There is nothing new in the realization that along with drinking Tea comes a wide array of health benefits. But as you may have seen, or heard, there is such a thing called loose tea, which looks like what “tea leaves” should look like. Yet in every tea bag seen on the market there is something else. And if there are gourmet tea bags that contains loose tea that look like leaves, and then there are every other tea bag in the market that looks like something else, could it be that the health benefits found is equal for both variations? The “Freshness” of tea, and the maintaining of whole tea leaves is important to the health benefits provided. Very few tea bags on the market now offer products that contain loose tea. What you will see in almost every tea bag now available, is a manufactured bag that is most often filled with “Tea Dust.” Tea Dust is considered to be the lowest quality tea available. While processing the whole tea leaves, small particles fall to a storage bin below. These remnants are the tea dust that you will find in most tea bags. Highly oxidized and dried out, this sandy variation contains only a fraction of health benefits consumers expect, while at the same time giving a harsh and bitter taste. The flavored teas are even worse as they use the absolute lowest of the lowest, when the taste of the tea doesn’t matter because the added flavoring is what the tea drinker will taste. The major reason for the use of low quality tea is of course money. The tea dust is cheap in price as it is cheap in quality. The high quality loose tea found in the gourmet tea bags, has been properly stored and processed to provide a high quality drink. They are then sold on a higher end loose tea market, and sold worldwide. Generally the loose tea has been used with tea pots, or with infusers. Used mostly by “tea drinkers,” loose tea never fully made it to the commercial scene. That is of course, until now, where there are a small group of companies that are increasing the ease of loose tea, by offering Gourmet Tea Bags that contain the high quality whole leafed tea that provides the health benefits people expect when they drink, tea. The aroma is rich, and the taste is smooth. David Giusti is the owner of Sabaidi Tea Co., Ltd. which exports Gourmet Tea Bags and other herbal teas and specialties from bangkok, Thailand. You can read more on the company's home page at Sabaidi