Tea Bags - Refresh your palate with the best British tea bags and sachets for every occasion
Soothe your senses with the full-bodied taste of the finest British tea blends in handy tea bags, innovative tea sachets, and loose-leaf packets. English Tea Store offers the best tea products to fulfill your thirst for tea, perfect for your moment of solitude, as an item in your restaurant's menu, or to serve in gatherings with family and family regardless of the celebration. Choose the excellent tea by brand or type you favor. We also have tea bag samplers for new tea lovers, opening more selections to expand their horizons to the vast tea flavors suitable for their taste and character. You can find elegant tea chests with tea bags among our products should you plan to give the perfect gift to a tea enthusiast. When you need tea and tea accessories, English Tea Store is the best online place to help you find your favorite tea.
Know the finest English bagged tea specialty brands from Twinings, Tetley, PG Tips, Stash, and a lot more
The best of the best tea brands are here in English Tea Store to provide you with their flavorful versions of bagged teas, loved and patronized by many tea drinkers all around the world. Long and all-time favorites such as Twinings, Harley and Sons, Tetley, PG Tips, and Taylors of Harrogate are some of the United Kingdom's master blenders of the tea industry. Special-TEAs from Stash and the traditional range of Darvilles of Windsor teas are also present in our roster of tea bag products.
Yes, English Tea Store has the best names, providing tea bags to help fill your empty cup with the perfect brew that fits your personality and needs. So when choosing the right tea brand, it's better to first know the basics, such as the origin of the tea leaves, the process they go through for making them, and the composition of tea bag materials that may take an effect on your body. Learn more about each brand's authenticity, quality, and trustworthiness before you check out that cart.
Buy your premium tea types in tea bags available in black, green, organic, herbal, chai, gourmet, cold brew, and caffeine-free teas
Are you after the boldness of a tea's flavor or the health benefits they promise? Then, you must focus on looking for a specific tea type other than the brand. English Tea Store has an array of tea types suitable for your exquisite taste and requirements. We showcase the strong flavor of black tea and its world-known British blends, namely the English Breakfast and Earl Grey to mention a few. Some black teas are concocted with savory blends like the Cream Vanilla-flavored black tea that highlights a decadent flavor you sure would not want to miss. Green teas are recognized to provide beneficial results to the body, and some of those are to have a healthy heart and boosted immune system. These popular tea types are blended with different flavors to produce delectable flavored teas adored by young tea drinkers who want variety in their cups. Iced tea versions of some British best-sellers are also available to refresh summer days and bring people together over a thirst-quenching tea blend.
Herbal teas, though not made from the Camelia sinensis plant, shares different variants, particularly intended to remedy an illness or make an outstanding fusion of flavors to excite your taste buds. You've got to try the Berry Berry herbal tea and other fruit-flavored bagged teas, sharing invigorating tastes that modernize the way of blending the most famous drink. If you like teas made from natural ingredients, organic tea is an excellent choice. Caffeine-free bagged teas save you from the discomfort of sleeplessness after having tea before bedtime.
Shop at English Tea Store and find the perfect type of tea for you or for your friends and family to enjoy.
Finding your new favorite tea blend through small amounts of tea in sampler pack sizes
Assisting tea drinkers, especially newbies, to find the tea blends to suit their taste buds are these selections of tea bag samplers. Five tea bags are allocated for each of the most loved green or herbal tea in the sample set, allowing the tea drinker to savor the blend and declare it as one of his favorites. Tea sampler sets are highly recommended to probe various tea flavors without purchasing too many tea bags and ending up not wanting their taste after all.
A box of British tea bags: Share the love for tea with tea chests as gifts for loved ones
One of the best ways to brighten a tea enthusiast's day is by showering that person with love using lush tea flavors packed in an elegant wooden box. English Tea Store has a variety of tea chests to offer, with the tea world's favorite blends for you and your loved ones to indulge in. We've got the finest tea bag assortments from Twinings, Taylors of Harrogate, and Stash to surprise a tea lover's palate with numerous tea blends. Put a smile on their faces and choose the perfect tea present fit for any occasion.
A look back on the tea bags' history
Tea bags are widely used tea infusers made of single-use, porous filter paper that is folded and sealed to infuse tea leaves directly into a cup. Its purpose as an effective storage of tea leaves dates back to 8th century China. The first tea bags were folded and sewn to keep the freshness of the tea and maintain the quality of the leaves.
Loose-leaf teas are the fad in the 1800s, but brewing them requires tools, precise measurements, and longer preparation to achieve an exceptional hot-infused tea. This led to the creation and application for patenting different tea infusers in America to help tea drinkers come up with a fine brew. One of these applications is the tea leaf holder by Roberta Lawson and Mary MacLaren. The design's objective was to steep your tea drink without letting tea leaves escape the infuser and float in your teacup. The tea leaf holder is made of open-mesh woven cloth constructed from cotton thread.
The first tea bags were accidentally made by Thomas Sullivan when he shipped tea samples in silk pouches. He did not intend for these tea bags for direct brewing, but his customers may have thought that the silk pouches offer the same steeping method as the tea leaf holder. Eventually, the silk pouch was replaced by gauze. Silk is expensive and is not that penetrable to liquid or even release the infused liquor out of the pouch. This coincidence gave birth to infusing bagged teas in America which have also evolved throughout the years.
The use of filter paper instead of fabric in making tea bags was introduced in the USA in the 1930s by William Hermanson. These paper-made tea bags have paper fibers with high resistance to hot temperatures. During those times, loose-leaf tea is still the tea form patronized in the United Kingdom. Tetley made the concept of tea bags known in the UK in 1939 but was not launched in the British market until Lipton took this initiative in 1952 with its patented 'flo-thru' tea bag design. Tea bags in the UK waited a long time to be accepted by English tea drinkers. It was only by the end of the 1900s the British tea market had caught up with the tea bag trend, brewing 96% of tea from tea bags.
