← Thoughts
Bigelow "English Teatime" vs Simpson & Vail "Nepal Ilam" Tea
Does loose leaf tea taste better than your 'umble, ordinary tea bag? No idea. Everybody says so, and I've even bought loose leaf tea before, but I'd never compared them side-by-side. So on this particular gray, winter morning, I decided to give that a go.
The Setup
Our two contenders, chosen largely by convenience, are:
- Bigelow's "English Teatime" tea bag, a pretty standard bag of black tea that my office break room provides free of charge, and which I've therefore had many a sample of.
- Simpson & Vail's "Nepal (Green Hill) Ilam" black tea, a loose leaf black tea I bought on a whim after seeing it recommended by a Serious Eats article, and which has been my go-to tea in the office the past few weeks. Ilam is apparently the region of Nepal where this tea is grown.
The plan was to take two identical paper cups, put a Bigelow tea bag in one, a teaspoon of S&V leaves in the other, fill my water bottle with boiling water, use that to fill each cup at roughly the same time, and then proceed with the tasting and pronouncing. Not a very scientific experiment, I know (N=1 and all), but enough for a personal taste test.
So, let's proceed!
1 Minute In
After 1 minute, the Bigelow tea bag was already a nice red color, while the S&V tea was still mostly clear and lighter in color - a noticeable brown-ish tint to the water, but nothing dramatic. This is apparently expected for loose leaf teas, as the more finely-ground particles in tea bags are supposed to disperse their flavor more quickly than the leaves.
3 Minutes In - The First Taste
The S&V tea recommended a 3-minute brewing time, so I decided to start tasting the teas in earnest here.
Just looking at them here, the Bigelow tea honestly looks more appealing to me - it has a deeper, darker, more reddish color that I quite like, while the S&V tea is still mostly a brownish color, with just a slight hint of red; it's clearer and not as deep in color as the Bigelow cup. At this point, it really looks about the color of swamp water. That's not exactly a compliment, but put aside looks - how did these taste?
3 minutes in, the Bigelow tea had a stronger, more tannin-y flavor - good, not bad, but very in-your-face.
The S&V tea tasted less strong and had a smoother, more delicate flavor - even slightly flowery. It had more subtle notes and wasn't as tannin-y (didn't make my tongue feel nearly as rough as the Bigelow tea).
Interesting - onwards!
11 Minutes In - The Second Taste
At the 11-minute mark (chosen by when I noticed 10 minutes had gone by), I stirred both teas up with a teaspoon (loose leaf, then Bigelow - I "wiped" the spoon with my mouth to clean it between cups and have no idea if that made any difference). The color didn't really change. Oh well, I tried.
Tasting them again, the Bigelow tea hadn't changed much in flavor - maybe a bit stronger than earlier? - with that dominant single "tea-y" taste that I know and love, and a lot of tannins (my tongue started feeling rough after just a few sips, and there was a slight bitterness to the tea - although not unpleasantly so).
The S&V tea, by contrast, had gotten a bit stronger, but still tasted extremely smooth going down - I noticed a bit of roughness on my tongue, but not nearly as much as from the Bigelow tea. The "tea-y" taste was present but not as strong as the Bigelow cup; instead, there were these delicate "floral" notes of the tea that were subtle, but still pretty apparent, with a very slight bitter-sweet aftertaste. In a way, it was less satisfying to drink than the Bigelow tea - less of that in-your-face caffeine hit or strong "ah, that's the stuff" taste - but I think it did taste better. It just wasn't as strong for the same amount of tea, at least measuring by volume with an eyeballed spoon.
The Verdict
Overall: I liked them both! But I will say the Bigelow tea bag was more satisfying to me, probably because it was a stronger brew and I prefer strong teas.
The S&V tea was easier to drink a lot of quickly (less strong + smoother taste = less of a need to take a break because of tannins and bitterness and rough-tongue-by-tea syndrome), but there's something satisfying about the flavor and caffeine hit of the good ol' black tea bag. Maybe my tastebuds are irreparably scarred by a lifetime of growing up on tea bags, who knows. But I don't think it's as simple as saying "loose leaf is always better than bagged tea" - they taste different, and your taste buds may vary.
Or at least, these 2 particular batches of tea taste different.
What I Pretend Will Be Frequently Asked Questions
"But if you like it stronger, can't you just add more loose leaf tea to your water to compensate?"
Probably, yes. Adding the same amount of tea by weight is another test I should do as a follow-up, and being able to control exactly how much tea goes in your cup is an advantage of loose leaf blends. But 1 teaspoon of leaves per cup of water is a typical dose for loose leaf tea, so I still think this test had merit.
"Are those leaves just floating? In your tea cup? Have you ever heard of an infuser/strainer/teapot?"
Yes, I have! But I was very lazy this particular morning, and most mornings, and have learned I can get away with just dumping the leaves straight into my cup and pouring water over them. Most of them stay at the bottom of the cup, and the few floaters I can just munch on - tea leaves are edible, after all. If you know of any major health consequences I'm in store for, please reach out and warn me now.