Tea Bag Vs Loose Leaf - The Taste Test

[@ZootedTMan]

Had to come back to rewatch this 4 years later. This is the video that started my tea journey. Thank you Don for all your hard work and dedication to bless people with pinnacle tea who had no idea it existed. Im currently waiting to receive JS8 watching old vids. I can’t wait to here your stories about the tea expo you went to in Vegas on the next live stream.

[@altareggo]

WOW this is an eye-opener!!! I am highly impressed: you seem to know exactly what you are talking about, and you explain things so very clearly. Thank you!!!

[@annanutella3521]

I was shocked by how little you brew your tea because teabags usually come with instructions to "brew tea for 2 minutes." I have been doing it wrong this entire time haha

[@sexysupportgroup345]

you have already done something wrong when you bought teabags

[@Kiefy6886]

It's only worth doing less than 2 minutes if you're going to re-infuse the tea, else it's a waste and you're not getting the full taste if do less. Should be more like 3 minutes.

[@flowerchild777]

@@Kiefy6886 Great point

[@MicheleLHarvey]

Adding to the negatives of teabag brewing is the taste the actual bag adds to the tea. Even some highly respected tea companies house their tea in bags which change the flavor of the enclosed tea. It's a wonder any true tea flavor can be had from teabags at all.

[@Metalbirne]

You can just buy paper tea filters and make your own tea bags with loose tea. You just do this once after purchase and it will be just as convenient on your travels. Cheers guys.

[@curlyhairdudeify]

Metalbirne or yo can just purchase a stainless steel mesh brewing ball

[@BruceWayne-hq1xo]

8:52 taste test start

[@Schumi180156]

i visited meileaf in london (camden) one day ago and i drank my best chai tea ever!

[@MrCmon113]

Oh, now I understand why people prefer larger leaves. It's about how well it preserves it's taste, not how easy it is to access.

[@magetaaaaaa]

Oh man, brings back memories from cold winter days as a kid. We'd go sledding and be out at the park for an hour or two, then go back to my friends house and have tea. No name, grocery store brand black tea bags, absolute bottom of the barrel. Up front assault of old grass, hay, and that sourness you speak of was in there too, then nothing... It's like bad hot water.

[@MeiLeaf]

+magetaaaaaa :) Sounds like beautiful memories until the awful tea bags.

[@JB-sz4wy]

Good loose leaf black tea is far superior to bagged and actually full of character however it is true for other teas aswell. One of the things about bagged tea is that they use CTC (fannings and dust grades) rather than leaf grades. Not all loose tea is good quality though and some is sold off as loose CTCs, especially if you buy loose teas from large tea merchants like Twinings Loose grains indicate a CTC whereas leaves indicate an orthodox, and black and green teas should be bought loose as lots of bagged versions exist - although lots of good ones do aswell - although the bagging now extends to white and oolong teas which are recently available in teabags or so I have seen in stores. To solve the problem of people moving away from standard teabags to specialty teas - they introduced the pyramid teabags where companies could get whole leaf grades into the bag. Whereas it is a good commercial marketing idea, one can never brew loose tea that way and get as good results Some cheaper loose teas are broken leaf grades. These are small leaves rather than the actual tea leaf. Whereas a broken leaf grade is not as good as an actual one, it is still superior to a fannings or dust by a long way - as it is at least still tea although it may not have as good or full a flavor. Broken leaf grades brew up efficiently (bags do so in seconds) although do not leave the fullness of a leaf one once its brewed up which actually for leaf grades does not need as much time as people think although a teapot would be needed and no places selling tea would brew it that way. Special food vendors have loose teas if you search for one

[@NekroLovesCel]

Same here, I had trouble finding good quality tea when living in Mexico a few years back. The best I found was Twinings at the time but, I could only get it at Carrefour. Thank you for this great demonstration! I honestly cringed when you drank the tea bag tea only because it made me wonder if it was indeed a bad batch. Thank you again for all your wonderful and very helpful information all your videos provide. I recently have been buying only loose, whole leaf tea from mainly Silk Road Teas. Compared to another premium loose leaf tea, the ones from Silk Road actually had much more intact leaves/buds than other ones from other sellers. Cheers!~'

[@MeiLeaf]

Yes we went to Mexico prepared for a lack of tea. It is so beautiful that it makes up for it though!

