Tea: Loose or Bags?

[try2bfrugal]

I was just curious for those of you who are tea drinkers, where do you buy your tea and what kind do you buy? I have been pricing loose tea but it seems more expensive than tea bags. The stores near me often have tea in bags for a cost of one 1 - 2 cents per bag.

[razz]

I prefer Brooke Bond loose leaf tea as I believe that I can taste the bag. I do have one box of teabags for travelling or quick use.
It is usually very hard to find any, never mind, good loose leaf tea so I stocked up when I had the chance.

[Jilly]

I use both. I lurve Lipton's Black Pearl; it comes in these cool pyramid bags, made from nylon or something. Best tasting black tea, ever. Because of the bag, it brews instantly. I buy four boxes at a time, just in case I cannot find it should I run out.

I buy the rest of my tea at the Asian market. Loose green, jasmine and black teas. Once in a while I pick up something unfamiliar to me.

[JaneV2.0]

Bags lately--and lots of them, different flavors, green, black, herbal...One I particularly like is white tea with a faint rose petal flavor. Loose is often better quality, but I haven't bought any lately.

[Tradd]

Bags, mostly, since a lot of the tea I drink is at work. More convenient. At home, I've got some nice loose tea that I'll use when the mood strikes. If I'm in a really frugal mood, I'll buy the cheap, store brand tea bags. It's hot and it's caffeine, which is about all I can say about it! ;-)

[Mrs. Hermit]

I prefer loose tea. It often is more expensive Loose tea is usually better quality, and I prefer the taste. My husband can't taste the difference--I can't taste the difference in coffee types, so I cut him some slack--lol.

[IshbelRobertson]

I only use loose leaf and nowdays only buy Twining's teas. Favourites are Darjeeling, Earl Grey, Lady Grey and lapsang souchong. My husband likes Assam at breakfast, but nowadays I find that too dark in colour and taste for me.

[cdttmm]

We drink loose tea about 90% of the time and use tea bags the remaining 10% of the time. We buy our loose teas from rishi-tea.com, 52teas.com or from McNulty's Coffee and Tea shop in NYC. The tea in bags are either Harney & Sons or Republic of Tea.

[pinkytoe]

Usually we use tea bags but not any brand or flavor in particular - we also make a lot of hibiscus mint iced tea using loose leaves in a tea ball. There was some news recently about the paper in tea bags being coated with a chemical that might be unsafe so now I am having second thoughts about that. But not needing yet another thing to worry about, I will probably just keep trying new kinds of tea bags.

[try2bfrugal]

There was some news recently about the paper in tea bags being coated with a chemical that might be unsafe so now I am having second thoughts about that. But not needing yet another thing to worry about, I will probably just keep trying new kinds of tea bags.

I've kind of wondered about the safety of the bags. Maybe that is a good enough reason to switch to loose. Plus we are trying to move more towards the whole zero waste concept. It seems to odd that tea in bags is usually cheaper, at least where I shop.

[treehugger]

It is my understanding that, in general, loose tea is so more expensive than bag tea because the bags enable the manufacturer to use a much lower quality of tea (tiny fragments of leaves, dust). Now, bag tea is definitely more convenient to use at work or out and about, and there are certainly different qualities of bag tea, but it comes down to quality of the leaves themselves that creates the price difference. Of course, none of that is relevant if one likes the taste of bag tea. Everyone's palate is different, so "better" is a subjective term. I say use what you enjoy and what fits in your budget.

We have many kinds of bags and fewer kinds of loose tea at home. I enjoy them all. Lately, I have been buying loose Typhoo at Cost Plus for a strong morning cup. I drink bag tea all day at work, since it is provided, and therefore quite budget friendly. :)

Kara

[ApatheticNoMore]

I'm only an occasional tea drinker, try to avoid caffeine, but when I do I prefer tea to coffee (I am the most interesting woman in the world ... oh wait).

Bags I think work better for regular usage because the caffeine dosage is much more controlled, the loose leaf caffeine dosage was all over the map judging by how it would affect me.

[rosarugosa]

Twining's Darjeeling tea bags is my personal favorite.

[herbgeek]

Mostly loose tea here, even at work. I like Harney and Sons. The one time I use bagged tea is Tetley's British Blend for making iced tea. Other than that, most of the bagged teas are herbal or green teas. Just can't get the flavor I like from black tea bags.

[Zoebird]

My preference is for loose tea, and I live hots of brands that I like, but we actually buy bagged.

Reason? It's less expensive, and right now, it's not in our budget to buy the good stuff. So, we buy the best we can afford which is twinnings in bags.

[dado potato]

I do not consider it frugal, but my favorite method to brew tea is a Bodum basket... loose tea. I generally buy from Peet's. I have 4 tins at present: Yin Hao Jasmine, Jasmine Downey Pearls, Lion Mountain Keemun, and Darjeeling Namring Estate. I prefer to serve tea in clear glass cups. Needless to say, I enjoy the way sunlight shines through tea as much as the aroma and taste. (No milk or sugar for me, thanks.)

[Nella]

I guess I might be kind of a tea snob, but I like Harrod's Breakfast Blend #14 and the Harrod's Afternoon Tea - both loose leaf. Can't stand the bagged stuff from Lipton. My only real problem is getting people who are visiting the UK to bring the loose tea back for me, but I think Harrod's now ships to the U.S. so I might be in luck when my loose tea stash runs out.

[artist]

When we have the money, we will pick up loose tea from Teavana. It's very expensive but well worth it. I love that we can mix the teas and everything is so fresh. Plus sampling is nice.

[try2bfrugal]

It is my understanding that, in general, loose tea is so more expensive than bag tea because the bags enable the manufacturer to use a much lower quality of tea (tiny fragments of leaves, dust).

That makes a lot of sense. I had not thought of that.

I appreciate everyone's answers. I guess I will have to give loose tea a try and see if the taste is worth the extra cost to me. One added plus it that it would seem to be more of a step in the zero waste direction.

[zeaxmays]

ill buy loose from adagio for hot tea, ill get the samples to try different ones before going all in on one kind.

then ill get bags luzianne decaf and celestial seasonings teas for making iced tea.

[sylvia]

I am striving towards loose tea. I am a big tea drinker. I think it's better than those bleached tea bags they are in and they create waste.