When it comes to tea bags (silky or not), it’s pretty clear where your friends at the Tea Smith stand on the issue. Loose leaf is absolutely the way to go!
The quality of whole leaf tea is better, giving you the best experience possible and allowing you to enjoy the flavors of your favorite brew the way they’re meant to be enjoyed. It’s also an eco-friendly option, because it doesn’t contribute to landfills.
Now, a new article from The Atlantic brings up some interesting questions about the makeup of tea bags and how it could be affecting your health, making an ever better case for ditching bags and opting for loose leaf.
Traditionally, tea bags have been made out of paper, which is a material that’s innocuous enough. However, these little bags usually contain the lowest grade of tea possible amounting to leftover “dust.”
In an effort to present a more premium product, some companies have developed so-called “silky” tea bags. As the article points out, these mesh bags are usually a way to present tea that creates a feeling of luxury. They come in interesting folding shapes and are usually see-through enough to appreciate the tea leaves inside.
But what exactly are these bags made of? And more importantly, when exposed to the heat required to brew tea, how could it affect what you’re ingesting? While the bags aren’t going to disintegrate or melt at the temperature required to brew tea, the heat may be enough to trigger a breakdown in the polymers that make up the plastic. The potential result is chemicals leaching into your brew.
Health risks could come down to the types of plastics used and how easily it is for them to degrade. There are already standards in place for using PET plastics by many tea companies, but as the article points out, there are studies showing that even these presumably safe alternatives could still harbor the possibility of negative health effects.
Curious to read more? Check out the full article here.