[@Bawbster1]

Why is there no video discussing these new and "improved" nylon based tea bags? I used to love tea, but since they changed the material of the tea bags, I can definitely tell the difference in the taste of tea. I used to drink about 3 or 4 cups of tea per day, now I maybe drink 3 or 4 per month. It's not as enjoyable to me now. Has anyone else noticed this? I had found an old box of Red Rose tea recently (the best Orange Pekoe/breakfast tea I have found, but I think it's mostly available only in Canada), and did a taste test for some friends who didn't believe me. They all preferred tea from the old style of tea bags. Anyone else notice this?

[@MeiLeaf]

We agree - the taste from that nylon material is definitely not desirable and is definitely worse than old school bags.

[@simplyteaDK]

Whoever it was that thought up the idea of brewing tea in their stockings have not done their research. Phthalates are released with temperatures as low as 42oC. I would rather steep my tea in a GMO corn starch product than in a nylon one.

[@Chrisiant]

I have seen (but never tried) silk teabags? They are refillable? There's also unbleached, organic muslin bags that are washable. It seems to me that these could make fairly nice reuseable teabags.

[@colinmalsingh2667]

Thanks for this video. Mostly it was aimed at the inferior experience due to the poorer quality tea used in most teabags. However having tried using loose "Alishan Cream" in DIY teabags bought from Mei Leaf yesterday, I'd add that another key factor is the tea having room to swell as it brews. After some pleasant but unspectacular cups, I tipped the tea out of its bag and brewed the remaining cups directly in the cup. This made a big difference and I'm sure is partly covered in the other videos here that advise brewing techniques. So whilst Metalbirne below suggests this approach and I hoped it would be convenient for drinking tea on my travels, you're probably still missing out - especially with good quality tea.

[@minifix]

The lesser quality of bag tea is one thing, but it might not matter as much as long as you enjoy the flavor. A major concern, however, is the fact that several manufacturers put in additives. For instance, a Norwegian consumer agency recently found that popular products by Twinings and Lipton contain between 5-20% sugar! They don't disclose it on the ingredients list as they are not legally required to do so (in the EU at least)... and don't get me started on the preservatives, the citric acid (which is extracted from mold), 'natural' coloring, etc.

[@FrF]

I have to say that I enjoy some of the cheaper tea bag brands. In terms of price, Twinings is almost upper-scale as far as tea products available in supermarkets go. It's astounding that you can buy 25 Tea bags of "green tea" with various flavours for under Euro 1,50! On the one hand this is masterful logistics, on the other hand, as minifix rightly points out, it makes you wonder about the (potentially hazardous) shortcuts needed to get these beverages at such prices to the consumer.

[@MeiLeaf]

+minifix Great point which we forgot to mention.

[@MeiLeaf]

+FrF No question that the tea bag companies run a very impressive operation to make these tea bags especially to maintain a consistent blend every year but the shortcuts tend to be using very low quality plantation tea that grows very quickly. It is a lot easier to make a black tea bag because it does not matter so much if the leaf is damaged when be picked and processed as it all going to be fully oxidised but we have yet to find a drinkable green tea bag.

[@pheart2381]

I can always taste the bag,and black bag tea seems all colour and no flavour.

[@nothingnewtome1]

you should just switch to tequila while in Mexico lol

[@Gmoyer11Tech]

Dan Means tea-quila

[@josuemartinext1691]

Grayson M o nice one

[@tanialovestea7578]

Mezcal 😉

[@antoniops12]

Yes, in México it is not easy to get loose leaf tea. I could find some in Asian groceries stores «Chinese, korean,Japanese» and also in the Chinese community area in Tijuana.

[@MeiLeaf]

We are sure that there are some good places in cities but nothing around Mazunte!

[@josuemartinext1691]

Woah!, where is the Chinese area? i only know a Korean store near the Autonomus University (UABC).

[@duthegee]

Yea could you tell me where you find the loose leaf tea in Tijuana? I live in San Diego so I have easier access to Asian stores but I want to also know where these shops are hidden in Tijuana.

[@antoniops12]

@@duthegee This is one of the asian grocery mini supers in TJ, hope they're still in business: goo.gl/maps/etetZiy5jikoETrf6

[@marijkewuyts1786]

Learning English and learning about tea at the same time with Mei Leaf. Thank you.

[@mndlessdrwer]

My favorite bagged tea to give to people who aren't as well equipped as I am would be Mighty Leaf teas. They're pretty serviceable compared to most medium quality loose teas.

