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Some tea bags may shed billions of microplastics per cup

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Re: Some tea bags may shed billions of microplastics per cup

#111

Post by krumpet »

smacktoward wrote: post #108
krumpet wrote: post #93

The use of "some" and "may" in titles always bothers me. Seems like there should be more concrete language available to state the point the article is attempting to make.

The flip side of this is that scientists are terribly difficult people to get to not hedge their statements. It's just a consequence of the scientific mindset -- scientists are aware that today's results are always provisional, someone may come along tomorrow with a new discovery that overturns them. So they tend to avoid making definitive statements like saying something applies to all things, or that some thing is…

I would prefer something similar to, "Test of single plastic teabag shown to release billions of microplastics and nanoplastics".

Accurate without overpromising.

Re: Some tea bags may shed billions of microplastics per cup

#112

Post by [deleted] »

brokenkebab wrote: post #91
roboys wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My buddy used to work for Lipton. He explained that they use the cheapest grade of tea (dust) available. Also many tea companies mix non-tea additives (fillers) to their tea bags. After hearing this I decided, if it's not full loose leaf, I don't drink it. We found that companies like Elephant Chateau ( http://elephantchateau.com ) deliver the 3 highest grades of tea direct from Ceylon mountain estates with the optio…

To be fair, bagged tea exists because there are lots of buyers who only want quick refreshing non-coffee caffeine, and don't care for taste that much. Or sometimes they just want a background for those 100 g. of sugar you mentioned. Tea dust is a perfect match for this market, because it releases everything it holds to water immediately, while whole leaves may require some patience, and proper procedure.

[deleted]

Re: Some tea bags may shed billions of microplastics per cup

#114

Post by krumpet »

smacktoward wrote: post #108
krumpet wrote: post #93

The use of "some" and "may" in titles always bothers me. Seems like there should be more concrete language available to state the point the article is attempting to make.

The flip side of this is that scientists are terribly difficult people to get to not hedge their statements. It's just a consequence of the scientific mindset -- scientists are aware that today's results are always provisional, someone may come along tomorrow with a new discovery that overturns them. So they tend to avoid making definitive statements like saying something applies to all things, or that some thing is…

It's worth noting the first statement in the actual report reads, "Plastic teabags release billions of microparticles and nanoparticles into tea"

Re: Some tea bags may shed billions of microplastics per cup

#116

Post by fyfy18 »

simias wrote: post #26
dragontamer wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Loose tea is often cheaper and of better quality in my experience. This is indeed my experience as well. Still, the convenience factor of Lipton tea cannot be understated. I'm personally willing to bring in my own tea, metal strainers + teaspoon measurement to my workplace for example (hot-water is usually available in most offices). But that's probably too much for a lot of people. In contrast, you can usually get…

I've been using these tea balls in office environments: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51mTZ1eURrL... In terms of convenience I don't think it's significantly worse than sachets. But yeah, I do buy my own tea and store it in my drawer.

IKEA sell another type of tea infuser which works much better than tea balls IMO, which I find hard to clean and often leaks leaves out.

https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/ljudloes-tea-infuser-stainless-...

Re: Some tea bags may shed billions of microplastics per cup

#117

Post by piercebot »

Lots of comments promoting loose-leaf teas. My favorite suppliers are:

+ https://www.meimeitea.com/

+ https://yunnansourcing.com/

If you live in the DC Area, Victoria (who runs Meimei Fine Teas) hosts tea classes, and is happy to share stores of her annual tea sourcing trips to China. Really high quality products from a trustworthy source.

There's something really special about knowing trusting an individual (rather than a company) to deliver you a fantastic product and experience.

Re: Some tea bags may shed billions of microplastics per cup

#118

Post by smacktoward »

travisporter wrote: post #73
pmontra wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember a local guide in Uzbekistan (I was on vacation there years ago) "The good tea, we keep it. The average one, we sell it. The bad one we send it to Europe to make tea bags." Luckily I had been using leaves to make my tea at home. Probably the average quality one.

That’s funny! In Guatemala it’s the opposite for coffee. They sell the fancy stuff to McDonald’s and drink the lower quality coffee locally. Still pretty good imho

In Robert Sabbag's excellent book about marijuana smuggling in the 1960s and '70s, Smokescreen (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1841953792/ref=dbs_a_def_r..., published in the US as Loaded: A Misadventure on the Marijuana Trail), much of the story revolves around the same being true of pot.

The smuggler at the center of the story discovers that his Colombian suppliers are routinely packing all different strains of marijuana together, with a single bale containing everything from low-grade weed to the Santa Marta Gold that American potheads would pay top-dollar for. To the Colombians there's no difference between one strain of weed and another, but the smuggler knows to the American buyer it can mean a huge difference in price. So he works with them to start separating the different strains and buys every bale of Santa Marta Gold he can get his hands on, becoming the first smuggler who can bring his customers a consistent, reliable supply of the Good Stuff. Which of course makes him a fortune, and which of course leads to all sorts of other problems.

(Sabbag's book is a fantastic read, I recommend it highly. And if you want a shorter-form introduction to the story, here's an interview with the smuggler in question after his lawbreaking days were over: https://www.styleweekly.com/richmond/allen-longs-days-as-an-...)

Re: Some tea bags may shed billions of microplastics per cup

#119

Post by ryannevius »

piercebot wrote: post #117

Lots of comments promoting loose-leaf teas. My favorite suppliers are: + https://www.meimeitea.com/ + https://yunnansourcing.com/ If you live in the DC Area, Victoria (who runs Meimei Fine Teas) hosts tea classes, and is happy to share stores of her annual tea sourcing trips to China. Really high quality products from a trustworthy source. There's something really special about knowing trusting an individual (rather…

Thanks for these. I've been looking for an alternative to https://www.rareteacompany.com/ – which also supplies great tea, but seems to have issues (reliably) shipping internationally.

Re: Some tea bags may shed billions of microplastics per cup

#120

Post by zokier »

SolaceQuantum wrote: post #55
dragontamer wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Loose tea is often cheaper and of better quality in my experience. This is indeed my experience as well. Still, the convenience factor of Lipton tea cannot be understated. I'm personally willing to bring in my own tea, metal strainers + teaspoon measurement to my workplace for example (hot-water is usually available in most offices). But that's probably too much for a lot of people. In contrast, you can usually get…

I buy my own tea bags, paper with a string, and fill it myself.

I've considered that too to get better tea at work, but for me the biggest blocker so far is that I'm so doubtful of some random chinese bags from ebay, considering how steeping in my view feels very adept process of extracting any harmful crap that the bags might have and this is something that very much would give repeated exposure. Am I just being too paranoid?
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