• Most bagged tea is made from the dust leftover in processing loose leaf tea.
The dust (also called fannings) is just tiny broken up pieces of the leaf, which do not keep flavour well. The higher quality really makes a difference in the taste.
• The bag limits the size of cup you can brew.
You can’t adjust the amount of tea leaves you brew with bagged tea so it’s either going to be weak or bitter.
• Tea bags don’t give you a good infusion.
When the dust gets wet in those flat bags, it clumps together and doesn’t allow the hot water to fully circulate. There are some varieties of bags now that somewhat avoid this problem (ie pyramid bags) but they seem to be a little more expensive.
• Tea bags go stale.
There doesn’t seem to be the same kind of care going into the production of tea bags. The boxes (not air tight) will sit on the selves of factories, warehouses or grocery store stockrooms for ages. Loose tea gets shipped to tea houses in air tight bags, which are then poured into air tight containers for display and (usually) put into air tight packages when bought. When stored properly, loose tea can last over year.
• Tea bags are more wasteful.
The bag, the string, the little tag, the staple and the box it came in all get thrown out. Plus the amount of materials and energy that goes into bagging it in factories. Infusers for loose tea can be used over and over and over again, and many tea houses will let you bring back containers to refill, reducing waste further.
• There’s no tax on loose tea.
Because it’s just tea, and tea on its own isn’t taxed. So you’re saving 13% right there.
This post of mine has been getting a lot of reblogs in the past couple days since liz-tea found it in my archives, but she removed my blog credit from it. So now it’s going around tumblr without my author credit. This is after sending me messages that I should follow her because she blogs about tea.
If you want support, try showing some for others.