[@joeynalik1124]

GASP!!!! TEA BAGS!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[@MichaelNoriega]

I'm an old soul who got obsessed with Tea a few years back, I love experimenting with different types. I just wish I knew this. I do have a question, Would it make a difference to the potency & taste if I were to grind the loose leaf tea before brewing? Like you would with coffee beans? Also can someone recommend a good type of honey so I dont have to use sugar cubes? Thnk yall.

[@emiliocabra331]

Yeah.. I´m from Mexico haha and finding good quality tea here is very hard and very expensive, the best I can do is Teavana, which I seriously would like to know if it has good quality tea or is it just in my head?. On the other hand I also Love coffee which is nice..

[@MeiLeaf]

+Emilio Cabra We drank a lot of good coffee in Mexico. Maybe tea culture can take off in Mexico city - why don't you open a shop up! Regarding Teavana, it wouldn't really be professional to comment too much. We can say that it's higher quality than the tea bags but there are many grades of tea higher out there.

[@emiliocabra331]

+chinalife Tea House Thanks!! and yeah, some friend brought me some tea from his trip to china tand the difference was astonishing... And yeah !! Im planing to open a coffee/tea shop where we actually serve good tea and coffee not like those "gourmet" tea shops which serve Lipton. But it's still in progress

[@MeiLeaf]

Emilio Cabra Great, please keep us informed of your true tea adventure!

[@pibebolud]

Emilio Cabra do you know euro té tea shop? Try it, they have a online tea shop. Yo compre mis tés ahí, es de lo.mejor que puedes encontrar en México, saludos

[@charlesperez9976]

YES! Green is the most misunderstood tea in the west! Too high temperatures,too long steeping time,and usually out of tea bags,garbage bags. A good green,like Lu’an Gua Pian,it is totally absent of the bitterness so associated with green tea. People choke down the bad stuff,thinking”hey I’m drinking the best tea!” They drink stale teabag nonsense☹️

[@tonyvulture]

Omg you came to Mexico!!!! Feel welcome always :) yeah we are more coffee drinkers, but it is changing little by little, I mean at least at Mexico City there are a lot of place where you can drink tea so maybe next time you can come to Mexico City and go maybe to Tomas or casa tassel, which is the place I work for... So thank you very much I really learn a lot watching your videos.

[@MeiLeaf]

I am sure that Mexico city has some great places and thank you for the information. If we travel to Mexico we will come find your place too.

[@antoniops12]

Yo también soy de la CDMX y he ido a casa tassel, nice place, nice teas :)

[@pibebolud]

Casa tassel es bueno, que pequeño es el mundo del té en México

[@Jprez254]

If you wanted to sell loose leaf tea….which one would you pick based on natural, herbal tea? Healthy wise.

[@mechreports1]

I have been drinking twining's jasmine green tea for years (tea bags) and i must agree its quite bitter tasing and does give you a dry mouth. however! this video has made me go out and get myself some decent quality loose leaf of the same sort but different brand and a little glass diffuser teapot. i will see how it goes :) i have had loose leaf before but not jasmine green tea so i am looking forward to seeing if i have been doing it wrong all these years. great video by the way you seem very knowledgeable

[@Poetry4Peace]

Waas it guuuud?

[@mechreports1]

@@Poetry4Peace Very guuuud :), also Merry Xmas to you :)

[@Poetry4Peace]

@@mechreports1 thankss same to u

[@SenseiSinSemilla26]

I always drink loose leaf and mix my own teas. I recently bought filter bags to make mixes for my family and friends since they’re used to tea bags and don’t have the mesh ball I have. Hopefully the bags don’t change the taste? I’ve never used one for my loose leaf mixes before. The mesh ball has been my best friend lol

[@Poetry4Peace]

Thanks for the knowledge! Ur so darn pretty btw make me smile 🥰

[@Poetry4Peace]

The hair 😍

[@ergocinema]

Hey Don, what do you think about Captain Picard drinking Earl Grey from Tea Bags? You should do a video about the evolution of tea in the 24th century :-D

[@lilianav3029]

Would it be convenient to open full-leaf sachets and brew them? Or brew them as they are in the bag?

