So says the Guardian Food Blog at any rate, and if there was any paper out there that I’d trust to talk about tea bags, it’d be a British one. However, they lose their credibility with this bit:
Loose leaf or tea bag? Tea gourmets will tell you that loose makes a better cup. Luddites and snobs, I reckon. Tea bag tea tastes different from tea pot tea. And better. The proof is in the brewing: 96% of households now use tea bags.
Loose leaf tea makes the better cup of tea, by far. No question. Most of this has to do with the quality of the tea leaves used in tea bags, which are often no more than tea fannings and sometimes even tea dust that have been left behind in leaf sorting process. Larger leaves provide more surface area, and thus more of the biochemical compounds that provide flavor found within the leaves. Luddites? Hardly. Fans of loose leaf tea are just more patient than fans of tea bags.
