From tea bags to loose botanicals
Two legs deliberately built around the same plants a bag would contain, so the comparison is about format rather than about trying something new.
Who this is for
Someone who buys herbal tea in bags and is not sure whether loose material is worth it.
What you should come away with
A judgement about whether the difference is worth the trouble — which for some of these it is and for others it is not.
Leg 1 · Where the format matters most
Flowers first, because milling destroys the thing you would use to judge them. Whole chamomile against chamomile dust is the clearest case in the catalogue.
Starting point. Everything after this is measured against it.
Sweet, faintly apple-like and gently bitter at the finish. Whole flowers give a rounder cup than the crushed material in bags, which extracts fast and turns bitter.
Why this step follows
The two default European household flowers. Linden is honeyed where chamomile is apple-like, and it is the more forgiving of a long steep.
Distinctly honeyed and slightly mucilaginous, giving a rounder mouthfeel than most flower infusions. Almost no bitterness even at long steeps, which is unusual.
Why this step follows
Still soft and floral, with a muscat character that is the first genuinely distinctive aroma in the sequence.
Delicately muscat and faintly honeyed, and considerably fainter dried than fresh. Cold infusion holds more of the aroma than hot water does.
Leg 2 · Where it matters least
A change of leg and a change of argument. Roots and grains are cut or roasted whatever you buy, and the case for loose material here is weaker and worth saying so.
Starting point. Everything after this is measured against it.
Toasty and mildly sweet with a clean finish and no astringency. Cold brewing gives a rounder result and is the standard domestic method.
Why this step follows
Sweeter and rounder than barley, and the two are usually blended anyway. Starting with barley and moving to corn makes the sweetness legible rather than assumed.
Distinctly sweet and popcorn-like with no bitterness at all, and rounder than roasted barley. It is one of the easiest drinks in the catalogue to like on first contact.
Read alongside
- Loose herbs vs herbal tea bags
Largely the same argument as loose leaf versus teabags, with one difference that matters more for botanicals than it does for tea: milled flowers cannot be assessed by eye.
- Whole vs ground: why botanicals fade
Nearly every seed and spice in this catalogue loses most of its aroma within weeks of grinding, and nearly every one of them is sold ground. The single highest-return buying habit there is.