[@PinkwithaP]

Thank you for this lesson on tea bag vs loose green tea. I'm currently a tea bagger 😉 for convenience sake but have been inspired to begin a journey of properly drinking and appreciating loose teas. I would love to know at what point it is acceptable to have tea blends and also with the added infusions of flavor enhancers like flowers, or fruits? Yikes! I hope that isn't a major faux pas for a tea aficionado such as yourself. Haha! Well, there it is. Excited to watch and learn more from Mei-Leaf ! Thank you again for sharing your knowledge and passion for proper teas. 👋👌👍🏼😊

[@MeiLeaf]

+Diana Kelley hey tea bagger 😆welcome to the channel. We like to start by tasting and learning about the pure lead with all of its unique flavours. There is nothing wrong with blends or flavoured tea if you enjoy the taste but so often these styles are used to sell mediocre tea at a better profit margin. We advise that you dive into the world of pure tea and train your palate before finding blends because you will be so much more discerning about which blends you enjoy.

[@PinkwithaP]

Mei Leaf Well I certainly agree with that 100%! Looking forward to it, and looking forward to delving into your channel. Thanks so much! 😍😙

[@PrincePalmUwU]

I am having a hard time getting answers, I have an infuser ball and green tea bags which I cut to pour in the infuser and wait for 3 mins in hot water while adding honey, is it okay to consume green tea bag leaves.

[@adamfroman7983]

Does loose leaf steeps have more caffeine and such than tea bags?

[@JCMaldonado13]

What's the reason for only brewing the tea bag for 30 seconds when most tea bags tell you to brew for 3-6 minutes?

[@tv82832]

JC Maldonado because that would make it way to bitter.

[@khricket]

6 minutes? Your tea bags are liars.

[@flowerchild777]

7:30 color of dirt from factory floor perhaps?

[@marianaguerramonteiro6410]

im impressed with all your videos! super glad ive found them! congrats! =)

[@LKxxROXSTAR15]

haha i always thought green tea was supposed to be sour, i've never tried loose leaf green tea

[@flowerchild777]

I buy tea "bags" to use in poultices lately... when they're on SALE. Besides that, I pick and make my own😏

[@EMAYLA]

Thank you!!! I've learned so much from this!! :)

[@desertpair2]

THAT is more information about tea than I will EVER need!

[@gsssgfdgsdf6312]

i think sour taste come from the piss that were on the floor, or when farmer peed on leaves. Hope u enjoyed ur tea Don

[@sandycastles7105]

Interesting, interesting.

[@wheelman1324]

I like the black Darjeeling. Personally.

[@elcieilagan]

Iv'ed tasted a loose leaf when I was in Bangkok. The taste is almost the same as tea bag. I only drink it if I want to get rid of my insomnia because, damn, it is very good in making you sleep.

[@joeynalik1124]

Have you tried any olive leaf tea?

[@MeiLeaf]

+Joey Nalik No, have you?

[@joeynalik1124]

+chinalife Tea House There is an olive oil farm near my home, they sell organic olive leafs for brewing! It takes a bit longer to brew, but as you said, you can enjoy it the Chinese way!

[@joeynalik1124]

+Joey Nalik Check it out, I'm sure you'll like it, and nice videos I really enjoy them!

[@MeiLeaf]

+Joey Nalik We will definitely try some if we can.

[@sinyeesinyee]

Very good video, thanks. ^^

[@josuemartinext1691]

I came for the tea and stayed for México

[@DaniiTea]

oh hey, I have that flask. Ikea if i remember correctly

[@MeiLeaf]

+DaniiTea Not sure, it was a friend's flask but probably Ikea :)

[@shawbag11]

Yes but the question is do you put the milk in before or after the water and teabag / leaf cus ik some people like that sort of tea but to me it looks like piss so ill stick to normal tea

[@G.A.C_Preserve]

After

[@ParkerDai]

I have my teabags in my 1 pint mug, it doesn't go as bitter haha

[@AaronJZY]

You mentioned that you weren’t doing “a rinse” What is that and why would you do it?

[@dulvab9968]

I'm not exactly sure but i think it's the first brew of tea, the first brew is the "prep" brew, there's not much flavor or color so it's usually poured aka rinsed.

[@MsJavaWolf]

Rinsing has 2 main reasons. 1. Even high quality loose leaf tea will have a few small broken pieces, which can be a bit bitter or give you a bad texture, so you can rinse that away. 2. The water needs some time to penetrate the whole leaf (unlike with tea bags) so when you quickly rinse the tea first, the water opens up the tea leaf and your first real infusion will be better.

