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Loose tea is often cheaper and of better quality in my experience. If you brew tea a lot using a reusable strainer seems like a much better choice. I'm also ent
by simias 7y ago
Loose tea is often cheaper and of better quality in my experience. If you brew tea a lot using a reusable strainer seems like a much better choice. I'm also entirely convinced that these plastic pyramid-shaped bags are pure marketing. Then again, I find Lipton tea absolutely terrible regardless of the shape of the bag.
- lm28469 7y agoFrom an ecological standpoint it makes much more sense too. When you buy a box of lipton tea bags you basically get 20x2g of tea in 20x2 grams of trash packaged in a box inside a plastic film.
- dragontamer 7y ago> Loose tea is often cheaper and of better quality in my experience. This is indeed my experience as well. Still, the convenience factor of Lipton tea cannot be understated. I'm personally willing to bring in my own tea, metal strainers + teaspoon measurement to my workplace for example (hot-water is usually available in most offices). But that's probably too much for a lot of people. In contrast, you can usually get Lipton Tea from the office supplies, use some paper cups (also office supplies), and get to tea drinking without having to buy the supplies.
- simias 7y agoI've been using these tea balls in office environments: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51mTZ1eURrL._AC_SL1000_.jpg https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51mTZ1eURrL... In terms of convenience I don't think it's significantly worse than sachets. But yeah, I do buy my own tea and store it in my drawer.
- dragontamer 7y agoI have about 3 different devices, all of which seem to work well. 1. A device identical to your picture. 2. This "other" tea ball: https://i.imgur.com/Hg0mWFl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/Hg0mWFl.jpg 3. Tea "infuser". Similar to this one (but a different brand): https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41QJxs18f1L._AC_.jpg https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41QJxs18f1L... . This is the bulkiest option though, and you still need another cup to transfer the liquid to. My favorite tool is #1: the "springy clasp ball on the end of a stick". So I can recommend that to everyone over the other two devices. #2 isn't bad, but there's a lot of convenience factor to #1's spring design. > In terms of convenience I don't think it's significantly worse than sachets. In making tea, no, not much difference. But I dislike cleaning metal-meshes. Cleaning is a minor inconvenience... but if you've ever just used a paper-cup + Lipton tea bag and just trash everything when you're done... lol. Lazy lifestyle (but wasteful). But yeah, its probably better for the environment to have these reusable tools, like a coffee mug. --------- By the way, Lipton does sell loose tea, if you're a fan of Lipton. But I live near a tea / coffee shop with superior teas at low prices, so I just grab what they have instead. As far as store-bought tea is concerned, Twinings is tasty and widely available. I'd take Twinings > Lipton any day. Lipton is slightly cheaper, but Twinings really does taste better.
- jolotriage 7y agoI heard all of these companies produce low grade tea for the masses.
- nimajneb 7y agoI use option 3 at work. I like it a lot. It's not too hard to clean. It's actually the very one you linked a 16oz black Teavana Tea Maker.
- semi-extrinsic 7y agoFor those wanting to buy one, it's sold by IKEA as the Idealisk tea infuser, $1.99. Also available in lots of other stores, I guess. https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/idealisk-tea-infuser-stainless-steel-46956800/ https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/idealisk-tea-infuser-stainless-...
- ketralnis 7y agoI've had one of these for what feels like centuries. Sturdy. Machine washable. Inexpensive as hell. Along with my single-serving french press also from Ikea[0] some of the most value per dollar I've ever got. [0]: https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/upphetta-french-press-coffee-maker-glass-stainless-steel-60241389/ https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/upphetta-french-press-coffee-ma...
- radicalbyte 7y agoThe ingenuiTEA is the best tea brewer I've used, it works great for all loose teas. https://www.amazon.com/Adagio-Teas-ingenuiTEA-Bottom-Dispensing-Teapot/dp/B000FPN8TK https://www.amazon.com/Adagio-Teas-ingenuiTEA-Bottom-Dispens... When I drink tea I usually drink something spicy like Chai and use either my ingenuiTEA or a Cafetière.
- Tomte 7y agoOther price extreme: Vorwerk (of Thermomix fame) is selling a loose tea machine: https://temial.vorwerk.de/ https://temial.vorwerk.de/ Only 600 Euros!
