What's a good estimate on the nominal density of loose tea?
I don't think getting a mass/volume ratio from a wholesale tea-chest would be a good answer, because those things look pretty tightly packed.
Optimally, I should be able to measure the volume of a rigid container and know with 95% certainty how much tea I can put in it without fear of spillage the first time I spoon some out.
--Blair
I don't think there's an answer to this question, unless you limit yourself to a very narrow range of types of tea. The density/fluffiness of the teas I drink varies - here's a wild guess - by a factor of 5.
/Lew
Well... that's not something you can specify for "loose tea" in general. You'll need to be more specific about what kind of loose tea. Green tea is very different from Oolong tea. Teas that have been rolled into balls vs ones that have not.. Etc.
There is no simple way to get a mass/volume ratio for all teas. The range is too wide. If you specify a specific type of tea, you can figure it out for that tea, or other teas similar to it.
To give you an example... I recently received a shipment of tea containing 25 sealed mylar bags, with a different variety of tea in each one. Each bag held 100 grams of loose tea. Some of them were a third full, some half, some of them bulging and completely packed, but they all weighed the same.
Thanks, Troy .
That's good info. I was guessing maybe a factor of 2, but the gunpowder teas are pretty dense.
So what do you suppose a reasonable range would be?
How about a SWAG at the 95% confidence interval for a gunpowder, a full-leaf Darjeeling, or the "fluffiest" tea you can remember seeing.
I'll probably end up doing some measurements on the one I buy the most of, but figured maybe someone had data already.
--Blair
If you are worried about spillage, you'd be more interested in an upper bound. This would depend on the type of tea you are storing, because I think the biggest variable is going to be the shape of the leaf, which will affect the packing factor. Gunpowder tea is going to pack more tightly than White Peony or some other large-leaf tea.
The best way to do this is to probably try some sizes out. I use those cheap plastic taco bell cups for such things.
Steve
It varies ALL OVER the place. Compare a BOP tea with something very loose and curly like Ten Ren's Oriental Beauty tea. There is probably more than a factor of ten difference in density.
--scott
We're already past ya, Kludge Scott.
N.B., I don't drink much BOP. Well, not counting SpecialTeas' decaf Darjeeling, which is pretty broken up sometimes (but isn't really supposed to be). And dust is right out. That stuff will turn your teeth brown in a couple of weeks (the Crest Whitestrips people made an extra sale the year I got a box of PG Tips in the deceptively nifty pyramidal bags..)
--Blair
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