Which is more healthful—loose leaf or bagged tea?

The question no longer is… do teas have health benefits? That question has been answered many times over—though some new visitors to the tea scene still ask it. No, the question is, do Chinese loose leaf teas have health benefits that bagged teas don’t.

The answer is, yes. Intuitively one might have answered, no. After all, whether tea interacts with hot water as a whole leaf or in pieces wouldn’t seem to change the essential constitution of the leaf. All the leaf has been harvested from a camellia sinensis bush and processed to become black, green, oolong, or another Chinese tea variety.

Yet there are direct and indirect health benefits that accrue to drinkers of loose leaf tea. Consider some of them:

1) More nutrients: Whole leaves in green tea have a lower ratio of surface to volume compared to shredded and dust-size leaf particles in bagged tea. Consequently, the smaller pieces have more interaction with air and many of the nutrients in the ground up leaf are lost to the air. When a bagged tea’s nutrients evaporate, they cannot be absorbed into brewing water and consumed.

2) Less caffeine: The same surface-to-volume ratio that reduces nutrient intake, such as the calming agent theanine, increases caffeine intake. Consequently, a cup of bagged tea is more bitter to tastebuds and less balanced in nutritional character than is a cup of Chinese loose leaf tea.

3) Stronger nutrient content: Buds and leaves used in quality Chinese loose leaf tea are harvested early in the season while they are chock-full of theanine and the antioxidant EGCG. Later harvests process leaves that have passed the peak of their nutritional and antioxidant powers; they end up in tiny pieces in tea bags.

4) Fuller infusion: Tea bags are a convenient and neatly packaged solution for tea drinkers too rushed to sit and brew a pot using loose leaves. Yet most tea bags, besides containing inferior and less healthful teas, do not allow tea to fully infuse. This means drinkers are robbed of healthful tea properties packed in the bags.

5) Multiple infusions: If Chinese green tea and other teas are healthful—and remember, that no longer is in dispute—then the more servings gotten from a quantity of tea, the more health benefits for the drinker. Quality loose leaf tea can be infused many times, versus the single infusion an ordinary tea bag offers.

6) Ingestible: Some of the healthful components in a tea leaf are not water soluble, which is why some green tea drinkers make a salad of infused leaves. Or the leaves are added to a stir fry dish. You wouldn’t want to try that with bagged tea dust.

7) Ecologically friendly:  Loose leaf tea is not packaged in factories like bagged tea, so loose leaf has a smaller eco-footprint. Furthermore, bags are not as disposable as infused natural leaf, which can be used in garden mulch. For these reasons, the air and water we all consume benefits from Chinese loose leaf tea.

The health benefits of loose leaf tea clearly do surpass the benefits of bagged tea. It is something to think about while you do your tea shopping.

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