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.
@altareggo7 жыл бұрын
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!!!
@annanutella35217 жыл бұрын
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
@sexysupportgroup3455 жыл бұрын
you have already done something wrong when you bought teabags
@Kiefy68864 жыл бұрын
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.
@flowerchild7773 жыл бұрын
@@Kiefy6886 Great point
@MicheleLHarvey5 жыл бұрын
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.
@Metalbirne7 жыл бұрын
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.
@curlyhairdudeify6 жыл бұрын
Metalbirne or yo can just purchase a stainless steel mesh brewing ball
@BruceWayne-hq1xo3 жыл бұрын
8:52 taste test start
@Schumi1801565 жыл бұрын
i visited meileaf in london (camden) one day ago and i drank my best chai tea ever!
@MrCmon1137 жыл бұрын
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.
@magetaaaaaa8 жыл бұрын
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.
@MeiLeaf8 жыл бұрын
+magetaaaaaa :) Sounds like beautiful memories until the awful tea bags.
@JB-sz4wy8 жыл бұрын
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
@NekroLovesCel8 жыл бұрын
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!~'
@MeiLeaf8 жыл бұрын
Yes we went to Mexico prepared for a lack of tea. It is so beautiful that it makes up for it though!
@Bawbster17 жыл бұрын
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?
@MeiLeaf7 жыл бұрын
We agree - the taste from that nylon material is definitely not desirable and is definitely worse than old school bags.
@simplyteaDK7 жыл бұрын
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.
@Chrisiant7 жыл бұрын
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.
@colinmalsingh26676 жыл бұрын
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.
@minifix8 жыл бұрын
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.
@FrF8 жыл бұрын
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.
@MeiLeaf8 жыл бұрын
+minifix Great point which we forgot to mention.
@MeiLeaf8 жыл бұрын
+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.
@pheart23818 жыл бұрын
I can always taste the bag,and black bag tea seems all colour and no flavour.
@nothingnewtome17 жыл бұрын
you should just switch to tequila while in Mexico lol
@Gmoyer11Tech7 жыл бұрын
Dan Means tea-quila
@josuemartinext16917 жыл бұрын
Grayson M o nice one
@tanialovestea75785 жыл бұрын
Mezcal 😉
@antoniops128 жыл бұрын
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.
@MeiLeaf8 жыл бұрын
We are sure that there are some good places in cities but nothing around Mazunte!
@josuemartinext16917 жыл бұрын
Woah!, where is the Chinese area? i only know a Korean store near the Autonomus University (UABC).
@duthegee4 жыл бұрын
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.
@antoniops124 жыл бұрын
@@duthegee This is one of the asian grocery mini supers in TJ, hope they're still in business: goo.gl/maps/etetZiy5jikoETrf6
@marijkewuyts17862 жыл бұрын
Learning English and learning about tea at the same time with Mei Leaf. Thank you.
@mndlessdrwer6 жыл бұрын
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.
@joeynalik11248 жыл бұрын
GASP!!!! TEA BAGS!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
@MichaelNoriega3 жыл бұрын
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.
@emiliocabra3318 жыл бұрын
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..
@MeiLeaf8 жыл бұрын
+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.
@emiliocabra3318 жыл бұрын
+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
@MeiLeaf8 жыл бұрын
Emilio Cabra Great, please keep us informed of your true tea adventure!
@pibebolud6 жыл бұрын
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
@charlesperez99762 жыл бұрын
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☹️
@tonyvulture8 жыл бұрын
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.
@MeiLeaf8 жыл бұрын
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.
@antoniops128 жыл бұрын
Yo también soy de la CDMX y he ido a casa tassel, nice place, nice teas :)
@pibebolud6 жыл бұрын
Casa tassel es bueno, que pequeño es el mundo del té en México
@Jprez254 Жыл бұрын
If you wanted to sell loose leaf tea….which one would you pick based on natural, herbal tea? Healthy wise.
@mechreports14 жыл бұрын
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
@Poetry4Peace3 жыл бұрын
Waas it guuuud?
@mechreports13 жыл бұрын
@@Poetry4Peace Very guuuud :), also Merry Xmas to you :)
@Poetry4Peace3 жыл бұрын
@@mechreports1 thankss same to u
@SenseiSinSemilla266 жыл бұрын
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
@Poetry4Peace3 жыл бұрын
Thanks for the knowledge! Ur so darn pretty btw make me smile 🥰
@Poetry4Peace3 жыл бұрын
The hair 😍
@ergocinema4 жыл бұрын
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
@lilianav30297 жыл бұрын
Would it be convenient to open full-leaf sachets and brew them? Or brew them as they are in the bag?
@PinkwithaP7 жыл бұрын
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. 👋👌👍🏼😊
@MeiLeaf7 жыл бұрын
+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.
@PinkwithaP7 жыл бұрын
Mei Leaf Well I certainly agree with that 100%! Looking forward to it, and looking forward to delving into your channel. Thanks so much! 😍😙
@PrincePalmUwU2 жыл бұрын
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.
