Maybe. Maybe Not.

If you are a regular reader, or a casual reader, or you’ve read .001% of my stuff, you’ll know that I’m a tad anti-teab*g.

Well, perhaps more than a tad, given that I have previously advocated setting fire to them, or establishments who serve them. And In fact, I won’t even type the word “teab*g” without adulterating it.

But I have always said… “prove me wrong”.

This week, an attempt was made to do so.

I was going through a kitchen cupboard in a new workplace and I found…

this.

It’s a TWG Jasmine Queen teabag.

Now, I have an opinion on TWG, and it’s generally that their tea is above average. and their pricing is WAY above average.

But as I looked at the product, I realised it was in fact, a product that an amount of effort and expense had gone into.

The teab*g was made from cotton.

Cotton. Not paper, not plastic, not bio-plastic, not nylon described as “silky” or “silken” to trick you into thinking it was silk, but cotton.

I decided that in the cause of furtherance of science, I would bravely attempt to use this thing and make some tea.

My first question was: is the cotton unbleached? I’m pretty sure the answer is “no”. But it is quite neatly sewn. Hand-sewn, according to the label, which I think is great. It means someone, somewhere has a job. So, let’s take a closer look:

It’s really neat. But bleached I think. Never mind, science must continue in the face of adversity.

The instruction suggested 2-3 minutes and a water temp of 95C. Time to deploy the magic temperature kettle…

Note the magic temperature kettle has “coffee” written next to the 95C mark. Why? Who knows. Perhaps for plunger coffee. Any suggestion that is can be used for that most appalling of beverages, that garbage knows as “instant coffee” would result in a  very stiffly worded letter to the manufacturer.

But I digress, as I am wont to do, when I know what you are gagging for, dear reader, is to find out if this hand-sewn whole leaf cotton teab*g produced good tea.

The instruction said 2-3 minutes, so I set a timer. After 2 minutes, I took a little sneaky sip.

Not much flavour, so I even gave the contraption a jiggle and awaited the full three minutes.

The alarm went off and I extricated the cottonny contrivance.

It would be my very great pleasure to tell you that the result was sensational… but it wasn’t.

OK, how about “very good?”… no, not that either.

“Above average”?

No.

How about “adequate”… which, let’s face it, would be a high water mark for teab*gs.

But. nope, nope, nope.

Inadequate and underflavoured is what I got. Some jasmine notes, some butteriness, but overall, just inadequate.

I’ve has this taste from loose leaf: from a dented tin teapot made with overboiled tapwater in a dubious Chinese restaurant.

So, specifically putting peppermint bags aside, I’m still questing.

Probably the best proper tea teab*g I’ve had in the last five years.

And still not worth it.

But worth a try.