Tea Bags vs. Loose tea leaves

Agapanthus

We always have loose tea - I think it tastes much nicer than teabags. Sainsbury's Red Label has done us for forty years - and now it's Fairtrade, which is even better.

pumpkinlife

I flit between the two, but have been on bags for about 18 months solid now. Cost wise I have no idea, taste wise leaves win hands down. I like the ritual of using tea leaves, too. Leaves are also easier if you want to make chai or other concoctions I think.

Dammit, I'm going back to leaves!

esio_trot

I like to drink loose leaf tea, I like the flavour though I've not really done any calculations, cost wise. However, this magazine has and you might find this article interesting.

I, on a quick estimation just now, get about 65 cups (pretty generous tea-spoonful of leaves per cup) from a 125g tea caddy. I buy mine from a specialist tea shop and have been recently drinking this breakfast tea which works out about 5.4p per cup. Tetley (my usual next choice), at it's cheapest in Sainsbury's at the moment, works out at 2.3p per cup. Obviously, shopping around has a fairly significant effect on this difference. Having quickly looked at Sainsbury's website, you can buy loose Sainsbury's Red Label Tea at the price of 0.8p per cup.

So, conclusion from that would be that it really depends on what tea you like as to how cheap you can make drinking loose tea.

As for the straining, at home I recently started using this strainer and I have to say it's been really good at not letting too much through. At work though, I use this mug which, while it's not great for small leaf teas, it's great for bigger leaves (I'm pregnant and on a reduced caffine intake so tend to drink fruit infusions at work). Depends on what you drink as to what you use but really, I don't tend to find it any more hassle than using tea bags now. It's a case of pop infuser in mug, add a teaspoon of tea leaves, boiling water, lid on, sit for three minutes and throw away as you would for a tea bag (or use it on your plants). Only extra effort is giving the strainer a quick rinse around to stop it from clogging up.

I'm starting to ramble a bit now, but I think the last point you raised was wastage. I think there's definitely less with loose tea as there's only the outer bag, which tea bags have anyway. the leaves are much easier to tip out onto compost heap or onto house plants without the issue of slow decomposing bags which was mentioned in the other thread.

Anyway, hope that helped some, if you could understand the rambling!

adsk

For the first time in about 10 years I've started drinking leaf tea again - mainly because all the tea bags that I have bought over the years have been delisted by the supermarkets one by one.

It's Tesco's finest fair trade that I'm currently drinking. It was about £1.60. It tastes better than any tea bags that I've used. I'm a convert - I'd forgotten how good loose tea tastes.

Jolaaled

For those of you who re-use teabags....

What is the best way to keep a used tea bag, so it's ok to use later (or the next day/week, even!!!??).

I usually prefer to use leaf tea these days, but when the kids are around and all their mates, i end up with a bowlful of used bags in a couple of days..it seems such a waste that they're only used just the one time.

Can i dry them out again and store, to re-use later?

Any tips would be fab. Thanks all.

u751904

I thought I'd mention that I 've gone back to tea leaves and done away with tea bags. (like we used to). It is significantly cheaper and of course tastes far better. I'm straining the tea dregs into a seive and putting them on the compost or bin if being lazy.

Barneysmom

Well done, scatter the tea leaves onto the garden

Does it really taste better?

u751904

yes much better even with ordinary pg...

the best bit is that you can buy good quality loose tea eg nice big tea leaves of different flavourings and experiment a bit or at least have another type on standby if you fancy something a bit lighter midday etc.

Spendless

Gosh, this takes me back to my childhood in the 70s we only ever had tea leaves, then when I was almost 12, we moved to a detached place and suddenly we had tea-bags and coffee and CH and a phone. No idea what happened to make my parents more wealthy at that point, but when I think back to what we did when we were 'poor' tea leaves is something that comes to mind. I have often wondered but not costed it up if it would remain the case that they'd be cheaper than tea-bags.

Eyeore

I love loose tea, it's my weekend treat when I have time to really enjoy it (I work long hours) Didn't really think about it being cheaper also didn't think about putting the leaves in the garden . . . . Ooops, so thank you for this