- teddyh 7y agoWow, that thing has GPL’ed code in it. Who says GPL code is anathema for business? Personally, I prefer my tea makers without Apache in them; I recently got the Breville BTM800XL (a.k.a. Sage The Tea Maker™), and it is very nice, in that it is fully automated.
- fyfy18 7y agoIKEA sell another type of tea infuser which works much better than tea balls IMO, which I find hard to clean and often leaks leaves out. https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/ljudloes-tea-infuser-stainless-steel-80360239/ https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/ljudloes-tea-infuser-stainless-...
- autoexec 7y agoI was using this infuser but it's also plastic and might be a problem: https://www.amazon.com/Fred-SLOW-BREW-Sloth-Infuser/dp/B00V6AJN5Q/ https://www.amazon.com/Fred-SLOW-BREW-Sloth-Infuser/dp/B00V6... I might go back to non-plastic bag tea (usually stash or celestial seasonings)
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- SolaceQuantum 7y agoI buy my own tea bags, paper with a string, and fill it myself.
- sharadov 7y agoI do the same, but I hire children in 3rd world countries to help fill the bags.
- zokier 7y agoI've considered that too to get better tea at work, but for me the biggest blocker so far is that I'm so doubtful of some random chinese bags from ebay, considering how steeping in my view feels very adept process of extracting any harmful crap that the bags might have and this is something that very much would give repeated exposure. Am I just being too paranoid?
- SolaceQuantum 7y agoI don't use reusable tea bags, nor do I resteep. If simple paper/bamboo fiber bags are that bad, you'd be in trouble either way, since they're also used as spice bags for soups, curries, sauces, etc.
- 205guy 7y agoI find tea-balls fiddly and hard to clean. The Ikea strainer looks better but still small. What I found easiest is a Chinese tea strainer: it's a metal mesh (stainless, hopefully) that is as large in diameter as a standard (American) mug, so it just sits on the rim and curves down half-way into the mug. Put in your dose of loose-leaf (black or green), pour water over it, and when done steeping just let drip over your mug and place on a saucer nearby (as you would a tea-bag). Some strainers have a small handle, but the rim is usually cool enough to grab after steeping. When cleaning, put used tea into the compost, and rinse the strainer as you would your cup. Set to dry on your mug, ready for next time. These are available in any Chinatown dry-goods store, and similar shops (or Chinese supermarkets such as Ranch 99 in California). BTW, this article comes as no surprise, but I'm happy to see basic science prove what we often think about plastics. I've been drinking loose-leaf tea for years for flavor and lack of wasteful packaging.
- arebours 7y agoI too can't stand typical ball strainers and use a big one taken from an Ikea tea pot. It fits most mugs perfectly filling up almost the whole space inside.
- NeedMoreTea 7y agoTea bag tea is much finer dust compared to loose leaf of the same brand. So it brews faster (and worse). They change the blend to try and compensate. Tried Liptons once. On our very first trip to the USA, we needed a decent cup of tea. Visited Walmart, bought really expensive pack of Liptons which I think was one of just a very few teas among millions of coffees. Made tea, instantly regretted it. Surprising considering it's from Unilever who make the UK's best seller: PG, which is OK but a bit weak. The place we stayed that leg got most of a pack of free tea bags, and we found somewhere that could make tea - without ice or lemon. :) Thankfully plastic tea bags don't seem to have become popular here. Asda (Walmart) did them for a while, so we switched brands.
- nicoburns 7y ago> Surprising considering it's from Unilever who make the UK's best seller: PG, which is OK but a bit weak. Isn't PG generally considered to be one of the poorest quality teas available in the UK? (it sells well, but that's mostly because it's dirt cheap).
