If you’ve ever looked at a tea bag and wondered why they do not make coffee versions, you are not alone. Tea bags are convenient to use, easy to clean up, and cut down on paper waste if you use bags made from biodegradable materials. The good news for us coffee drinkers is that coffee tea bags – maybe coffee bags? – exist and are gaining popularity as more people discover how useful they are.
In this article, we’ll give you a quick tour of coffee tea bags. We’ll cover everything you need to know about coffee tea bags to help you decide whether adding some to your coffee-making toolkit is right for you. Let’s get right into it!
A Matter of Convenience
Coffee tea bags are a natural development if you think about it. Loose-leaf tea exists, yet many people make their tea with the aid of an easy-to-use tea bag, so why not do the same for coffee? Ordinary coffee brewing methods require a lot of setup and cleanup that makes them unfeasible to do when you’re in a hurry and short on time. Coffee tea bags are the fastest way to make high-quality coffee quickly and have some advantages over other single-serve brewing methods.
K-Cups are the closest to coffee tea bags in terms of convenience but still aren’t as easy to use or customizable. When you use K-Cups, you are still tied down to a machine, meaning you don’t have as much freedom to make coffee anywhere. If you’re only brewing coffee at home, the difference is small, but at the office or on a camping trip, coffee tea bags win easily. K-Cups are also significantly harder on the environment than coffee bags, more on that in a bit.
Coffee on the Go
Coffee tea bags are perfect for a travel coffee setup that you can take with you on the road or leave in the office for when you need a quick pick-me-up. As long as you have a mug and hot water, coffee tea bags let you make coffee anywhere. And the best part is virtually no clean-up. Once your coffee is finished brewing, pluck the bag out and throw it away.
Environmental Impact
Another benefit is using coffee tea bags can reduce your environmental impact because they are often made from biodegradable, eco-friendly materials, meaning you can toss them in the trash without worrying about harming the earth. If you use coffee tea bags at home, some companies make compostable bags that further reduce your carbon footprint. Composting coffee grounds is also great for giving an extra boost to garden soil come springtime.
Which Type of Coffee Tea Bags is Right for You?
You can purchase pre-made coffee tea bags that come filled with ground coffee, much like how tea bags usually come filled with tea. This is the easiest way to use coffee tea bags since you can immediately make coffee by just taking one out of the box. The primary drawbacks of buying pre-made coffee tea bags are the price and freshness. You are paying for convenience with pre-made bags. They tend to be quite expensive compared to unfilled bags, and the coffee you’re getting isn’t always as fresh as it could be.
If the price and freshness are concerning to you, there is another option. Instead of purchasing pre-filled coffee tea bags, you could buy the bags separately and fill them with your own ground coffee. We prefer this method because the bags are cheaper and we can use whatever coffee we like. It is slightly less convenient to use unfilled coffee tea bags, but the extra effort is more than worth it, in our opinion.
How Does the Coffee Taste?
If you choose to buy pre-made bags, you’re at the mercy of whatever company you choose and can expect coffee quality similar to other pre-ground coffees. If you purchase empty bags, however, you control your coffee’s quality yourself. We have yet to find a simpler way to make top-notch specialty coffee wherever you are than using coffee tea bags.
In the cup, coffee made with a teabag tastes a lot like other immersion brewers. You can expect a bold, strong cup with a full-body, but not as full as coffee made with a French press. Since coffee tea bags filter the coffee a little bit, you’ll wind up with a slightly less full-bodied cup that is cleaner than a pure immersion-style brew.
Coffee Tea Bags: Final Thoughts
Coffee tea bags are one of those ideas that seem so obvious when you hear it that it’s amazing it wasn’t thought of sooner. We prefer using unfilled bags and grinding our own beans, but you can also get pre-filled coffee tea bags that make it even quicker and easier to make a quick cup of coffee. If you’re concerned about the environment and want an easy way to make eco-friendly coffee, coffee tea bags are an excellent choice.
See also: Mixing Coffee and Tea: History, Tips & More!
Featured Image Credit: Jouke van Keulen, Shutterstock
