When it comes to herbal teas, there are definitely better choices to choose from than your standard bagged tea bags in the store. While the bagged tea bags provide ease of use, they come with quite a few consequences that you may not have known about. And, these consequences could be impacting your health, as well as turning that healthy herbal tea into a not-so-healthy drink. So, let’s dive into why loose leaf tea is better than the all-to-common bagged teas available at your local grocery store.
Loose Leaf Tea Has More Health Benefits
To start, loose leaf tea has more health benefits for a few reasons. The first is that loose leaf has larger leaves. This means it retains more of its polyphenols and catechins. While bagged tea is usually more like a powder in a bag, thus not offering as many benefits. These larger leaves make for a tea that is double the potency of bagged tea bags.
And, if that’s not enough to show you why loose leaf tea is better, another health benefit of loose leaf tea is that it’s not packed into a toxic bag. A study by McGill University showed that tea bags from four different companies released about 11.6 billion microplastic and 3.1 billion nanoplastic particles into the water. Furthermore, the study tested this toxic water on animals, which ended up showing some anatomical and behavioral abnormalities after ingestion. Loose leaf doesn’t use bags; usually, you strain the leaves out or use a stainless steel tea ball, which won’t leach toxic chemicals into your delicious herbal tea.
Control the Strength of Your Tea
Another benefit of choosing loose leaf tea is that you get to control how strong the tea is. With tea bags, you get what’s in the bag, or have to double up the bags. On the other hand, loose leaf allows you to add as little or as much of the herbs to your tea as desired. This helps in a variety of ways. One of which is if you’re using the tea for medicinal value, you can ensure the proper amount is added to the boiling water. And, if you’re simply wanting to enjoy herbal tea for pleasure, you can make it lighter by adding less of the tea to the water.
Loose Leaf Tea Is of Higher Quality
Lastly, loose leaf tea is of higher quality than bagged teas. There are a couple of reasons for this. Bagged tea uses fannings and dust from the herbs; almost like a powder. This means less surface area and fewer natural oils from bagged teas. With loose leaf, you get a fresher and more robust flavor, allowing you to taste the subtle nuances from each of the herbs more clearly.
Think of bagged teas as a bag of pretzels, where the top of the bag is whole, undamaged pretzels, but the further you get into the bag the more broken pieces you find with even more and more crumbs. Bagged tea is like the bottom of this bag, whereas loose leaf is like the top of the bag. So, if you want the full benefit of the herbs, choose a tea to enjoy.
And, remember the fresher the better.
I hope this has helped clarify why loose leaf is better than bagged teas and leads you on an adventure to try as many loose leaf herbal teas as you can to enjoy the many health benefits of the herbs packed into each of the teas. Or even start to mix up your very own herbal teas with loose herbs.