[@VoxxEU]

So a person who sells loose leaf teas online and in their store purchases an unknown bag, at length tells us how bad bagged teas are, claims they are no more convenient than loose leaf, brews it less than recommended, wait for this.....concludes by telling us the loose leaf teas taste better. Shocking I say.

[@michaelspanish9738]

Well i will never look at tea bags the same way again .

[@lawnfascist4890]

Taste is subjective. If I'm making iced tea, I'm only going to use mass produced bagged tea. For me, it tastes better than anything I've tried loose leaf. For hot tea, I'm only going to use loose leaf tea as I've yet to find a bagged tea that can even compare. All the snobbery in the comments makes me laugh a little bit. You people take yourselves way too seriously.

[@welp55]

high qualitea

[@Schmidteren]

Green tea I bought say it need 4-6 minutes of brewing? Why? :D

[@MeiLeaf]

+Schmidteren the instructions are for western brewing I guess

[@SarahJacobs-nb3lw]

Yeah,,they teatd so different, 😂

[@bodhi974]

It taste like rocks!? 🤨

[@WhiskeyTheShepherd338]

Wait, less than 3 minutes? Are you a real British mate? I brewing my tea for at least 3 minutes up to 5 minutes😆😆

[@MsJavaWolf]

I am often too lazy to remove the tea bag at all.

[@ASharkNamedSkye]

I love that this guy copied custom grow's intro nearly word for word

[@delamoratenor5871]

It is indeed annoying! Not many good options for us the local tea drinkers. 😔

[@coreywarrington7035]

Eurgh.. That teabag tea, not joking, seriously looks like a cup of urine.

[@olegmalashevich9134]

i better be swimming...

[@HokutoShinKenStyle]

This video seems very bias. There was not a single negative thing about loose leaf and not a single positive thing about tea bags. Should have maybe given it to someone which doesn't know which one is loose and which one is bagged and get their honest opinion on the taste. Just feels like it's a very bad video to promote your products

[@MeiLeaf]

+Xelyfer the point of the video is to give our honest opinion about how awful tea bag green tea is and genuinely we have nothing redeeming to say about them at all. We understand your point though and we can think about doing more blind tastings with random volunteers.

[@MeiLeaf]

Aaaaah good one ***** we will add to our lists.

[@nothingnewtome1]

Xelyfer you should watch more videos by this channel cause you are way off base. sometimes there is a right way and a wrong way to do things. not everything is a matter of opinion. sometimes doing things the right way is simply better and usually hand made or hand picked things that undergo painstaking quality control simply ARE BETTER than things done in a lazy way or mass production type of way. he doesn't need to twist this information or be biased he simply has the facts of life on his side. if you like tea bags then that's cool but just be honest with yourself and say you like them for the convenience aspect but there is just no argument that they would taste better or be of higher quality. if you watch more of Don's vids you will see that it comes from a passion for tea and not simply to promote business.

[@khricket]

There are no negatives to loose leaf tea. What's a positive for bagged tea? They create plastic waste? They basically contain tea dust? Please inform me.

[@Hi-pp8mw]

Can someone count the times the man said um, uh or shutter?

[@scottscott9150]

no

[@Mak933]

Who brews tea for 15 seconds?

[@JaxzDoesBundles]

I don't even know. The absolutely shortest steeping time I've seen on a teabag is a republic of tea white tea, and that says to steep for 60 seconds

[@Th3Acc0mplice]

"Not gonna mention any brands" Then whats the point of even filming the video if nobody knows what you are comparing?

[@scottscott9150]

because it doesn't matter the brand. He also said it was a high quality brand of bag, so probably already better than the Lipton, PG Tips, Ahmad ,Twinings ,Bewley's ,Barry's ,Lyon's ,Stash, or whatever you're drinking. It's all horrible. Did you even watch the video? chopped up tea is bitter and inferior period. Tea bag tea is the worst possible "tea" you can buy.

[@davinky6706]

BREW YOUR TEA FOR 4 MINS AND DONT RE USE YOUR TEA BAG BECAUSE THAT IS MANKY

[@Poetry4Peace]

OBVIOUSLY LMAO

[@sachinmitruka1342]

Tea brewing water content is not correct. You should atleast use 150 ml to 180 ml water.

[@educationallyrecreational9967]

Hmm this seems like mostly speculation information

[@rastob6447]

topic and idea of this video is great, but you are booooooring. I really want to, but I was not able to watch it full.

[@veevale125]

you're talking too much lmao

[@LT-mu9zl]

Too much talking...omgosh annoying