While April Fools’ Day was on Monday, apparently some companies have been making a fool out of you for a while. You have been drinking tea dust. You wouldn’t sprinkle dust on your food, so why would you want to drink it? Read on to find out what this is and why you need to keep away from it when it is inside your tea bag.
WHAT IS IT
Tea dust is the dust or fannings that is left from tea leaves which have broken down so much they have turned into an ash-like substance, otherwise known as waste. This is what is left over after the more leafy and expensive teas have been sold. Dustings usually lack the nutritious density and flavour of its fuller leaf counterparts, as you are literally getting just a fraction of the benefits.
IT IS NOT OUR FRIEND
While tea dust is cheaper and usually used in mass production, it is not doing justice to your cuppa. Tea dust is usually taken from the bottom of the barrel when tea leaves are collected. When tea leaves are broken up, you lose flavours, oils aromas … basically all of the good stuff. Often, companies who use tea dust usually include additives to rev up the taste and health benefits. Ultimately, not only are you consuming the lowest grade of tea available but probably some delicious artificial flavourings in the process! You can usually tell that tea has been made from dust because the contents of the tea bag looks like it is filled with tiny particles. Stay away!
IT IS ALSO NOT OUR FOE
While seeing tea dust within your tea bag is a dangerous sign that the quality has been compromised, seeing a little bit of tea dust inside the outer packaging is a good sign. Whether it is in the sachet or the pack, it simply means that the full leaf tea inside has been tossed around on its journey to your letterbox. All you have to do is gently dust off your tea bag, should you find any lingering dust. Drink away!
IN CONCLUSION
Therefore,
1 | finding a little bit of tea dust in the packaging means your tea is made from full leaves,
2 | having mainly tea dust in your tea bag means that your tea is made from the sweepings.
OFFBLAK TEA
One of Offblak’s promises is quality: our tea is expertly crafted from natural whole tea leaves, not the sweepings. No BS. Next time you go for a cup of our tea, take note of where you are finding the dustings! Since we do not want our chunky whole tea leaves to suffer from breakages, we make sure to protect our pyramid tea bags with strong sachets that also preserve the taste. The individual sachets are then placed into a bigger pack for further protection and then into a delivery box, where packs cannot move around. In this way, we try our best to make sure our pyramid tea bags get to you in the highest standard in which they were made. If you feel like you are ever finding more tea dust than you should be in your packaging, do let us know! It could be that our tea did not have a smooth ride on its way over to your house. After all, commuting is hard, is it not?
Sources
https://www.calmersutratea.com.au/blogs/news/tea-dust-vs-tea-leaves
https://wildteaqi.com/blogs/tea-lifestyle/high-quality-tea-leaves-dust-hair
http://endahmurniyati.blogspot.com/2014/03/tea-walk-part-5.html
https://unsplash.com/photos/RTujxlA-D1U