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- NeedMoreTea 7y agoAlright, I left out OK as far as mass market bulk supermarket tea bag brands go. Yorkshire Gold is distinctly better, Tetley and supermarket own brands are mostly about the same: OK depending on your taste, a couple of supermarket and Twinings that are a bit crap. There are cheaper brands that are awful. PG loose leaf is a refreshing blend, far better than bags, but it's not a premium tea. The tea bag problem is mostly not enough tea and 1-2 minute brewing dust can't give the flavours that take 4-5 mins to come out. That and they all reduced the weight of the packs for the same number of tea bags. 20 or 25 years ago they all increased the number of tea bags for the same weight of tea. Even slightly premium loose leaf is vastly better. e.g. Tesco's cheapest Finest - the non-estate specific one, or Booth's quality loose leaf is leagues ahead of PG loose leaf, let alone bags (and cheaper!) etc. Locally I have a bloody marvellous specialist tea shop with far, far too many excellent own blends. :)
- pmontra 7y agoI remember a local guide in Uzbekistan (I was on vacation there years ago) "The good tea, we keep it. The average one, we sell it. The bad one we send it to Europe to make tea bags." Luckily I had been using leaves to make my tea at home. Probably the average quality one.
- travisporter 7y agoThat’s funny! In Guatemala it’s the opposite for coffee. They sell the fancy stuff to McDonald’s and drink the lower quality coffee locally. Still pretty good imho
- smacktoward 7y agoIn Robert Sabbag's excellent book about marijuana smuggling in the 1960s and '70s, Smokescreen (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1841953792/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1841953792/ref=dbs_a_def_r..., published in the US as Loaded: A Misadventure on the Marijuana Trail), much of the story revolves around the same being true of pot. The smuggler at the center of the story discovers that his Colombian suppliers are routinely packing all different strains of marijuana together, with a single bale containing everything from low-grade weed to the Santa Marta Gold that American potheads would pay top-dollar for. To the Colombians there's no difference between one strain of weed and another, but the smuggler knows to the American buyer it can mean a huge difference in price. So he works with them to start separating the different strains and buys every bale of Santa Marta Gold he can get his hands on, becoming the first smuggler who can bring his customers a consistent, reliable supply of the Good Stuff. Which of course makes him a fortune, and which of course leads to all sorts of other problems. (Sabbag's book is a fantastic read, I recommend it highly. And if you want a shorter-form introduction to the story, here's an interview with the smuggler in question after his lawbreaking days were over: https://www.styleweekly.com/richmond/allen-longs-days-as-an-adventurous-pot-smuggler-are-long-gone-now-what-does-he-tell-his-kids/Content?oid=1387270 https://www.styleweekly.com/richmond/allen-longs-days-as-an-...)
- scottmcf 7y ago
- roboys 7y agoMy buddy used to work for Lipton. He explained that they use the cheapest grade of tea (dust) available. Also many tea companies mix non-tea additives (fillers) to their tea bags. After hearing this I decided, if it's not full loose leaf, I don't drink it. We found that companies like Elephant Chateau (http://elephantchateau.com http://elephantchateau.com) deliver the 3 highest grades of tea direct from Ceylon mountain estates with the option for plant-based pyramid bags (soilon) or a free stainless steel infuser. Bonus, the tea actually tastes like tea and is tasty enough to drink plain unlike Lipton dust. It always funny to hear people promote all the health benefits of tea then turn around and dump 100 grams of sugar into a cup to make it palatable.
- ccffph 7y agoWhat's the difference between Elephant Chateau and something like this? https://www.amazon.com/Ahmad-Ceylon-OPA-Tea-Carton/dp/B0011010XY https://www.amazon.com/Ahmad-Ceylon-OPA-Tea-Carton/dp/B00110...
- cpcallen 7y agoNot tried Elephant Chateau, but I have tried the Ahmad Earl Grey, and it was very disappointing compared to, e.g., Twinings.
- Spooky23 7y agoI’ve noticed that many of the fancy tea companies make an earl grey that is way too bergamot-y.
- wyclif 7y agoI simply use loose-leaf Twinings Earl Grey, the kind that comes in the light yellow tin. It's easy to find everywhere, even in some fairly unexciting supermarkets, and the quality and price are in the tea sweet spot for me. And to your point, it has enough bergamot but not too much. Just the right amount for me.
- 7y ago
- joshvm 7y agoMake sure you actually buy loose leaf tea. Even "respectable" brands like Twinings in the UK sell what looks like dregs. Its definitely not leaves. I've not seen an appreciable difference in brew time using loose leaf. A mug of Earl Gray should be done in a few minutes either way.
