After many years of using teabags, I had a teapot with infuser at Christmas and since then have bought nothing else but loose tea. So is it time we all went back to good old tea leaves?

As I was a young lad in the 60’s, I can remember that everyone had a teapot and brewed tea with leaves. People drank 10 or more cups a day of Brooke Bond, PG Tips, Typhoo and the like. There would always be ‘a cup in the pot’ for any visitor.

I’d eagerly await a new packet to see what picture card it contained (very collectable now!). Then, in a very short space of time, everyone seemed to switch to teabags or coffee and the trend has continued since.

There’s no denying the convenience of teabags. Most of my family and friends no longer have a tea pot – they make tea by putting a teabag into a cup and pouring hot water over it. Simple, quick. No warming the pot. No waiting 5 minutes. No tea leaves floating around. No need to strain. No ‘stewed’ tea. No tea leaves to block the sink.

But what we have forgotten is the loss of flavour. Most flavour will come from the whole leaf, but that will take time to infuse so we break the whole leaf up into smaller pieces, and yet finer (called fannings). Eventually we are left with just low-quality dust and its that which we place in little paper fiber sachets and call them teabags. Maybe it’s a bit of marketing genius. Like many food items we have given up taste for convenience.

To be fair, I should say that some companies do try to improve on this by putting better quality tea leaves in a silk or PVC pyramid-shaped bags to improve the taste. It does work but the cost can be quite high (like 20 bags for £4).

So maybe you should try loose leaf tea. It actually works out quite inexpensive per cup and there are many varieties of tea to use. Get a teapot with infuser (like the one on the right that I have, available from amazon UK) so that you don’t have to go straining the tea and messing around with tea leaves. Warm the pot, add one heaped teaspoon of tea per person plus one for the pot, pour over boiling water and leave to steep (brew) for 2 or 3 minutes.

You can really taste the difference.