ShopTalk: Is the key to top tea in the bag?

AMAZINGLY, the tea bag is probably 100 years old this year. (I say "probably" because there is some confusion. Some say it's this year, others say it won't be 100 for another four years yet, in which case, we'll just have another party.) Such a grand age for something we still think of as a new-fangled upstart.

But it's certainly found its way into our hearts, and tea pots. Go into most supermarkets today and you'll be hard pushed to find loose leaf tea - usually lurking at the very bottom or very top of the shelves - because so much space is given over to bags of bags - square, round and pyramid shapes.

They have taken over the tea pot, colonised the mug and saved us from many a blocked sink: 90 per cent of all tea drunk now is made using tea bags. And it all started by accident...

Tea importers used to send samples of tea out to potential customers. Often they used elaborate boxes, but one American importer, Thomas Sullivan, couldn't afford to do that so he sent the tea out in bags instead. To make them still seem special, he used silk bags.

His customers, baffled by this new idea, thought they were meant to put the entire tea bag into the pot, just as it was. And so the tea bag was born.

The silk was soon replaced by gauze and then by paper, but while the tea bag was an instant hit in America, it took time for tea bags to become popular in this country. Even in the 1950s they were still considered new-fangled and a bit daft, a bit, well, foreign. But by the 1960s they had proved to be just our cup of tea. Since then we've had square tea bags, round tea bags and even pyramid-shaped tea bags. Tetley alone, for instance, sell 250 million tea bags a week in Britain.

But which is better - the traditional leaves, pot and strainer, or the bag dunked in a mug? We asked Ian Brabbin, tea buyer and blending manager for Taylors of Harrogate.

"What's important is the quality of the tea," he says, firmly. "Doesn't matter if it's loose leaf or in a tea bag. You can make a good cup of tea quickly, if you have the right tea."

And even with all the years of tradition of Bettys and Taylor's behind him, he says even he often just dunks a Yorkshire Gold tea bag in a mug for a quick cuppa. "Nothing wrong with it if you're in a hurry."

As Ian tastes 400 teas a day and travels all over the world searching out the best leaves, he knows what he's talking about.

"The important thing is to get the right sort of tea for bags. For Yorkshire Gold we blend teas from Assam, available only in May and June," he says. "It has to be the smaller leaves. That way, you can bring out the best flavour. More and more teas are now available in tea bags but some teas never will be, because the leaves are too big. It just won't work."

Tea bags had always been square or rectangular, but when Tetley's introduced the round tea bag in 1989, sales apparently leapt by a third. Since then we've had PG pyramids as well.

Taylors, however, are remaining firmly square.

"We've done extensive tests and experiments with different shapes and found that the shape of the tea bag doesn't make any difference. Round, square or any shape you like, it's the quality of the tea that's inside them that's important."

Does it really make any difference? Are we missing out on some of the finer points of tea drinking by choosing a tea bag instead of the leaves?

Of course, the big advantage of loose tea is that it is infinitely more adjustable, especially for those who like their tea weak. Hardly worth using a tea bag if all you want to do is simply colour the water.

We tried a selection of different teas that were available both in loose leaf and as tea bags, so that we could compare tastes that were presumably meant to be identical. First we made a pot of tea in the traditional way - warming the pot, one spoon of tea per person and one for the pot, allowing it to brew. Then we made a pot of tea using a tea bag or two.

And finally we did the quick dunk in the mug of boiling water.

Could we taste the difference?

Well, yes and no...

We tried :

* Co-op 99 loose leaf tea and One Cup round tea bags

* PG Tips and their pyramid tea bags

* Taylors of Harrogate Earl Grey

* Taylors of Harrogate Yorkshire Gold

* Tesco Finest

* Twinings English Breakfast

In every case, the difference between tea made in a pot with tea leaves and tea made in a pot with a tea bag was negligible. Once we'd got the balance of tea right to get the same strength, the tea bags tasted virtually the same as their loose leaf equivalent.

If we liked the leaf tea, we liked the same label tea bag tea. If we didn't like the tea bag tea, then we didn't like the leaf tea.

There seems no reason at all to use loose tea over tea bags. So yah boo to the traditionalists and congratulations to the tea bag. A fine invention.

BUT...

...in every case, the tea made straight in the mug was easily picked out. Although it was usually a perfectly acceptable cup of tea, it wasn't as good as the tea made in a pot. Not as smooth, not as full flavoured, a pale imitation.

So, after all that, the secret is not in the shape of the tea bag, its size, or the number of little perforations.

The secret is in the tea inside the bag and the tea pot... Get the tea bags. Get the tea pot. And you have the perfect combination.

PS We also tried PG Tips tea granules, made just like instant coffee. They were universally judged to be disgusting. For ease and convenience, the tea bag has no rivals.

But what will the next 100 years bring?