Bagged Versus Loose Leaf Tea – Which Makes a Better Cup of Tea?

Tea connoisseurs can’t seem to agree on what tastes better – loose or bagged tea. In general, loose blends are considered, by default, to be higher-quality, as they’re made of larger, and thus higher-quality, leaves. But is this necessarily true? Not all tea leaf sizes are created equal, but a blend of loose leaf doesn’t always make a better cup and bagged blends don’t always make an inferior brew. While the taste is ultimately up to the one drinking the tea, choosing loose blends over bagged ones has some exceptions.

The benefit of bagged tea is that the packaging is compact and a set amount has been set aside for brewing a cup of tea. Generally, though, the composition of bagged tea consists mainly of lower quality leaves, including smaller, broken leaves, stems on occasion, and dust. Anyone who buys the cheapest quality of tea on the shelf at the supermarket will most often see a teabag filled with powder and dust-like particles, with a few small leaf pieces dispersed in the mix. This isn’t true of all bagged blends, however. Pick up a higher-priced blend and you’ll probably see larger pieces of leaves in a teabag. In some cases, these teabags will be larger and without a string attached.

Loose tea, typically, has larger leaves and leaf pieces. In general, loose leaf blends have whole leaf pieces and the next grade down of broken leaves. Tea leaf dust won’t be found in a loose blend. For some blends, like white tea, the blend even has buds included. Using loose tea allows you to control the amount you use, whether you use a tea ball or an infuser. Loose tea is generally higher-quality across all blends, but, with bagged teas using larger leaves, it has some competition from certain brands.

Perhaps at one point, bagged tea was consistently more inferior to loose leaf blends, but this isn’t always the case anymore. With higher-quality teas like PG Tips and Taylors of Harrogate on the market, some bagged blends of tea rival loose blends.