Fillable tea bags

[Matthew Petty]

I'm sure many of you are like me, and enjoy fresh loose tea more than most of the pre-bagged stuff out there. I've always had a problem finding a spot for an infuser in my self-contained cookset.

A friend recently turned me on to a solution:

http://www.plymouthtea.com/tepafiteaba.html

[D T]

Thanks for the tip, Matthew.

I was looking for the same thing, not for tea, but for coffee. The tea bagged coffee you find at the grocery store is just plain nasty. Now I can take some good, strong coffee and still save the weight of having to take a french press.

It also gives me variety, Java Juice one day, home brew the next.

[Douglas Hus]

Sportea
Anyone try this stuff?
http://www.sportea.com/
Looks like a good substitute for all the sugar energy drinks.

Doug H

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[Dale Wambaugh]

How about chopping up a few coffee filters from home? I'll bet you could construct one that would fit your pot or cup with a dose of grounds stapled inside. We use Melita cone style filters and I could see putting a couple teaspoons of grounds in one and cutting off the excess, leaving enough to fold over a couple times for a top seam and staple in place. Adding a little cotton thread would complete it. Toss it in the pot and bring it to a boil. Dunk as needed :)

[Kevin Pietriyk]

My wife gets these from Japan, my MIL sends them whenever I need more. I've never seen them in the US, but the ones we get work great for all kinds of tea. Not sure about coffee- the store-bought coffee bags (Folgers, etc) contain some amount of instant coffee, as well as ground beans. This is what I attribute the nasty taste to.

[D T]

>>How about chopping up a few coffee filters from home?

It will work, but it doesn't allow enough flavor through. Coffee filters and small amounts of ground coffee don't produce an acceptable cup of brew for me. The tea filters are more permeable, so they allow better circulation of hot water around the ground coffee. The result is more flavor from less grounds (IMO). One drawback with using tea bags, you end up with more coffee ground dust in the bottom of your cup. It's not a big deal to me, I just don't drink the last .25 oz of coffee (too much grit).

[Adam McFarren]

I found some of those fillable tea bags at our local coop. I wasn't impressed with the coffee I tried to brew with them, very weak. Water doesn't seem to flow through the bag well.

The Cup-pour-ri (REI carries them) worked better provided you swirled it around enough. MSR Mugmate has been worth the weight penalty for better coffee in my opinion.

-adam

[D T]

The amount of flavor will also be affected by the grind. A coarse grind will be weak, a fine grind will be stronger. Try coffee ground almost to a powder. You'll get more flavor and be able to carry less coffee grounds (less weight, everyone's goal here).

It also helps to buy coffee that is very bold in flavor, this will give you a medium flavored coffee using a tea bag system to brew in. A tea bag brew system will never be better than a french press but it is much lighter.

[Gene .]

Bags sold for 'soup garnis' are made out of cheesecloth type material, and would seem to allow more water circulation than the paper or tigher woven tea bag style sold. Can't help myself, was looking through a cooking store, Chef Central in N' NJ yesterday, and found myself UL'ing everything!

[Brian James]

I have long brewed green tea in my MSR Titan kettle, loose with no filter or press.

The tea I use is Gunpowder Green tea. This is green tea where the whole leaf has been rolled up into a little ball. When you brew the tea, the ball comes open and "reconstitutes" into a leaf again.

The lid on my Titan kettle is all I need to keep most of the solids from ending up in my mug. I just pour through the spout and it nicely strains the leaves out.

I don't know how this would work with other loose teas; some I have seen seem finer. Check out Gunpowder Green tea — I originally go onto it for the taste and found out about this handy side effect later!

[Gene .]

I'll check that Gunpowder tea out when I shop on the weekend. Have'nt made tea in the Kettle yet, sounds good.

[Brian James]

I should mention that every now and then the spout plugs up. This is due to the random arrangement of the leaves at the time of pour.

If it happens, just swirl the tea and the leaves will rearrange — presto! It doesn't happen very often.

Cheers!

Brian

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