PG Extra Strong is a no-frills but robustly flavored black tea that delivers a nice punch of tea for about 10 to 11 cents a bag (from an 80-ct box). This British tea (now under the Lipton/Unilever corporate umbrella) was on sale at the World Market where I bought a big box of Typhoo's same-named tea a few years ago. It's natural to compare them, since it seems one was branded in response to the other (but which?). Packaging for PG's version doesn't have the silly "wrestled from the plant" wording of Typhoo, which was a plus. Like Typhoo, it's CTC-shredded, very finely, almost to powder. Part of the strength of the tea comes from that, and part from simply having more volume in the pyramidal teabag than most other teas.

The aroma was moderate but unmistakably a fresh black tea, with a bit of an autumn-leaves, woodsy character, and not quite as strong as Typhoo's version. As expected, the liquid turned very dark, very quickly—a flood of tannin that obscured all but the top half inch or so of a white ceramic spoon within just a couple minutes. This was denser and darker than the Typhoo. The PG flavor was perhaps a tiny notch less strong, but more varied. PG takes to long steeping well without growing unbearably bitter, by reaching a moderately bitter state quickly, then holding there. Typhoo keeps going to excess. PG is more astringent, and also has a malty Assam character I like a lot. The aftertaste with PG is plain but stout. With a similar (slightly inflation-adjusted) price and same bag count, I'll assign the same value rating.

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