Innovations of the tea bag almost never stop. Bright minds launched the round and pyramid-shaped tea bags to make faster infusions. The materials used to make the tea bags also moved forward to better sustainability, especially for the environment. From silk, paper, and food-grade plastic to plant-based materials, tea bags nowadays pose reduced dangers to your health and Mother Nature.
When were tea bags first invented?
There are two stories told about the first emergence of tea bags in the tea industry. First was the invention of the tea leaf holder by Roberta Lawson and Mary MacLaren in 1901, and second, was the accidental discovery of tea infusions using silk introduced by Thomas Sullivan in 1908. The methods used by both tea bags are similar, but the intent was different. The tea leaf holder proposed to infuse the leaves directly into the cup without the loose-leaf breaking free from the woven fabric. Whereas Sullivan's silk pouches were originally planned as tea samples, and the leaves should have been taken out from the piece of cloth and transferred to an infuser. Whatever these innovations aimed to achieve, both launched a convenient way of brewing tea sans the hassle of longer assembly and tools to get your hot brew ready any time and anywhere you need it.
How is the invention of the tea bag revolutionized tea drinking?
The concept of infusing tea bags is a ground-breaking milestone in the tea industry. It paved the way for the tea's convenient preparation, accessibility in the market, and non-messy infusions. Tea bags let tea lovers enjoy the convenience of having a cup of tea in pre-measured, single-use servings that you can clean up easily after each infusion. Its invention also changed how tea producers manufacture their tea leaves. Blending granulated tea leaves is essential for your tasty tea to fit inside the pouch. There is no doubt this variation in the tea's form is one of the best that happened in tea's delectable history.
Support sustainability using eco-friendly tea bag materials and packaging styles
Every invention needs revamping to catch up with the times and cater to the market's demands. Tea bags are not an exemption to such changes. These improvements are not only to release better and faster infusions but also to help nature give a bit of a breather with all non-biodegradable products polluting the environment. Here are some of the notable modifications done to make the perfect brew from tea bags.
Innovation with the spacious pyramid and round-shaped tea bags for faster infusions
PG Tips and Tetley made beneficial designs on their respective tea bags to let out the lush flavors you expect from your well-loved blends. Tea leaves require a spacious room to unfurl and extract the tasty treat that you would not dare miss. PG Tips made pyramid bags available in the market, enabling faster and more flavorful tea infusions. Each pyramid tea bag allows the tea leaves to move around and steep as if inside a small teapot. They are bigger in size, allowing them to hold more tea inside, and come in porous mesh material for a quicker brew. Tetley, on one hand, offers round tea bags that excellently fits the inner bottom of a teapot to bring out the best-tasting flavors from down under. Its shape guarantees impeccable circulation of flavors to produce a strong cup that will delight your taste buds.
Don't let your loose-leaf tea go to waste. Infuse it with English Tea Store's reusable tea bags to create an incredible brew.
From pouches and boxes to reusable tin can packaging
As part of the efforts of sustainability among tea products, well-known brands have switched to biodegradable packaging to support the campaign towards eco-friendly goods. Harney and Sons packs some of its vintage blends, all-time favorites, and seasonal flavors in a tin can presentation, identifying these tea products from the premium and specialty line and promoting reusable containers for future bagged tea storage. Twinings' Cold Infuse teas use tin cans, as well, to present their tea bags to distinguish the tea blends ideal for hot and cold brew.
Though a lot of popular names in the tea industry still apply pouch and box packaging in their distribution, these packs maneuver to ecological advantages as well. Some brands took away their plastic film box cover as a part of their support for pollutant reduction, while others even have their recyclable boxes printed with non-toxic inks. Environment-friendly tea products continue to reinforce a stand to reduce, reuse, and recycle for a healthier life and a better source of living.
What is the difference between a tea bag and a tea sachet?
The difference between a tea bag and a sachet is pretty slim when you compare both forms. Tea bags generally provide compact tea enclosures that limit water from streaming in and out of the bag, allowing small particles of tea leaves to move with restriction when submerged in water. With the size of tea fannings inside the tea bag, faster steeping is expected from bagged teas. Tea sachets offer the same convenience but assure that the quality of the tea is not compromised. Tea leaves in sachets unfurl better, as their enclosure is bigger and spacious to let the water flow without constraint. Pyramid sachets are known to give out tasteful infusions into a cup comparable to tea leaves steeped in little teapots. Both promise a way of preparing tea easily. Their variance is noticeable depending on how the tea drinker loves to have a flavorful treat.
Your guide for proper tea bag storage for maximum freshness
Keeping your tea bags in a sealed non-transparent container inside a cool, dry area is the first thing to consider when storing them. You may want to use a tin canister or a tea chest to put your tea bags, but remember to wash them after all the tea bags have been consumed. The tea's fragrance lingers in tin cans and may permeate the next batch of tea bags you put inside this container. You wouldn't want your green tea tasting like black because of this, right? Food or beverages with strong scents can also affect the flavor of your tea when you place them beside them in your pantry or kitchen cabinet. These unwanted aromas can seep into your tea leaves too and might eventually affect the infusion you wish to achieve. Never put an unused tea bag in the refrigerator because moisture weakens its taste and aroma.
Tea bags normally has a year or three shelf life when handled properly, but keeping them far too long may risk their quality. The tea's flavor subsides when kept for a long while. Make sure you stock up on small quantities of tea that you can brew within a short period of time. Storing quite a number of bagged teas may give you something to worry about since they may become stale before you have consumed the entire batch.