Why You Shouldn’t Use Tea Bags? (Solved & Explained!)

Do you use tea bags for brewing tea regularly, but don’t actually know if there are any negative side effects to using them?

Tea bags have lackluster usage, are made of non-biodegradable material, and are sometimes coated with material harmful to us and the environment such as dioxins or chlorine, which become active when exposed to water. Plastic coated teabags contain PVC or nylon which expose harmful chemicals when exposed to hot water. 

This article covers all aspects of the reasons why tea bags shouldn’t be used, how to use them in a better way, as well as suitable alternatives to use in your daily lives. 

Reasons why you shouldn’t be using tea bags

There are a handful of reasons why using tea bags to brew your tea might not be good for you, and have some side effects, such as:

• Intake of harmful chemicals
• Emissions of harmful chemicals into the environment
• Non-biodegradability of the tea bag packaging
• Cannot be recycled
• Lackluster taste and flavor
• Produces weak tea
• Result in healthy compound degradation

The tea bags that you’re using sometimes contain harmful chemicals and materials that go into its making, and thus brewing it with water just paves the way for those chemicals to react and cause dangers to your health. Paper tea bags can be coated with epichlorodydrin, dioxins, or bleached in chlorine, so when you pour hot water over the tea bag, they become active. 

The tea bags which are plastic coated contain polyvinyl chloride, a synthetic polymer of plastic also known as nylon. When this coating is exposed to hot water, it breaks down the plastic and reacts with it to give off chemicals, which prove to be very toxic and aren’t good for you or the environment. 

Because the packaging and coating of tea bags is sometimes made with plastic, when this plastic gets thrown into the garbage, it usually ends up at landfills. Since plastic is a non-biodegradable material, it not only cannot be broken down or be recycled, but it also gives off harmful gases as emissions while remaining in landfills, and this damages our environment.

Another side effect of using tea bags for making your tea is the lackluster taste, flavor, and the loss of potential. According to Sencha Tea Bar, because of the tea leaves being constricted to remaining within the enclosed space of the tea bag, they do not fully infuse within the hot boiling water and thus produce a very weak form of tea, not enjoyable to drink by many. 

Lastly, because tea bags contain a broken down and refined form of the original tea leaves, this results in the breaking down of the healthy ingredients present in the original tea leaves. Through the process of refining and manufacturing, healthy compounds such as antioxidants that help bring about the healing and detoxifying effect of tea are lost. 

How to get the most out of using tea bags?

Even though tea bags have some drawbacks, it’s not as if you can’t use them. They’re a convenient way of making tea if you’re in a rush to go somewhere and just need instantly made tea, however, there are better ways of using them to maximize their fringe advantages. 

Buy bigger and loose sachets; small tea bags result in the rich flavor of the tea being lost, so instead, use larger tea bags to give the tea leaves more room to move around within the water and result in better flavor. People recommended pyramid shaped tea bags for this very purpose since they give the tea room to float around horizontally and vertically. 

Purchase tea bags that are unbleached with chlorine, or ones that do not have staples or any added tags and strings at the end of it. What this will accomplish is that you’ll be able to minimize the reaction of the harmful products of metal with water and your tea will remain clean. This also helps you cut down on waste, emissions, and protect our landfills from overburdening. 

Choose high quality tea bags and make sure the packaging mentions where the tea was grown. Quality of the tea matters above all when brewing, and a good quality tea leaf will always produce better tea. For a more humanitarian concern, buy tea which has a fair trade label on it to support fair working conditions for the workers all around the world. 

You can also open the tea bags and pour the tea into boiling water for maximum output, but this would eliminate the factor of actually using the tea bag. Purchase tea bags containing whole leaves to get the full flavor of the tea. We also recommend using re-fillable tea bags as you can fill them up with any kind of tea leaves for brewing whenever desired. 

How to eliminate the environmental effects of using tea bags?

You can re-use your tea bags again but this would just produce a weaker brew. For reducing wastage, choose a tea bag company that is environmentally conscious and does not add unnecessary plastic packaging or coating to reduce plastic pollution. You can also invest in using a re-fillable tea bag which can be used again and again without adding wastage. 

Is there a better alternative to tea bags?

According to Premium Steep, a leading website on all things tea, if you want to switch away from using tea bags, it’s better to invest in some loose tea, as it can add the rich flavor to your tea without having to care for the off flavors produced by chemical components. Loose tea leaves also have better taste, flavor, and aroma, so they’re definitely the better alternative.

Tea enthusiasts will always recommend that you use loose tea leaves and invest in a strainer while you’re at it. Loose tea leaves are a better alternative because they contain more essential oils, tannins, and the detoxifying components present in tea and will give it a better flavor. 

Final thoughts

While there are a lot of reasons as to why you shouldn’t use a tea bag, we can’t deny the convenience that they provide to our lives. However, there are better ways of maximizing the benefits of tea bag usage so that it’s not lackluster and doesn’t harm your health or the environment.