Tea bags vs loose leaf tea: Top 5 reasons to ditch the tea bags and take the loose-leaf plunge

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Earl Grey tea leaves in the shape of a heart beside a cup of brewed tea

How did you get into tea drinking?
If you’re anything like us, it was probably a slow process that started with, say, a cup of Sleepytime tea your mom made for you or Twinings Earl Grey. Bagged tea is easy to brew, has a consistent taste and is cheap and easy to mass produce. Read: you deserve better than someone’s stale, broken-up tea leaves! Here’s why it’s time to go loose leaf and ditch the tea bag for good.
  1. The leaves in most tea bags are actually the ‘dust and fannings’ from broken tea leaves. Seriously?? Do you really want to drink something called a fanning?
  2. Finely broken tea leaves (which is what’s needed to fit them into a tiny bag) have lost most of their essential oils and aroma. Yay for boring tea with no flavour or scent!
  3. When steeped, these fine tea leaves release more tannins than loose leaf tea or whole leaf tea, resulting in more bitter or astringent brews. If you’re simply dumping sugar and milk into your tea until it tastes palatable, go for it. But if, like us, you want to enjoy the complex flavours in your tea and be able to drink it however you like, brewing loose leaf will give you more flexibility in terms of how much tea to use to adjust for the desired flavour and astringency.
  4. Tea leaves need room to expand for full flavour. This is why you may be no stranger to the whole dunking, swirling, squeezing process of brewing tea bags. Save yourself the finger workout and let your tea leaves unfurl to their full potential! This can also be really pretty, especially with loose leaf tea blends that contains whole, real ingredients.
  5. Tea bag tea is typically produced industrially (often overseas) in huge batches, only to sit on the shelf for months or (gasp!) years before they make it to your sad tea pot. Show yourself and your tea pot some love and brew some fresh loose leaf tea. Your taste buds will thank you.
A disclaimer: Recently in the tea industry, there has been a big push by micro blenders to create a whole leaf tea bag with room for the leaves to expand. So don’t give up hope, tea bag lovers! There is a middle ground alternative coming soon.