@adamfroman79832 жыл бұрын
Does loose leaf steeps have more caffeine and such than tea bags?
@JCMaldonado137 жыл бұрын
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?
@tv828326 жыл бұрын
JC Maldonado because that would make it way to bitter.
@khricket5 жыл бұрын
6 minutes? Your tea bags are liars.
@flowerchild7773 жыл бұрын
7:30 color of dirt from factory floor perhaps?
@marianaguerramonteiro64106 жыл бұрын
im impressed with all your videos! super glad ive found them! congrats! =)
@LKxxROXSTAR153 жыл бұрын
haha i always thought green tea was supposed to be sour, i've never tried loose leaf green tea
@flowerchild7773 жыл бұрын
I buy tea "bags" to use in poultices lately... when they're on SALE. Besides that, I pick and make my own😏
@EMAYLA4 жыл бұрын
Thank you!!! I've learned so much from this!! :)
@desertpair25 жыл бұрын
THAT is more information about tea than I will EVER need!
@gsssgfdgsdf63127 жыл бұрын
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
@sandycastles71056 ай бұрын
Interesting, interesting.
@wheelman13244 жыл бұрын
I like the black Darjeeling. Personally.
@elcieilagan6 жыл бұрын
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.
@joeynalik11248 жыл бұрын
Have you tried any olive leaf tea?
@MeiLeaf8 жыл бұрын
+Joey Nalik No, have you?
@joeynalik11248 жыл бұрын
+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!
@joeynalik11248 жыл бұрын
+Joey Nalik Check it out, I'm sure you'll like it, and nice videos I really enjoy them!
@MeiLeaf8 жыл бұрын
+Joey Nalik We will definitely try some if we can.
@sinyeesinyee5 жыл бұрын
Very good video, thanks. ^^
@josuemartinext16917 жыл бұрын
I came for the tea and stayed for México
@DaniiTea8 жыл бұрын
oh hey, I have that flask. Ikea if i remember correctly
@MeiLeaf8 жыл бұрын
+DaniiTea Not sure, it was a friend's flask but probably Ikea :)
@shawbag113 жыл бұрын
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_Preserve3 жыл бұрын
After
@ParkerDai3 жыл бұрын
I have my teabags in my 1 pint mug, it doesn't go as bitter haha
@AaronJZY3 жыл бұрын
You mentioned that you weren’t doing “a rinse” What is that and why would you do it?
@dulvab99683 жыл бұрын
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.
@MsJavaWolf2 жыл бұрын
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.
@VoxxEU3 жыл бұрын
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.
@michaelspanish97383 жыл бұрын
Well i will never look at tea bags the same way again .
@lawnfascist48905 жыл бұрын
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.
@welp553 жыл бұрын
high qualitea
@Schmidteren6 жыл бұрын
Green tea I bought say it need 4-6 minutes of brewing? Why? :D
@MeiLeaf6 жыл бұрын
+Schmidteren the instructions are for western brewing I guess
@SarahJacobs-nb3lw9 ай бұрын
Yeah,,they teatd so different, 😂
@bodhi9743 жыл бұрын
It taste like rocks!? 🤨
@WhiskeyTheShepherd3383 жыл бұрын
Wait, less than 3 minutes? Are you a real British mate? I brewing my tea for at least 3 minutes up to 5 minutes😆😆
@MsJavaWolf3 жыл бұрын
I am often too lazy to remove the tea bag at all.
@ASharkNamedSkye2 жыл бұрын
I love that this guy copied custom grow's intro nearly word for word
@delamoratenor58716 жыл бұрын
It is indeed annoying! Not many good options for us the local tea drinkers. 😔
@coreywarrington70355 жыл бұрын
Eurgh.. That teabag tea, not joking, seriously looks like a cup of urine.
@olegmalashevich91347 жыл бұрын
i better be swimming...
@HokutoShinKenStyle7 жыл бұрын
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
@MeiLeaf7 жыл бұрын
+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.
@MeiLeaf7 жыл бұрын
Aaaaah good one ***** we will add to our lists.
@nothingnewtome17 жыл бұрын
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.
@khricket5 жыл бұрын
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-pp8mw5 жыл бұрын
Can someone count the times the man said um, uh or shutter?
@scottscott91504 жыл бұрын
no
@Mak9334 жыл бұрын
Who brews tea for 15 seconds?
@JaxzDoesBundles3 жыл бұрын
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
@Th3Acc0mplice5 жыл бұрын
"Not gonna mention any brands" Then whats the point of even filming the video if nobody knows what you are comparing?
@scottscott91504 жыл бұрын
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.
@davinky67064 жыл бұрын
BREW YOUR TEA FOR 4 MINS AND DONT RE USE YOUR TEA BAG BECAUSE THAT IS MANKY
@Poetry4Peace3 жыл бұрын
OBVIOUSLY LMAO
@sachinmitruka13426 жыл бұрын
Tea brewing water content is not correct. You should atleast use 150 ml to 180 ml water.
@educationallyrecreational99674 жыл бұрын
Hmm this seems like mostly speculation information
@rastob64475 жыл бұрын
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.