Loose Leaf vs. Tea Bags
Tea has been around for millennia, mostly in the form of loose leaves, which is surprising because most tea drinkers today start with, and rely on, tea bags for teas. This is because it is easily available, inexpensive, and convenient, but in just a hundred years, tea bags have replaced loose leaf almost everywhere.
However, most tea lovers will tell you that their tea experience completely changed when they first tried loose leaf tea.
So what's the difference and which is better? Let's find out in our loose leaf vs. tea bags comparison.
Loose Leaf vs. Tea Bags
We will compare loose leaf vs. tea bags in 3 main categories.
Quality
Loose leaf and tea bags both come in good and bad quality, but generally, loose leaf tea has better quality than tea from tea bags. This is because most tea bags contain ingredients like fanning and tea dust that are left from tea production.
Other high-quality tea variants like silken pyramid-shaped tea bags may be made of plastic. Loose leaf tea quality depends on several factors, like the growing conditions, tea plant, harvesting technique, processing, how it is stored, and more.
However, as a rule of thumb, unbroken, loose leaf tea is always better in quality over broken tea dust from tea bags. Moreover, unlike teabags, when you steep loose leaf tea, you know what you are drinking, and you can judge the leaf by its size, shape, and color, something that is not possible with tea bags.
CHOICE OF LOOSE LEAF TEAS
Taste
Not every tea can be made into a teabag. For instance, rolled oolongs, flowering teas, and silver needle buds are teas that are not appropriate for tea bags because they need room to expand before they can release their taste and flavor into tea.
Furthermore, teabags contain a certain amount of tea, and your only option is to use another teabag to enhance the strength of your tea. In contrast, with loose leaves, you have more control over the strength and taste of your tea by reducing or adding more leaves.
Additionally, tea dust loses freshness faster than loose leaf because of its smaller particle size. Lastly, more delicate teas like green or white teas tend to catch some paper taste from the teabag.
Cost
You may think that tea bags cost less, but this isn't true. A box of teabag with 20 bags may seemingly cost less than 20-30 grams of loose leaf, but you can only infuse a tea bag once before the contents completely deteriorate and lose flavor.
Loose-leaf tea can be steeped over again and even brewed through various methods to bring out different flavor profiles.
CHOICE OF TEA BAGS
So, Which Is Best for You?
Between loose leaf vs. tea bags, we have established that loose leaf tea is better in almost every way, but which one is best for you? Well, it all depends on your requirements. If you want to make tea or tea latte quickly, tea bags are probably the better option.
Whereas if you want all the health benefits, flavor profiles, taste, value for money, and quality while reducing waste or mixing with milk and sugar, loose leaf tea will almost always be the best option.
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