For A Higher Quality Tea, Opt For Fuller Loose-Leaf Varieties
Hot, bubbled, carbonated, fermented, iced, and sweetened it feels like we have discovered every way to enjoy tea. The world has long been obsessed with the stuff, it has played huge economic roles in world history and is also an essential culinary aspect of many cultures globally. But at the end of the day, it all comes down to the fact that we love the stuff. There is a comfort that comes with pouring yourself a cup of toasty warm tea on a gray January day or plucking an ice-cold pitcher of sweetened tea from the fridge when you go read outside during the summer. It's a wonderful traditional beverage, one almost all of our ancestors have been enamored with for some time.
According to Britannica, tea had been discovered and utilized since 2700 BCE! It was the great minds of Chinese herbalists which steeped various planets in order to create medicinal teas, but by the 3rd century CE the drink was being ingested daily by many individuals and as the world continued to globalize, tea became an international phenomenon. Penn Medicine says that it's good that so many of us enjoy tea. Numerous studies have proven that tea is wonderful for bodily health, with different kinds of teas having various beneficial properties. Overall, they help to increase our bodies ability to fight viruses, reduce inflammation, and are believed to prevent some diseases. But some teas are better than others, so before you roll up to the store, think about buying loose-leaf tea.
Drop the bag
For a majority of people bagged tea may seem like the most convenient purchase. It's often cheap and easy to use, just plop it into hot water and you're done! But what comes easy isn't always what's best, and when it comes to tea, you should really consider going for quality over quantity. MasterClass says that there is a huge difference between bagged and loose-leaf teas. First and foremost is that the cut and grade of the tea are vastly different between the two. Loose-leaf tea uses (often hand-harvested) whole-leaf buds which are used to create the highest quality tea when it comes to flavor and other benefits. Unfortunately, bagged teas rarely use such high-quality trimmings.
Instead, The Refill Pantry tells us that they use what is called "fannings" and "tea dust" which are the broken pieces of leaves and the residual powder made from the leaves and they tend to exhibit more bitter-tasting tannins than the whole-harvested leaf buds do. Additionally, loose-leaf tea tastes stronger and significantly fresher because it is not mass-produced. Loose-leaf tea is often sold much fresher than bagged teas which are often not locally produced and can end up sitting on a shelf for months and years before being sold, leaving them old and stale.