Tea Bags vs Tea Leaves | The Battle…

Happy Sunday lovelies!

I’ve been thinking about this post for a while now. It’s like that perpetual battle between cats and dogs and which is the better pet. Has that battle been won yet (by cats? Hah)

The battle and arguments on either side can be found, succinctly summarised in the infographic below (though it’s biased towards the loose leaf drinkers!)

Image Credit: ChinaLife/ AcuMedic

 

#Team Tea Bag

Tea bags were probably how I officially started my tea journey as a child, aside from the typically West Indian ‘teas’ like cocoa tea (which is essentially hot chocolate made from grated raw cocoa and hot milk).

Tea bags are seen as being the more convenient option and rightly so. Pre-measured and wrapped little sachets of tea, ready for steeping into various temperatures of hot water. What’s not to love about them? Right?

When most people (in Britain mostly) think about tea, it is usually about black tea in a bag, that is drunk with milk and is usually sweetened. Tea bags get a bad rep sometimes for being full of tea dust; lower quality  ground tea leaves, swept up from factory floors. While that may be true for a lot of standard daily English Breakfast teas, there are a lot of tea bags that actually contain bigger leaves and whole flowers or pieces of bark for the steeping. TeaPigs for example, uses whole tea leaves in their innovatively designed ‘tea pyramids’ to allow better infusion of the leaves, without too much compromise on the taste.

The Pyramid Tea bag is definitely changing the way in which tea is drunk and enjoyed!

Plus there are many ways in which a used tea bag can be recycled!

Image Credit: Design Infographics

 

#Team Loose Leaf

I imagine that Tea Purists wouldn’t dream of calling anything that comes in a bag, tea. Loose leaf is the more traditional/ natural form of tea and I would actually say it is the cheaper option too!

I love that there are so many different varieties of loose leaf that you can find and you have the option to make your own blends and have more control over the quantities that you want to add to each cup.

Image Credit: Pamela Ang via Behance + Pinterest

You can often brew the same set of leaves more than once and it releases different notes in the tea that you would not have experienced on first brewing! (Admittedly, I have tried this with a bag too but it really was a BAD idea)

A lot of people who use tea bags speak of the convenience but actually brewing a cup of loose leaf tea doesn’t have to be a long process. Depending on the amount of time that I have, a cup of loose leaf can take me the same amount of time to brew as a cup of bagged tea. OR, I will choose to go down the teapot route occasionally when I feel like indulging in  the experience of drinking something truly special.

There’s really no reason to shy away from loose leaf and I LOVE IT!

---

So, having heard a few points on either side of the debate, how do YOU prefer your tea?

Are you on Team Tea Bag or Team Loose Leaf?

P.s. Personally, I choose either team depending on my mood or how much time I have…