG Tips. They both taste very similar and are both similarly strong when steeped for even the shortest amount of time. I pour the water from my kettle directly on to the bag (a process I do with all my tea bags and infusers because I believe it makes it steep faster in my impatient mind) and smush it around with my tea bag tongs for about 10 seconds then throw it away. It packs a punch even with such a minimal steep time. With teas other than PG Tips, Yorkshire, and now Typhoo I usually prefer to leave the tea bag or infuser in the entire time I’m drinking it because I like it strong, but those 3 kick my taste buds butt. Recommend if you like PG Tips and Yorkshire.

Typhoo is one of those brands so identified with the UK that you really want to like it, but it’s really weak and flat in comparison to many other brands. It is better than nothing. Anyway, what do you expect from a company that has a slogan of “Making Good Tea Since 1903”. I’m not interested in “good” tea — I want great tea!

Every morning for as long as I can remember, my father’s breakfast has consisted of a pot of black tea and a slice of toast. My mother would put a bag of Typhoo into the pot first thing after stumbling out of bed. Then, after putting the kettle on, her sleep-addled brain would decide she’d forgotten to put a teabag in the pot and she’d go add a second one; then, after packing his lunch, she’d end up adding another one, and a fourth right before pouring the boiling water into the pot. Needless to say, I grew up drinking this brewed very strong. (These days, my father makes his own tea and packs his own lunch, and my mother sleeps in. Quite right, too.)

When I was in high school and stumbling toward my 6:00AM choir practice, I’d pour this into a travel mug and absent-mindedly dump about half the sugar bowl in with it. These days, I try to be better about limiting my sugar to a more reasonable half-spoonful, but whenever I’ve had an absolutely terrible week, I brew up an extra strong pot of Typhoo and go mad with the sugar. Maybe it doesn’t reflect the most refined palette, but it tastes like home.

Actually the decaf version of this, with milk. Not exciting or exotic in any way, but it’s my standard tea for drinking continuously all day every day. Sometimes you’ve just gotta take part in the “anyone fancy a cuppa?” ritual, and don’t care about oolong lapschong or whatever ;-)

Typhoo wasn’t allowed in our home when I was growing up. My father wouldn’t allow it. Not because he thought it was a bad tea (although it is), it was due to the fact that he hated the tele ads. He used to say that he’d lose an IQ point for every Typhoo advertisement he heard or saw. I have to agree with him. Since it was banned at home, I considered it forbidden fruit so I drank it at friends’ homes and any other such times that it was available to me. I never liked it, but it was forbidden to me and therefore was to be imbibed as often as possible. Call it rebellous youth. :)

My second favorite tea. It is Similar to PG Tips, But it definitely has its own taste.

Found these on offer, which is sadly the way I find most my teas, and now I have a whole bag of them left over.

Not my cuppa tea. Its reasonably strong but that’s is about all it has going for it. The flavour can only be described as brown. Nothing to make me go ‘OO’ in this tea bag.

Since I know so many people like this brand I won’t slate it awfully as I may get tea related hate mail or worse. Anyway this is not really what I was expecting or wanted when I saw the bags going cheap.

Oh well, not too much of a dent in my wallet and maybe I can palm them off onto a mate that likes it a bit more than me.

Certainly not English Breakfast tea! Typhoo is good everyday cheapo blend tea far superior to the rubbish put out by Tetleys. Nothing too special but always handy to have around when you run out of the good stuff.