PG TIPS Original Black Tea 160 Tea Bags 464g

Building a First British Grocery Order

A first order from a British grocer is mostly a question of arithmetic and restraint. The free-shipping threshold pushes you toward a large basket, and the temptation is to fill it with things you will not eat. This guide is about filling it well.

Start with the anchor

Pick one item that does most of the work toward the $99 threshold, then build around it. Good anchors are dense or bulky things you will definitely use.

A 2 litre bottle of squash covers nearly 40% on its own and makes around 20 litres of drink. A bean multipack covers over a third. A bulk bottle of detergent nearly clears the threshold by itself.

The anchor is the item where the shipping economics genuinely favour importing. Everything else is riding along on it.

Then the things with no substitute

Prioritise products where an American shop cannot help you at all. These are the ones worth the freight.

  • Marmite, because yeast extract is not an American supermarket category.
  • Bisto, because British gravy is a different sauce from American gravy.
  • Golden syrup, because corn syrup is a structural ingredient and golden syrup is a flavour.
  • English mustard, because American yellow mustard is a different condiment.
  • Piccalilli, because nothing on an American shelf is close.

Then the tea, properly

Tea deserves its own line because people consistently buy too little of it. It is light, shelf-stable, lasts months, and a 160-bag box costs almost the same to ship as a 40-bag box.

Buy the large box of PG Tips or Yorkshire Tea, not the small one. And read our guide to British tea in the USA first, because water temperature and hardness are the usual reasons imported tea disappoints.

Fill the gap with light things

When you are $10 or $15 short of the threshold, reach for things that are cheap, light and genuinely wanted rather than adding another heavy jar.

Cadbury Mini Fingers at under five dollars, a bag of crisps, a bottle of brown sauce. These exist in an order to close the gap, and they do it without adding much weight.

What not to import on a first order

Being honest about this saves you money.

Do not import a general-purpose cleaning spray that your local shop sells a perfectly good version of. Do not import single bottles of ready-to-drink liquid unless the specific product is the point. Do not buy a 500g jar of Marmite before you know you like Marmite, which is what the 125g jar is for.

And think about the season before ordering chocolate. We do not ship it with temperature-controlled packaging and cannot replace heat-damaged items, so a summer order to a hot state carries real risk.

A worked example

A sensible British breakfast cupboard: a bean multipack, a bottle of HP Sauce, a jar of Marmite, a large box of PG Tips and a pack of Weetabix.

That is a coherent order rather than a random one, it clears the threshold, and every item in it does a job you cannot do at an American supermarket. Use NEW10 for 10% off if it is your first.

Individual product guides

Each of these covers one product in more detail, including sizes, prices and what the British version does differently.

How ordering works

Everything here is sourced in the UK and shipped to the United States Delivered Duty Paid, so every import duty and tax is included in the price you pay and nothing is collected on delivery. Orders dispatch within 1–2 business days and usually arrive 1–3 business days after that.

Shipping is a flat $29.99 on orders under $99 and free above it. New customers can use NEW10 for 10% off a first order.

Related reading: how shipping British groceries to the USA works and British breakfast staples in the USA.

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