Yes, There is a Difference Between Loose and Bagged Tea!

Did you know there is a difference between loose-leaf tea and bagged tea?  I didn’t either until a few years ago.

Back-story:  My husband used to be interested in pipe tobacco.  He could tell me a good deal about it and when I asked why he knew so much, his response was, “If I’m going to spend money on something, I do my research about it and want to know what I’m putting my money into.”

Flash forward three years.  My co-worker told me about a place in the mall that sells “real tea” and if I enjoyed bagged tea, I had to try it.  She was talking about Teavana, the Starbucks of Tea (who also happens to be partnered with Starbucks).  I walked in curious and walked out with a receipt saying I spent $100 in a blur that I couldn’t quite remember because I was in tea-heaven.  It was then that I decided I needed to do more research on what I was spending money on, just like my husband did with his pipe tobacco.

That is when I discovered (in personal experience and in research) that there is a difference between bagged tea and loose-leaf tea.  

Reference the above picture.  On the left, there is a teaspoon of Earl Grey black loose-leaf tea and on the right are the contents of one bag of Earl Grey black tea.  As you can see, the bagged tea looks almost like ground coffee.  That is because it is essentially the crumbs and dust of the loose tealeaves.  So what does this mean in terms of taste?

When you break a tealeaf, you release essential oils and aromas that are needed to give your cup of tea flavor and health benefits.  The dust that is used to make bagged tea are the broken off parts of full leaves, meaning the essential oils and aromas have already been released and evaporated.  This robs your cup of tea from numerous health benefits, flavors, and aromas.

In addition to that, tealeaves need room to expand and move through the water.  When you confine the leaves to a bag, the leaves don’t have the room they need to fully release their deliciousness, again robbing you of flavor and aromas.  Here is an infographic from TeaWithMeBlog.com as a quick reference.

 

So now you know!  Generally when I post about tea or post tea recipes, I’ll be using loose-leaf tea.  If that isn’t an option for you, that’s ok!  Shoot me a message and I can help you using a bagged substitute.

Finally, this week’s read!  Currently, I am reading The One & Only by Emily Giffin, which I am enjoying on my Amazon Kindle Paperwhite e-reader.  I love me some chick-lit and Emily Giffin is gold for that.  You can check out the info on this book on Goodreads by clicking here.  I’ll post my review on that next week.  Until then, happy steeping and happy reading!