What Are Tea Bags Called? (Solved & Explained!)

Tea is a time-honored beverage with worldwide cultural significance and a healthy morning alternative to drinks like coffee. With such a rich history and so many ways to make tea, one of the first questions a beginner may ask is: what are tea bags called?

Tea bags come in a variety of shapes and sizes and are usually known as “compound bags.” However, to the experienced tea connoisseur, the highest-quality versions of tea bags are called “sachets,” “infuser pods,” or “pouches.”

Tea bags are called by different names to differentiate between the levels of quality. If you’re an enthusiastic tea drinker, knowing each of these tea bags by name can be helpful. In this article, we’ll cover what the types of tea bags are called as well as the difference between tea bags and loose leaf tea containers.

What is a Tea Bag? 

A tea bag is the commonly-used term for a type of paper bag, mass-produced and sold in retail settings, which holds tea leaves.

Tea bags were invented in 1903. Previously tea had been brewed by submerging tea leaves in metal containers in hot water. Silk muslin bags were used to cut the costs of shipping tea, but customers misunderstood the purpose of the bags and began using them as an easier way to steep their tea in the place of the metal containers.

This caught on and by the turn of the century, tea bags were used all over the world. 

Tea bags today are defined as a little, porous bag, meaning it is capable of allowing water to enter and exit the bag and extract the flavor from tea leaves stored inside. This is a process called “steeping.” The bag itself is usually made from bleached paper, plastic, or nylon. 

The tea leaves inside of standardly produced tea bags can come in just about any flavor, though common classifications of tea are black, green, white, and oolong.

Why are tea bags called by different names?

One of the reasons tea bags come in different types, and are therefore called by different names, is because of one simple fact: Modern tea bags are usually too small to contain full tea leaves!

Because modern paper tea bags are so small, popular leaves used for tea, like peppermint, are chopped up and dispersed inside the bag before the tea ever touches water. 

Breaking the leaf exposes it to the air, which lessens the depth of flavor in any leaf. Not only that, but much of the benefit of a tea leaf comes from the natural unfurling process that occurs when a whole leave expands in hot water. 

These kinds of qualities are sacrificed for convenience and standardization by most tea-making companies who use tea bags. Therefore, tea bags which break leaves are called “compound bags,” while other types of tea infusers with whole leaves inside are made distinct by different names.

What Are the Types of Tea Bags Called?

There are a few different names for tea bags, and these can refer to the difference in tea bag structure or how the tea inside is brewed. If you’re hoping to learn the name of your preferred type of tea, take a look at the list of things tea bags are called below:

1. Sachets
2. Infuser Pods

Let’s find out what makes sachets and infuser pods different from one another in a more detailed examination!

Sachets

Sachets are essentially just tea bags under a different name. They are made from pyramid-shaped paper bags containing tea for the hot water to infuse, usually attached to a string for easy extraction after steeping. 

There is only one major difference between a sachet and, say, the paper tea bags used by companies like Lipton: sachets are known for holding whole tea leaves instead of broken ones.

Because the bag is shaped like a pyramid, the hot water is able to move in and out more easily.

While the water does this, it is collecting flavor from the tea leaves as they unfurl, whole and healthy, during the steeping process.

A sachet has all the benefits of the commonly-called tea bag, including tea leaves that are measured out for your convenience. However, it does not break the leaves that are responsible for high-quality tea flavor! 

To make sure everyone knows the difference in quality, whole-leaf tea connoisseurs prefer to be specific and they call their tea bag “sachets!” 

Infuser Pods

The process of hot water soaking into tea leaves and changing to contain the health and flavor benefits of those leaves is called “infusion.”

However, there is such a thing as an infuser pod, which, unlike typical tea bags, is a reusable holder for tea leaves. An infuser pod is not always in the shape of a bag, and more often comes in the form of a metal container. Sometimes they include handles, and always have a lid so that tea ingredients can be removed and replaced for reuse.

The benefit of an infuser pod is that the tea inside is considered loose. This means that the leaves in an infuser pod can move around and swell up as they come into contact with hot water.

The movement of loose tea leaves inside an infuser pod means that the flavor and other effects, like health benefits and color, are better than they would be in a cramped, broken bag of tea. 

The only drawback to an infuser pod in the place of a tea bag is that they are less convenient. Because infuser pods are designed to give tea ingredients room to move around, as well as be reusable, they also have to be emptied and cleaned after each use. 

Still, many tea experts prefer infuser pods to tea bags thanks to the higher quality of tea produced in the pods, and are willing to sacrifice convenience.

Summary

So, what is the answer to the question: what are tea bags called? The answer is, tea bags that contain broken tea leaves and are mass-produced, like Lipton teas, are usually called “compound bags.” 

However, tea drinkers who prefer to gain the benefits of tea that has not been broken and can expand in hot water may prefer sachets or infuser pods when offered a cup of tea!