Crushed Tea Vs Tea Bags, Which Is Healthier?

Teh Celup (Skitter Photo / Pexels)

JAKARTA - Drinking tea in the morning, afternoon, while relaxing, until after every meal has become a habit of Indonesians. Not to forget, the choice of teas also varies, from green, black, oolong, flower, and white teas.

Meanwhile, from the packaging, there are brewed tea and teabags. Although teabags are often chosen because they are more practical, that doesn't mean there are fewer brewed tea fans. Both taste and aroma, brewed tea still makes it a favorite among some people.

Then for health matters, which one is better, teabags or brewed tea?

Steve Schwartz, founder and CEO of Art of Tea, was quoted as saying by The Kitchn that before being made into a tea bag that is put in a tea bag, the tea leaves must be processed into very small pieces. This turns out to reduce the caffeine content in tea and its aroma significantly.

Emma Beckett, Human Molecular Nutrition researcher from the Scholl of Medicine and Public Health, University of Newcastle and Quan V Vuong, a senior lecturer in Food Science & Human Nutrition also mentioned that not only does it reduce the caffeine content, the taste of teabags also tends to be reduced and unnatural like brewed tea.

According to them, the leaves in brewed tea contain more bioactive ingredients because they have a wider surface and generally use better quality leaves. While the tea bag leaves are cut into small pieces and this makes the contents in them more volatile.

Brewed tea has a smell and fragrance that tends to be sharper and delicious, in stark contrast when compared to the limited aroma and taste of teabags and even mixed with other flavors such as jasmine and vanilla.

In the tea bag itself, the content of caffeine and catechins tends to degrade for a long time so that the antioxidant content in this tea has faded. The use of tea bags can also reduce the catechin content in this drink.

Seeing this fact, it can be concluded that brewed tea has more nutritional content which is good for the health of the body compared to teabags.