Loose tea is really just tea: dried leaves or fruits for steeping in hot water, except without the bag.
Tea historians say that people started drinking tea more than 5,000 years ago. As the story goes, at that time in China there was an emperor named Shen Nung, who was a learned man and a scholar of the sciences. Because he believed that water was made pure by boiling, he insisted that all water be boiled before the members of his court could drink it.
One afternoon, as the court members were traveling, a leaf from a nearby tree flew into his cup of boiled water. Curious, he allowed the leaf to remain in his cup, and he saw that the leaf infused his water with a light brown color--and a refreshing taste. Since then people in China, then Japan, and now all over the world, enjoy a nice cup of tea.
Loose tea was the only type of tea available for many centuries. Ancient books have been discovered that explain what kind of tea leaves were preferred, how people of the time prepared loose tea, and the methods used to strain the loose tea leaves from the tea.
Ironically, the invention of the teabag was an accident. A tea merchant, tired of shipping loose tea in the bulky and heavy metal tea tins, devised a packaging innovation-he packed his loose tea into silk bags that weighed less and could be compacted for shipping. When he heard back from customers requesting he send them loose tea in his convenient teabags, a new concept was born. By 1904, teabags were commercially successful around the globe.
The convenience of the teabag--making such things as tea strainers or tea balls unnecessary--made it extremely popular. While avid loose tea fans do have to develop the knack of removing the loose tea from the pot or teacup, many consider the technique an integral part of the tea drinking rituals and traditions.
Sales of tea in teabags still make up 94% of today's tea market, but the trend may be changing. Because some of the tea used in tea bags is tea siftings or broken leaves, tea lovers have gravitated back to the quality of loose tea to enjoy the full flavor. Types of teas fall into three basic categories: Black, Oolong, and Green.
Loose tea, as opposed to tea made from tea in teabags, will likely remain the choice of true tea connoisseurs. And besides, trying to see your fortune through a teabag makes it kind of tough, doesn't it?