What is the Popularity of Tea Bags, Loose Tea?
In 2007, over 65% of the tea brewed in the United States was prepared using tea bags. Tea bags were used also as a convenient way to make iced tea. Ready-to-Drink and iced tea mix comprises about one fourth of all tea prepared in the U.S., with instant and loose tea accounting for the balance. Bagged tea is convenient but use lower quality tea that is produced by the CTC (cut, tear, curl) method of mechanical processing.Many experts believe that bagged tea, because of the lower quality tea used in CTC production, have degraded the tea market particularly in the United States. Because tea bags are an expensive form of packaging, tea bag suppliers must use lower quality tea to remain cost competitive. Loose leaf tea uses higher quality tea and it is best served loose in order for the tea leaves to expand and fully infuse. Most tea bags are not compatible with loose leaf tea because they do not allow full infusion. High quality lose tea is gaining in popularity however, and growth in the
