It goes without saying that we loudly and proudly advocate high quality loose leaf tea over teabags. The reason for this is because people can clearly see loose leaf tea and the integrity of it both in dry and wet forms, it tends to be of higher quality. Whether it is hand-rolled or made through the Cut Tear Curl (CTC) method, which is common in Japanese teas and actually preferred in cases where you want to increase the surface area exposed to water, the fact remains that loose leaf tea is usually (if not always), better quality than teabags.
Assuming that even if the exact same quality of leaves were offered to us in loose leaf form vs. inside a teabag, we would still pick the former. Why? Because when inside a teabag, the leaves are restricted in their ability to fully and freely open up and dance in the water, for they are encapsulated. You'll see after using a teabag (even if it's a pyramid shaped one), that after being infused, the contents of the teabag are stuffed to the brim.
Tea is such a labor of love that we really enjoy admiring and appreciating the leaves, first in their dry form, then in their wet form after the rinse, and finally as we watch them unfurl and dance around in the warm water to a song of their own.
We enjoy smelling the fragrance and how widely it can sometimes vary between the dry leaves, the wet leaves, and between each infusion into the liqueur. We enjoy it, and we encourage you to also allow yourself an immersive, mindful tea brewing and drinking experience, whereby you don't just mindlessly dunk a teabag into your cup and either forget about it toss it aside, but rather be one with the tea, free of distractions and your devices, unwinding with each leaf that unfurls. When stuffed inside a teabag, the leaves are constricted and unable to open up and dance around freely.
When you buy good quality tea, you are also adopting a more sustainable and environmentally friendly practice, as you can reuse the leaves multiple times. How often you can reinfuse the leaves varies between each tea, and even after the tea leaves are no longer yielding a substantial liqueur you can use them up in stir-fries and salads!
What ends up in teabags, is almost always, by default, inferior quality leaf. It usually comprises of fannings, the most broken down leaf material that settles to the bottom after the higher quality leaves have been sifted out.
All said and done, we do understand the need for speed and convenience in today's day and age, and don't want you to settle for inferior quality teabags just because you're on the go. If you really need to use a teabag, we encourage you to buy a few organic cotton teabags which are large enough to give plenty of room to the leaves to open up without feeling trapped.
