Isambard Kingdom Brunel didn’t do ‘adequate’. The celebrated builder of gorge-spanning bridges, nation-spanning railways and ocean-spanning ships valued excellence over expediency in all things, and thus would have been squarely disappointed, as I was, by Marks & Spencer’s official response to my letter regarding the proven inefficacy of round tea bags (see previous entry).

Here’s the inelegant nub of it, as penned by an M&S office functionary who I won’t embarrass by naming here:

“The tea leafs [sic] contained in the Luxury Gold teabags are smaller than that within the loose tea products, as such they wouldn’t benefit from being in the larger pyramid bags.”

In other words, the round bags are adequate. They could be better, but they’ll do, rather like compressed mp3 music files that are mere shadows of the original recordings but perform well enough when played through cheap ear-buds whilst jogging past some roadworks.

CIRCLE OF STRIFE
The good news is that, unlike an mp3 file, the round bag is a lossless format. All the flavour of the tea is there, it just can’t get out. Try cutting one open and brewing a loose leaf cuppa and a bagged cuppa side by side: all else being equal, you’ll almost certainly detect a difference in the flavour – unless you’re using the tea to wash down mouthfuls of pickled onions and anchovies.

It should come as no surprise to learn that removing the tea from the bag is the best way to release the flavour, but then you’re stuck with all the mess and inconvenience that you were trying to avoid in the first place. The logical solution is to decant the contents into a more spacious bag, for example, the handy t-sac produced and distributed by an innovative Hanover-based company. Plenty of brewing room in there.

If all that sounds like a bit of a faff, you might want to opt for a less invasive approach. I have found that agitating the hot water with extreme vigour during the brewing process can yield significantly improved results, as shown below.

And there you have it. The proverbial silk purse from a sow’s ear, no thanks to M&S.

BREW OF THE WEEK – Darjeeling Badmantam First Flush
Early summer is the perfect time of year to enjoy a new season first flush Darjeeling, and the 2015 offering from the Badamtam Estate does not disappoint, delighting the taste buds with its delicate yet robust bouquet and flavour. To enjoy this tea at its best, add the hot water just before it gets to the boil, remove the leaves after steeping and enjoy the deliciously scented liquor just as it comes, no milk or sugar required. It’s also an excellent choice if you fancy some home-made iced tea. Double the amount of leaf that you would normally use, pour the brewed tea into a jug filled with ice cubes (adding a few wedges of orange or lemon if required), and drink within 24 hours for best results.