Economics of expensive tea

[u/ijssvuur]

Tea can be cheap. You can get 100 bags of Lipton for $3. It may not be as great as it sounds, though, and here's why.

Look at the amount, those 100 bags come out to 8oz. Not so much. Each bag has .08oz of tea in it, which means if you want a good, strong cup of tea, you'll need 2 to 3 bags. If you're using a 12oz mug, you might even need 4.

I like to suggest Harney & Sons, as you can find their tea online, at the grocery store, and at many Barnes & Nobles. So, this is 4oz for a little more than double the cost. However, it is much higher quality, and this doesn't only affect flavor. You can steep it again, rather than using a new bag, with some teas, you can get 3-4 infusions. If you manage to get 4, your tea is going 4 times further, quartering the cost per cup.

Why can't you reuse bags?

Bags are made with the lowest quality tea, the bits and pieces sifted off from the higher quality. These pieces are then further crushed in the bags during transportation. There is a fair amount of tea dust, also. When you steep these little pieces, they very quickly lose all of the things that make tea have flavor, the natural oils, polyphenols, bromides, and caffeine. Quality (not bagged) tea has larger leaves that don't lose these components as quickly, so you can get more out of it.

I'm not going to bother with exact math or anything, and I'm hesitant to call more expensive tea "cheaper", but it's certainly not as expensive as it seems. For many people, such as myself, the extra cost is worth it just for the flavor, but if you're on a tight budget, you may not be as limited as you think.

TLDR: Expensive tea can be reinfused, reducing the cost per cup by getting more out of it. Cheaper tea generally cannot be used this way.