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.faj wrote: ↑Tue Sep 29, 2020 6:49 amReading 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 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.