I grew up on tea bags--that was the only tea I knew.
And to be honest--go with what you enjoy! Tea bags are fast and easy, portable, etc.
However, delving into loose leaf tea is really nothing to be afraid or concerned about. It really is simple and cheap!
All you need is:
loose leaf tea (look around, most cities have it in specialty cafes or markets--or buy online)
boiling water
one of these (they cost around $3-10):
boiling water
Really, that's it! You literally just fill half of that infuser (the name of the image above) with tea (it needs room to expand, so don't fill it) and let it steep 3-5 minutes. The time depends on the type of tea technically, but screw it! There's no need to worry about it.
But why bother you might ask? Because you get vastly better tea for minimal effort, and roughly the same cost! Tea bags are just filled with "dust"--which is the waste from refining tea. Just try it, you'll notice a difference.
From grassy Sencha Green tea, to rustic earthy rooibos, to fragrant earl grey--tea is just better when it's loose!
This made me remember that I haven't had a good cup of tea in a while, nowdays I am hooked up on coffea. I really liked the English Green Tea! Its dry flavour at the end was the best! Tomorrow I will go to the market and get one if this tea bag replacement that you posted, then go to the herbal store and get my tea.
I completely agree that most teabags are just dust. I just put tea leaves in my mug and pour water over top. The only annoying thing is that the occasional leaf floats to the top.
Are there any real benefits of drinking loose leaf tea over teabag tea?
Weirdly enough, my favorite tea is in teabags and it's also the cheapest tea available here... All the loose leaf teas I have tried end up being too bitter for my preference.
I'm no tea person, but generally the people that I know that drink tea say that the leaf stuff you put in a strainer tastes better. IMO tea tastes like sick, but it does smell nice, so I keep some around for that.
It changes widly depending on how it's prepaired and whats used. Some tea's you get flavored bag or paper taste and some you get decent tea. Personaly I like using good tea however it comes for seasoning in soups noodles and rice. I.E. lapsang souchong is good for fried rice while camomile does good in soups with ginger or barley in it. If you end up with bitter tea you may have used too hot of water or let it steep to long, or your using a bitter tea.
Also available from almost every major tea shop (Teavana, Adagio, etc...) be sure to shake or tumble your container before dispensing, as it has a bad habit of settling.
I use the fine mesh strainer for a coffee maker (one of those really cheap boiler-style ones that also does drip-style coffee, the filter for that, not the one for the espresso knockoff.) Using the portafilter (the handled filter-holding part of it) just helps when you are straining out the tea leaves from your finished tea.
Depends on what you like, most people will find that properly prepared loose-leaf teas have a far greater depth of flavor and subtlety to their nuances that are lost to overextraction in teabags. This is primarily to the fact that teabags have to employ smaller shreds of things to allow them to steep when confined as such. If you really like bagged tea, then don't let it bother you. I actually find that most of my favorites are still bagged tea. Although I don't know that I can ever go back to bagged Lady Grey tea.
Correction: I've now replaced the vast majority of my teas with loose leaf teas, and I have no regrets. The flavors are more complex and the aromas are significantly stronger, not to mention that the overall cup is typically less bitter and less astringent than those made with a teabag.
Real tea officionados will scoff at the idea of using an infuser, because even if you fill it only half way, the amount of space that tea needs to properly bloom and still allow proper flow of water is basically the entire steeping vessel. You get a much better steep if you strain the tea out after steeping by using a very, very fine filter. I like those reusable coffee filters that have such a fine metal mesh that you have difficulty at a foot away of seeing the holes. They will be fine enough to catch your finest rooibos, they are also easier to clean because the leaves don't get stuck in the mesh.
