PG Tips

PG Tips is a brand of tea in the United Kingdom manufactured by Ekaterra.

Brand name

In the 1930s, Brooke Bond launched PG Tips in the tea market in the United Kingdom under the name ''Pre-Gestee'' - a variant of the original name "Digestive Tea." The name implied that it could be drunk as a digestive aid prior to eating food. Grocers and salesmen abbreviated it to "PG."

After the Second World War, labelling regulations ruled out describing tea as aiding digestion—a property that had been attributed to tea—and by 1950/1 the PG name was adopted. The company added "Tips" referring to the fact that only the tips (the top two leaves and bud) of the tea plants are used in the blend.

Products

The Brooke Bond name has now been dropped from all packaging and the product is now known as PG Tips. PG Tips is available as loose tea, tea bags, and in vending formats. A "Special Blend" tea, which is the same as the tea blended for the brand's 75th anniversary, is available in tea bag form only. The tea used in PG Tips is imported in bulk as single estate teas from around the world and blended in precise proportions set by the tea tasters to make blend 777, which can contain between 12 and 35 single estate teas at any one time (depending on season, etc.) at the Trafford Park factory in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, Lancashire.

PG Tags, tea bags with a string, were launched in 1985. Tetrahedron-shaped tea bags, branded as "Pyramid Bags," launched in 1996. The tetrahedral bag was designed to help the tea leaves move more freely, as loose tea moves in a teapot, and supposedly create a better infusion. One 2011 version of the product packaging made the claim: "The PG Tips pyramid tea bag gives the tea leaves 50% more room to move around than a flat conventional tea bag. So the tea bag works more like a miniature tea pot. This allows for all the freshness to be released for the best tasting cup of PG." During the T-Birds era, the tetrahedral tea bags were remade with a "freeflow" material to allow further infusion of the tea.

In Scotland, Ekaterra sells a specially developed blend of PG called Scottish Blend. It is marketed as being specially blended to optimise taste in the soft waters of Scotland.

In Ireland, Ekaterra sells tea under the Lyons brand.

As of 2011, a "Special Moments" range was released, initially as the "New Ones." These teas were made by pressing the leaves at different stages. In 2014, Unilever introduced a new range of fruit, herbal, and green teas under the PG Tips brand.

Advertising

Unlike the blended teas many companies were producing, Brooke’s teas were pure, high quality teas from India and China. Brooke realised the importance of advertising early on, introducing the slogan, "Good tea unites good company, exhilarates the spirits, banishes restraint from conversation and promotes the happiest purposes of social intercourse."

The Tipps family (1956–2002)

In 1956, PG Tips began using anthropomorphic chimpanzees in their television advertisements. These were dressed in human clothes in the fashion of chimpanzees' tea party and were known as the "Tipps family." Their voices were often provided by celebrities, such as Peter Sellers, Donald Sinden and Bob Monkhouse. By 1958, PG Tips had risen from fourth to first place in the British tea market. The chimpanzees were from Twycross Zoo in Leicestershire.

These advertisements were stopped in the 1970s after complaints made by animal rights organisations. However the chimpanzees were brought back 18 months later when sales began to drop. The last 'Tipps family' advert was broadcast in January 2002. The PG Tips chimpanzees spawned a spinoff in memorabilia which include trading cards and figurines. Prior to the chimpanzee inspired cards, PG Tips had included trading cards modelled on cigarette cards, but targeted at children, these ceased production in 1999 after a survey of customers showed that they were not contributing to developing the business.

The T-Birds (2002–2005)

The "Tipps family" were replaced in January 2002, with a house-sharing group of claymation birds called the T-Birds (which consisted of Tom the owl, Maggie the pigeon, Pete the starling, and Holly the blue tit), animated by Aardman, the company behind Wallace and Gromit and ''Chicken Run''. In Ireland, these commercials were still airing by the end of 2006, though advertising Lyons Tea (another Unilever brand), even though Holly was renamed as Niamh to fit in with Irish audiences.

This led to PG Tips becoming a major partner with Wallace and Gromit's first film '' The Curse of the Were-Rabbit'', launched in October 2005. PG offered Gromit mugs on pack in the supermarket. According to ''The Grocer'' magazine, Unilever reported that during the Gromit mug promotion, PG Tips sales increased 600%. Wallace and Gromit also appeared in an advert with Lady Tottington (another character from the film) around the same time.

In 2005, PG Tips celebrated its 75th anniversary with special packs, including a limited-edition Golden pack, and a one-off Diamond tea bag. The Diamond tea bag cost £7,500, and was made by Boodles jewelers and used Makaibari Silver Tips (Imperial).

Monkey (2007–)

In 2007, PG Tips reunited Johnny Vegas as Al and the ITV Digital Monkey character made by Paul Jomain, puppeteered by Nigel Plaskitt and Susan Beattie, and voiced by Ben Miller. ITV Digital had used the Monkey character in its own advertising but had entered administration in March 2002. In the end, ITV Digital’s former terrestrial multiplexes were taken over by Crown Castle and the BBC
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