Loose tea vs bagged tea and where bagged teas may go wrong

Oxidized tea
pase22
Posts: 26
Joined: Sun Sep 27, 2020 6:16 pm
Location: Montreal

Tue Sep 29, 2020 9:10 am

faj wrote:
Tue Sep 29, 2020 6:49 am
pase22 wrote:
Tue Sep 29, 2020 12:05 am
Yes, I now live on the south shore just across the Jacques Cartier bridge.
Reading through the forum, you will notice most members drink loose leaf teas. While in theory any tea can be put in bags, the best teas are not sold in teabag form, typically. The way most members prepare tea is by simply putting the leaves in a (usually small, by western standards) teapot that has some sort of filter, and pouring out the tea once the desired steeping time has been reached. Attention is paid to water temperature and steeping time, as they deeply affect the results (not all teas are best infused with boiling water). The leaves are usually steeped multiple times.

I will not lie, it can be quite a bit more expensive if you really dive into it, but there are affordable loose leaf teas that are, in my opinion, much better than bagged teas, and for the same price as one Starbucks coffee a day, you can afford having pleasant tea on a daily basis.

When conditions allow it, I would suggest you visit the Camellia Sinensis teahouse in Montréal. They have a wide variety of quality loose leaf tea, and they can prepare tea for you so that you. They also sell online, and you can visit their website to get an idea what is on offer. You can start with black teas if you are more comfortable with them, but do not discard other tea types too fast : what you get from teabags is likely to be very different from what you can get from properly infused loose leaves.
I am discovering the major upgrade on flavor of loose tea over bagged tea, though Harney & Sons Royal English breakfast sachets are really good. I did start off with cheap tea bags from IGA and progressed to buying a bunch of different bags to try such as Twinings, Yorkshire gold, Harney & Sons. As for brewing I heat the water to 200f with a temperature controlled kettle, add half & half and sweetener first then pour into strainer filled with 1 1/4 tsps of tea in a 14oz cup and steep for 5 minutes. Note: for my taste different teas require a little more tea and some a little less so still experimenting with that.

I do enjoy fine things, but I'm a strong believer in diminishing returns. I'm not likely to ever spend $700 on a teapot or buy exotic teas that cost a month's rent. My $20 infusion cup and $75 kettle ( came with steeping basket ) are likely as far as I 'll go.
faj
Posts: 710
Joined: Mon Oct 14, 2019 6:45 am
Location: Quebec

Tue Sep 29, 2020 9:48 am

pase22 wrote:
Tue Sep 29, 2020 9:10 am
I do enjoy fine things, but I'm a strong believer in diminishing returns. I'm not likely to ever spend $700 on a teapot or buy exotic teas that cost a month's rent. My $20 infusion cup and $75 kettle ( came with steeping basket ) are likely as far as I 'll go.
If you have an infusion basket that fits in your cup, that is all you need for loose leaf tea. There are very decent teas that cost, say, around 1$ for a 4g portion, which will allow you to make somewhere between 0,5L to 1L of tea. This is cheaper than a basic coffee at a Tim Horton's, which few people would consider an elitist drink. If you have a thermometer to check the temperature of your water, that helps, especially with green teas, but for black teas, you can do without.

Sure, as with anything, you can spend indecent sums of money, but you can get to "good" without anything extravagant. Expensive teapots or teas, which do exist, are something people can chose if and when it suits their tastes and budget. They are not a ticket to entry.
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joelbct
Posts: 81
Joined: Tue Oct 10, 2017 6:14 pm
Location: NY

Fri Oct 09, 2020 2:00 pm

Bagged teas may go wrong by being bagged teas. ;)
pase22
Posts: 26
Joined: Sun Sep 27, 2020 6:16 pm
Location: Montreal

Sun Oct 11, 2020 8:09 pm

joelbct wrote:
Fri Oct 09, 2020 2:00 pm
Bagged teas may go wrong by being bagged teas. ;)
I'm still relatively new to all this, but I've had some bagged tea that easily outclassed loose teas. Of course the price difference was likely a big factor so It all depends on what you buy.
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joelbct
Posts: 81
Joined: Tue Oct 10, 2017 6:14 pm
Location: NY

Fri Oct 16, 2020 3:41 pm

pase22 wrote:
Sun Oct 11, 2020 8:09 pm
joelbct wrote:
Fri Oct 09, 2020 2:00 pm
Bagged teas may go wrong by being bagged teas. ;)
I'm still relatively new to all this, but I've had some bagged tea that easily outclassed loose teas. Of course the price difference was likely a big factor so It all depends on what you buy.
Well, much loose leaf tea is mediocre as well ;) My point was, any tea that is acceptable in a tea bag, would be better and less expensive, not in a bag.
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Nis
Posts: 72
Joined: Tue Dec 12, 2017 7:13 am
Location: France

Tue Oct 27, 2020 10:02 am

The way I like to put it is that tea bags go from terrible to decent, while loose leaf goes from terrible to amazing.

It also depends on the kind of tea. Black tea, for example, works fine in bags, but green tea is best avoided.
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