Dust Tea Powder vs. Leaf Tea Powder: What’s the difference, and which is better for you?
Basically, dust tea powder is the stuff you find in tea packs. Leaf tea powder doesn’t do well in tea packs, because the leaves don’t have room to mix around and infuse the water. Instead, tea manufacturers use small particles of tea (dust tea powder), which have no issue swimming around inside a pack.
But which is better? Although quality can alter in both dust tea powder and leaf tea powder, tea lovers are generally of the opinion that:
Loose leaf tea powder cultivates to be of higher quality, but there are some actually good quality tea packs out there, too.
Loose leaf tea powder has a fuller, more natural savours. Tea packs can give your cup of tea a papery taste, and the smaller particles are less flavorsome.
Loose leaf tea powder can even be cheaper (if you reuse the tea for more than one brew).
Tea packs are better for a quick, suitable cup.
In terms of health, there’s really not much in it! As long as you’re purchasing good, high-quality tea, there’s not a lot of distinction in tea’s health benefits whether it’s a tea bag or leaf tea powder.
But be mindful, that some tea packs actually have plastic in their makeup and can potentially remove nano plastics. Which then goes into your gut. Which… ugh.
But with so many kinds of teas out there now, all asserting to provide health benefits, where does dust tea powder stand in the pantheon of healthy drinks? How does it check up to leaf tea powder?
So, what is this dust tea powder stuff, exactly? Is it literally the sweepings off the floor of a tea manufacturer? Because yeesh, we don’t desire to drink that!
Panic ye not! The moniker makes it sound worse than it is. Dust tea powder is actually the name for premium tea and is essentially a byproduct of loose leaf tea production. Tea leaves are ground, pressed, and rolled. Because they’re quite dry, bits fall off. Gather those bits, and you have dust tea powder.
It’s not the only byproduct that you might catch, either. Tea leaves labelled as “broken” or “fanning's” are also survivors of the tea manufacturers. They’re just a bit lumpier than the dust tea powder.
There’s pretty much only one place that you’ll regularly see dust tea powder playing a part — and that’s the modest tea pack. Yup, creeping inside that papery disguise, our old friend dust tea powder is waiting to give you a brisk, yummy cup of tea.
Whether that’s really true or not, tea manufacturers definitely worked out that dust tea powder was too good to go to waste — behind all, it still gives off that yummy tea intake we know and love, so why get rid of it?
Rather, they started running conveyor straps underneath the main tea display areas to gather the dust and place it into little packs of gauzy paper. Tea packs, and the swirling dust tea powder inside them, got so popular that a lot of individuals are only just rediscovering loose leaf tea powder.