After more than a week of researching 12 different tea brands and making and sipping on dozens of cups of green tea, we believe Twinings Pure Green Tea bags are great for everyday consumption. Twinings Pure Green Tea not only emerged as the most flavorful tea amongst the 12 brands we reviewed, the fact that Twinings’ tea bags don’t have any metal staples also contributed to our decision making.
Table of Contents
Best Green Tea Bags For Everyday Drinking: Twinings Pure Green Tea
For those who prefer the convenience of tea bags to tea leaves, Twinings Pure Green Tea is a great choice. It is flavorful without any bitter aftertaste, offers more tea per bag (2g) and, importantly the tea bags don’t have metallic staple pins keeping the bag together, unlike many others in this category.
Size: 25 teabags, Price: Rs. 280*
*At the time of review
Best Green Tea Bags For Everyday Drinking: (Runner’s Up) 24 Mantra Organic Green Tea
24 Mantra Organic Green Tea Bags
We tested 12 popularly available brands of Green Tea and taste-wise 24 Mantra Organic Green Tea came second during our entire review process. It tastes good and is certified organic by Indian, American and European standards. However, the presence of metallic staple pins in the tea bags is a drawback. However, if it is organic you want then 24 mantra Organic Green Tea is a good choice.
Size: 25 teabags, Price: Rs. 149*
*At the time of review
The Brands We Picked:
Lipton Pure & Light Green Tea (Buy on Amazon)
Tetley Green Tea (Buy on Amazon)
Eco Valley Green Tea (Buy on Amazon)
Te-A-Me Green Tea (Buy on Amazon)
Typhoo Green Tea (Buy on Amazon)
Dilmah Green Tea (Buy on Amazon)
24 Mantra Green Tea (Buy on Amazon)
Karmiq Green Tea
LaPlant Green Tea (Buy on Amazon)
Twinings Green Tea (Buy on Amazon)
Veda Green Tea
Sunshine Green Tea (Buy on Amazon)
How We Picked Brands:
We reviewed popular brands that are easily available online and across offline stores. Since we were looking for the best Green Tea Bags for everyday consumption, we stayed away from gourmet brands. The price directly impacts the quality of tea leaves chosen for packing into bags. We picked brands that were in the entry-level category with all packs available under rupees 300/-.
Green tea bags come in many flavors and infusions. For the purpose of this review, we picked only those brands that offer a ‘pure green tea’ flavor. No infusions, or flavor combinations were tested. So, by extension, any brand that doesn’t have a pure green tea flavor was not part of this review.
Related Reading:
Thinking Of Reusing Your Tea Bags? Read This.
19 Incredible Reasons To Start Having Green Tea
Green Tea And Weight loss: 5 Quick & Important Things To Note
Who This Is For?
This review is for people who like to sip on green tea every day, sometimes even more than once a day! It is for people who know about the health benefits of drinking green tea and try to include this anti-oxidant rich beverage into their diet every day.
This review is for people who prefer the convenience of tea bags over tea leaves. Green tea leaves need a little more planning than tea bags. For tea leaves, you need to have a cup with a built-in sieve, along with a lid, or you need a steeper or infuser to do the job for you. This may become a little more cumbersome, especially if you like to sip on green tea at work. Tea bags give you that convenience.
This review is also for people who are health conscious but new to the flavors of green tea and still exploring which brands to try.
How We Tested:
Just like our review for Green Tea leaves, our expert and guide in this review too was Anamika Singh, Founder of Anandini Himalayan Teas. Our team researched the list of brands and Anamika helped us create a benchmark of what to expect.
Our notes from our interview with her included the following crucial points, that also served as pointers during our review.
- On the color/ appearance of tea: The color of green tea is determined by the quality of tea leaves. A brighter, healthier the color would point to a better quality of leaves used. The color could have a hint of green, as well. But it shouldn’t be dull or cloudy.
- Flavor: All types of tea have an inherent flavor – bright, a hint of sharpness, brisk, but should not be bitter or high on tannin. ‘Your tea shouldn’t taste like medicine!’, Anamika shared with us.
- Steeping Time: Every single cup of green tea needs varying degrees of steeping time. How much time will depend on a number of factors such as terroir, weather, the way it’s made and also the quality of leaves used.
- Triangular tea bags Vs Rectangular tea bags: Tea leaves need room to infuse, squash them and the leaves won’t infuse well. A triangular/pyramid bag allows more leaves to interact with the water and steeps better. This, of course, is also determined by the quality of the leaves used. In the entry-level category, most brands use rectangular tea bags instead of triangular ones.
- Good quality paper must be used for tea bags, the ideal variety is Japanese grain paper.
- Staples must be avoided.
- And lastly, NEVER boil water for steeping green tea – leaves or bags! Follow the instructions shared by the brand on the packaging.
Do read more about Anamika and her love for two leaves and a bud here.
We went by the instructions on the label for steeping time and quantity of tea to be used per cup. The temperature of hot water was also as per the brands’ guidelines.
How do metal staple pins make tea bags unsafe?
Earlier this year, FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India) – an autonomous body under the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, GoI, announced that after June 30th, 2019, staple pins will be banned from being used in tea bags. No extension is likely to be issued post this deadline. Knotted tea bags, or those with a thread sealing the bag continue to be allowed.
Over the years, there have been a lot of health warnings around the usage of metal pins in tea bags. Why and what makes them harmful?
- Staple pins are metallic in nature, any loose pin when ingested inadvertently by a user can pose serious health risks. Internal injuries leading to bleeding is just one of them.
- Staple pins are made of galvanized iron – which is basically iron with a coating of zinc to prevent rusting. Studies have shown, and experts fear that zinc compounds being soluble in water can have adverse effects on the gastrointestinal tract when ingested.
- Lastly, do not dip the tea bag in water and put the cup in a microwave to heat the water. This can be harmful too.
Final Tasting:
Once the teas were steeped as per brand guidelines, we did multiple rounds of blind tastings looking at factors such as aroma, color, body, aftertaste bitterness.
Watch Video: Factors That Make Your Green Tea Best | Buying Guide
Conclusion:
Twinings Pure Green Tea emerged on top in our review for Best Green Tea Bags:
If you do agree with our review, please give it a thumbs up! If you don’t, please tell us why! And, which one is your favorite from this list.
Food & Beverage is a constantly evolving segment with new categories of products being launched daily. Our endeavor here is to help shoppers buy better. Our reviews are unbiased, and all samples used during the reviews were paid for by us. Read our entire ethics statement here.
