To go loose leaf with your tea would do both yourself and the planet something of a favour. By going loose leaf you would instantly remove any controversy or question over whether your tea bag is plastic-free and the vast majority of the time you will be enjoying a far superior quality tea too.
Admittedly there are now some brands that do offer good quality, fuller leaf tea in plastic-free bags. However, in years gone by brands would take advantage of the leaf being hidden in the bag as a way of disguising a poor quality tea, which often comprised of mostly shredded, crumbled leaf dust. These days this will not do and with teabag sales actually falling in relative terms it’s clear to see that Tea Loving brits are developing a taste for something more refined.
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Loose Leaf V’s Tea Bags
Convenience over Quality
There really are next to no advantages of Teabags. Convenience is literally the only thing we can come up with. The process of brewing a cup with a bag is certainly quicker than using loose leaf and you may find yourself in a set of circumstances where an infuser just isn’t practical. However, there is even a solution to that. You can purchase empty drawstring tea bags that you can fill yourself. Surely proving the best of both worlds. The convenience of the bag with your own preferred blend of full loose leaves. Even with your home-filled bags, is this convenience really worth constraining those leaves to a little bag and not allowing them to swim freely maximizing their full flavour potential
Can you put a price on a good cuppa?
Without any doubt, a loose leaf tea is more expensive than the traditional bog-standard teabag. You are of course paying for higher quality tea but you will also need a diffuser or your own self-fill bags, which all add to the cost per cup. However, most loose leaf teas can be re-steeped and will therefore easily produce at least twice the quantity of tea. The nature of the traditional teabag being of poor quality leaves does not allow this and is designed for a single cup steep.
The environmental impact
In recent years the environmental impact of teabags has made it into the mainstream. Until this time the vast majority of consumers had absolutely no awareness at all that teabags contain a small amount of plastic, used to seal the bags. Fortunately, a lot of the big brands are now making efforts to tackle this problem and move to Plastic-free, biodegradable or compostable bags. This is where Loose-leaf wins over yet again. The loose leaves from your diffuser can go straight into your home compost. That’s true zero waste living.
The Best Loose Leaf Tea
If you’re looking for the closest alternative to the classic British Tea then Black Tea is your natural first step into loose leaf. There are dozens available and it’s easy to make; just boil some water and pour straight over the 100% natural leaves for the correct amount of time. Once you find just the right blend you will really start to appreciate the rich complex flavour a loose leaf tea can offer and how you can ditch the added milk and sugars too
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