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WHEN it comes to a quick cuppa, forget square, round or even pyramid-shaped
tea bags鈥攖he quickest cup of tea comes from loose tea leaves. Whatever
their shape, it seems tea bags drastically reduce the rate at which flavours
infuse into hot water.

In theory, the quality of a cup of tea depends only on the tea leaves and
water used to make it, say Deogratius Jaganyi and Thamsanqa Ndlovu at the
University of Natal in Durban, South Africa. But the pair reasoned that tea bags
must have an effect, if not on the quality, then on the rate at which flavours
infuse into water and so decided to measure it.

The researchers began with a tea known as Black Ceylon Orange Pekoe which
they sieved for particles roughly two millimetres in diameter. They
bagged some in tea bags of various shapes and sizes and measured how fast
caffeine from the tea infused into water at 80 掳C compared with the rate for
loose tea leaves.

The results showed that tea bags reduce the rate of infusion by almost a
third鈥攑ossibly more if the bags are very small. According to the
researchers, the best size for a tea bag should be at least 10 times the volume
of the tea it contains so the leaves have room to swell and move around.

鈥淚 am not surprised at all,鈥� says Ian Lay, a tea connoisseur at Accord
Services, a specialist tea merchants in Bury St Edmunds. He expected that loose
tea would infuse quickest, and thinks that tea bag shape is of no consequence.
鈥淚t鈥檚 all marketing hype. If you put good tea leaves into a tea bag, regardless
of its shape, you鈥檒l get good tea out,鈥� says Lay. 鈥淏ut I鈥檓 amazed that in this
day and age people can鈥檛 wait four or five minutes for a good cup.鈥