- smn1234 7y agoever tried T2?
- joshvm 7y agoWe've been using Tea Pigs which is pretty good (and about half the price of T2). Not sure I could taste the difference at that price point, but we have a T2 locally.
- NeedMoreTea 7y agoGood Grief T2 are pricey! Try these guys: https://www.johnwatt.co.uk https://www.johnwatt.co.uk Great selection, coffees too. Online ordering seems to cover the main European nations. We have a shop nearby, so can't comment on delivery etc.
- test1235 7y agoNo opinion on the quality of their tea, but Tea Pigs was the first brand which came to mind when I read 'plastic teabag': https://www.teapigs.co.uk/tea/shop-by-category/black/single-estate-breakfast-tea.htm https://www.teapigs.co.uk/tea/shop-by-category/black/single-...
- FartyMcFarter 7y agoThey claim they don't use plastic at all, not even for packaging: https://www.teapigs.co.uk/about/sustainability-and-values https://www.teapigs.co.uk/about/sustainability-and-values
- 7y ago
- sharadov 7y agoTry PG Tips, it's the best tea you can get in a bag. Lipton is shit, I agree!
- limograf 7y agoHm I'd say Yorkshire Gold is the best tea bag. Second tier are Williamson Afternoon and Ringtons Breakfast, Yorkshire Red. Third tier, Twinings etc, acceptable but not lovely. PG Tips is on the third or fourth tier, at least.
- smacktoward 7y agoPutting aside the quality of the tea, a reusable strainer is always going to be a more environmentally friendly choice than one-time-use bags, and it may be a healthier choice as well (depending on how sanitary you keep the strainer). But if you have to go with a one-time-use container, a paper bag seems like an improvement on both counts versus a plastic one. The article indicates that the only reason some brands go with the plastic bags is to appear more "premium," which if true is a great testament for how people are willing to strangle both themselves and the planet in order to accrue a couple extra status points.
- justsee 7y agoAs I understand it even the 'paper' teabags contain plastic which is why they shouldn't ever be disposed with any organics waste (and possibly raise similar health concerns due to being immersed in boiling water before being ingested). A quick search reveals an article[1] stating: > Most bags, including those made by the five leading tea brands in the UK – PG Tips, Tetley, Twinings, Typhoo, and Yorkshire Tea – use non-biodegradable polypropylene as sealants in their bags. A spokesperson from the makers of Yorkshire Tea confirmed to Resource: “Our tea bag material contains around 25 per cent polypropylene (PP) which we believe is typical for the market. It’s a component of the material that allows us to heat seal the bag.” [1] https://resource.co/article/should-you-put-tea-bags-your-food-waste-bin-12372 https://resource.co/article/should-you-put-tea-bags-your-foo...
- sgt 7y agoWhere is this? I've never seen loose tea being cheaper. I mostly see loose tea being sold in premium tea stores, and their prices are exorbitant.
- chadcmulligan 7y agoreally? Loose tea is available in supermarkets in Australia, its actually a lot cheaper than tea bags, if you count by the cup. Its usually with the tea bags but up higher or lower on the shelves. 250g costs about $3.50AUD. Though I have noticed the amount of loose leaf tea is getting less over the years on the shelves. There's also less variety than they're used to be, I have to hunt around if I want an unusual one. Its way cheaper than specialty tea shops - they're around $10 to $20 for 100grams, way to much for the amount of tea I drink :-), but nice for a weekend change.
- sgt 7y agoInteresting - what types of teas are these? I assume not just the regular black tea?
- chadcmulligan 7y agoOh nothing fancy just the base level tea - bushels, twinings, nerada and so on, you can see here if you can access the site outside Aus. https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/search/products?searchTerm=loose%20leaf%20tea https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/search/products?searchTer... Most of the green and herbal teas are in tea bags, but I've seen loose leaf of these available sometimes, not something I look for I must admit.
- tripzilch 7y ago> Then again, I find Lipton tea absolutely terrible regardless of the shape of the bag. I was gonna say, they literally taste worse than the cheaper paper-based tea bags. I mean loose leaf is nice, but those plastic pyramid things are just shit.