5 ms·

You do realize that's an urban legend?

• drewblaisdell 14y ago
  Not all teabags, but certainly some brands. Teabag quality has admittedly gotten better in recent years.
• graue 14y ago
  It's not entirely untrue to say that teabags are "swept off the floor", though it may be misleading. Typically, ALL tea is sorted on the factory floor. http://www.discoveringtea.com/2011/06/21/in-amgoorie-the-factory-is-remarkably-clean/ http://www.discoveringtea.com/2011/06/21/in-amgoorie-the-fac... However, it is true that the tea in most teabags is "dust" or "fannings": very small broken pieces of tea leaves that remain after the higher grades are sorted out. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fannings https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fannings While a few companies like Mighty Leaf do offer higher quality, whole-leaf tea in bags (or rather, sachets), at that point you're paying as much as a 2x-3x premium over loose-leaf tea of comparable quality. For example, this tea from Adagio is about 16¢ per cup loose-leaf, but 40¢ per bag: http://www.adagio.com/black/ceylon_sonata.html http://www.adagio.com/black/ceylon_sonata.html I'd suggest anyone who likes tea get a stainless steel mesh infuser (they're about $10) and go loose-leaf. It's worth it.