“Tea time is a chance to slow down, pull back and appreciate our surroundings.”

-Letitia Baldrige

Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared from tea leaves, stems, and flowers by soaking them in boiling water.

The most straightforward method to prepare tea is to do it without the unique tea bags and completely natural, using only healthy ingredients. Commercial tea bags often contain natural products; however, these bags create unnecessary waste, and the quality and origin can leave you with some doubts. These reasons prompted us to explain the best techniques for preparing tea without bags, using only leaves.

Why loose leaf teas are so good!

With loose leaf tea, you have an incredible variety available, pure or flavored, from different countries. You can try a distinct aroma and flavor every day and discover tea that cannot be found in sachets.

With their wild variety of flavors, many find that tea leaves are often their favorite ingredients in the kitchen! Tea leaves can be used to flavor soups, stews, and beverages. Undoubtedly, loose leaf teas offer more flavor than teas in sachets. You can use the sachets, but usually, they appear on the palate with a bland, not very aromatic taste and will hardly give an added value to your dishes.

As previously stated, some teas may not be found in the sachet. Matcha, for example, is the Japanese green tea in a powder that is often used to make pancakes, biscuits, ice cream, cakes, and smoothies or to perfume dishes of rice and vegetables.

Lastly, loose leaf tea allows the ability to use every ounce of it so that nothing is thrown away. You can repurpose/re-use the leaves used to prepare your tea as fertilizer for house plants or place the used leaves in a compost bin or outdoor garden.

Step 1: Find your tea leaves and the right equipment

The leaves for the preparation of a genuine tea without bags are available at organic shops, farmer’s markets, specialty stores, health and wellness centers, and apothecaries/herbalists shops. After purchasing your tea, you will only need a unique strainer or infuser to start preparing your loose leaf tea.

Step 2: Start heating the water

The first step to take, using the kettle, will be to fill it with water (the amount needed for tea) and heat it by making the water reach a high temperature, but be careful not to boil it. Place the leaves in hot water and wait for the infusion time, which will vary according to the quality of the leaves.

Step 3: Brew

It may take from a minimum of 1 to 15 minutes for a correct infusion of the leaves in hot water. Always follow the instruction of the product you will use for the best results.

The quality of an infusion with leaves is undoubtedly better than the sachet, partly for the pleasure of seeing how the leaves change from before to after the injection, partly to be able to admire the color, to smell and inhale the aroma they emanate, and partly because it is possible to dose the correct personal quantity. Once the loose leaf tea is dissolved in water, it releases higher levels of antioxidants and other beneficial compounds in the infusion.

Step 6: Enjoy

Quality tea is typically drunk alone to appreciate its aroma and flavor without adding sugar, honey, or sweeteners. According to some traditions, it is possible to add milk, lemon, or others, but it is a purely cultural question and decision.

If it seems to you that the tea tastes too bitter despite having prepared it correctly and carefully, you might not have purchased one that best suits your tastes. Possibly consider choosing a sweeter tea next time. If even the most precious of teas on the market seem bitter to you, it may mean that your taste buds have acquired a taste for sweets, and you can explore introducing your palate to other flavors.