Loose Tea vs. Tea bags

Depends on whether you chew, and if you leave the staple in.

--Blair "I think the string is 'good fiber'."

In theory, there shouldn't be any difference. The only obvious difference would be that whole-leaf loose tea would infuse more slowly, not always releasing all of its potential in one steep. Of course, with many teas (esp. chinese ones) you can (and should) reinfuse the leaves.

However, since bagged tea usually is of a much lower grade than loose tea, loose probably would be more beneficial to health. And since bagged tea has usually had a lot of time on the store shelf in useless cardboard boxes and paper sleeves to go stale, thus losing some of its health-benefiting chemicals (to say nothing of flavor), loose tea probably has an edge over bagged stuff.

Oh, and a third thing: it's been said on this newsgroup before that the only way to get the full potential out of a bunch of tea leaves is to *eat* the spent leaves--which would be tastier and easier with loose-leaf.

Just some ruminations.

ZBL

Could you elaborate on this? I've seen it stated as a given many times, but I've never read a clear explanation of what the "lower grade" vs. "higher grade" means.

I understand that the "higher grade" tea has larger pieces of tea leaf, and the "lower grade" tea is smaller pieces and dust. But why is it preferable to have larger pieces? Is there any other factor in the "grade" of the tea?

Also, larger pieces of tea leaf may take longer to release their flavor (allowing for a second steeping if desired), but if you typically just do a single steeping, does that matter?

Cheers, Holly

My understanding is that a "good grade" of tea simply is a tea that conforms unusually well to tea-ideals of the country that made it. For instance, Chinese tea drinkers value large, shapely leaves and want many steeps out of leaves, so expensive Chinese teas are usually whole-leaf (and sometimes elaborately shaped) and almost always give multiple steeps, especially oolong.

The Japanese, however, don't value the multiple steeps or leaf style, so their "high grade" tea doesn't necessarily have these qualities.

That's not even to touch on country-specific preferences in taste (Chinese earthy vs. Japanese "clean" vs. Vietnamese STRONG). Again, expensive "high grade" teas will usually be unusually good examples of the preferences of the the country of origin.

"Leaf grades" are another matter--mostly for Indian teas, I think.

Incedently, I find that whole leaves usually give subtler tea, and are less likely to become bitter. But, chacun a son gout.

ZBL

snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com4/13/04

Good points all. Quality is culture specific.

What do I do with my T-Sac tea filters (read "tea bags")? I weigh out the tea on the scale in my office, place the appropriate amount in each sac, place the sacs in a metal cylindrical tea canister, put the canister with the rest of my junk in the brief case or back pack, head off to any cafe or restaurant, request hot water, and do my own tea thing. Works for me. (If I'm gungfuing, I just pour the tea out of the sac, which is just folded over, unstapled and untied.) Wouldn't do this in a "tea" type place. Would do it in Starbucks.

Really?

/Lew

Lewis snipped-for-privacy@panix1.panix.com4/14/04 10: snipped-for-privacy@panix.com

Well, Ito En here in NYC scams you out of a delicious second infusion by chucking the leaves after the first. Slimey, if you ask me. Ginko Leaf, our best neighborhood Japanese restaurant place, always offers multiple infusions, each of which is good. In my experience, a good Gyokuro has as many lives as a cat.

Michael

No. That is, his statement about Japanese not valuing multiple steeps is inaccurate.

--crymad

I'll defer to Lew and Michael on that one, since they've both had far more experience with tea than I have (especially Japanese tea--I'm mostly a Chinese-tea drinker).

However, it was my (limited) understanding that Japanese teas, on the whole, were more likely to be broken-leafed and less likely to give multiple infusions than a comparable grade of Chinese tea.

Sorry for my rashness there.

ZBL

snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com4/14/04

Actually, I think you're quite correct about the leaf. The Chinese revere a beautifully made, full unbroken leaf, while I've never gotten a Japanese tea regardless of price that was truly full unbroken leaf. The Japanese leaf parts are large enough though to offer multiple infusions. I'm often struck by the artificial looking green of so many Japanese teas -- that fake looking blue-green needle. On balance, I'm more of a fan of Chinese than Japanese teas, although in spring I like a few pot fulls. And of course, I go to the occasional Japanese tea place or restaurant.

Michael

Well, Michael, you can always let those brilliant Japanese greens sit out on the shelf for a few months till they fade, and then they'll look (and taste?) like the dull Chinese leaves you seem to prefer...

Joshing aside, what's so fake and artificial about the color of Japanese greens? It's the color of fresh vegetation.

--crymad

snipped-for-privacy@xprt.net/15/04 17: snipped-for-privacy@xprt.net

Yuk, yuk.

Sorry didn't mean to step on toes. It's just the sight/sense impression I get. Astroturf. I really do love a fine Gyokuro or Sencha, "fine" being a judgement *my* mouth makes; other mouths may judge differently. Must admit that floating in the water, Gyokuro has been the most beautiful tea I've ever seen. (Gyokuro, not me, floating in the water, that is.)

Kidding aside, would you agree that at the top of the line, the Chinese are more concerned with the physical look of whole uncut leaf than the Japanese are?

BTW, at the the Japanese don't make the teas pass through the Obfuscation Board before they're released. In China it sometimes seems tea names lead to nothing but confusion.

(SNIP)

After two years of trying to understand tea names - now i understand why i don't understand

Certainly. This is an interesting observation, considering the importance of appearances in Japan. Then again, tea in Japan is brewed in a covered pot, leaves hidden from view. The color of the liquor and the vessel from which it's drunk get all the attention.

--crymad

I've heard that attributed to the fact that the Japanese have a higher standard of living than the Chinese, and thus lack the requisite underpaid laborors to pluck and shape the leaves perfectly: from what I was told, the Japanese rely more on machines than the Chinese.

ZBL

The Japanese do rely heavily on machines for modern tea processing. But I don't believe the needle-like appearance of Japanese dry leaf is a cost-saving by-product of industry. The machines mimic the the hand rolling process. In fact, hand-rolled tea ("temomi") is still available in Japan. albeit at a very high cost, and the thin, needle-like form of these teas is even more pronounced.

--crymad

Does the needle-like rolling do anything significant for the flavor, asside from adding a lot of skin-oil to the cup?

--Blair "Sorry."

Traditionally green leaf was hand rolled in China on palms of the hands rotating anticlockwise ninety degrees out of sync. In Japan leaf was hand rolled backwards and forwards between hands and a flat surface. Thus in China there is twist and curl - ultimately giving the gunpowder pellet. The orthodox rolling table, particularly the double acting type, is based on the rotating hand action. In Japan the forwards-backwards hand motion forms cylindrical needles, and Japanese green tea machinery mimics this action and product.

Nigel at Teacraft

A good presentation of the Japanese hand-rolled tea process can be seen here:

--crymad