If Your Tea Bag Breaks, There's A Clever Hack To Clean Those Loose Leaves Out Of Your Cup

Tea can be a wonderfully refreshing way to hydrate and add some fun flavor to your routine, as there are tons of types from all around the world. Brewing it is rather simple, but unfortunately, there are some pitfalls. Sometimes, you end up with loose tea leaves in your cup after the tea bag breaks. No one wants their tea-sipping experience ruined by a mouthful of used, bitter tea leaves. Fortunately, there's a simple way to remedy this situation, and all you need is cartridge paper.

According to an Instagram video by Kerry Budden, she always gets tea leaves in her drink because she leaves the bag in too long. To fix it, Budden dunks a piece of cartridge paper into her cup and moves it around in a sort of scooping motion before pulling it out. When removed, you can see that the paper has picked up a bunch of tea leaves, resulting in a much cleaner and more refreshing beverage.

In the comments, Budden mentions that this can be done with printer paper, meaning you don't need anything specialized. On some online outlets, you can get 500 sheets of printer paper for as little as $6.99, making this an incredibly affordable hack that comes out to just over a cent per sheet. With this trick, you can have smooth, delicious tea and even reuse the tea bags afterwards.

If you're questioning the validity of dunking paper into your beverages, you're not alone. The hack seems rather strange, but the reason it works is actually due to the construction of paper. Paper is made to be porous, meaning it absorbs liquids. When you dunk the paper in the drink, the liquid will absorb into it and pass through, but the larger tea leaves will not. This means you can scoop the tea leaves out without scooping the beverage itself. Some will get absorbed into the paper and not fall back into the cup, but it's still far more efficient than trying to scoop them out with a non-porous material like a metal spoon.

Several users in the comments mentioned needing to use this hack due to living in a hard water area. This is likely because tea made with hard water can form "scum," leaving unpleasant solids on the surface of the beverage and making your tea appear cloudy. The cartridge paper trick is ideal for removing this scum for the same reason it removes tea leaves; the dense solids will be picked up by the paper, while the water will absorb and move through it. You can even do the same with coffee scum or grounds stuck in the liquid. Regardless of the type of solids trapped in your beverage, try using cartridge paper for a quick and easy fix.