Tea lovers, help me transition!

[Tsukiko]

I am moving away from Twinnings teabags to avoid micro plastics. I love the taste but have been tempted to branch out a little. My flavour of choice it earl grey, and I am looking for a wonderful, loose replacement for my old bags

I hear good things about the Rare Tea Co, although at £7 for 50g, I am perplexed. Twinnings loose leaf is only £2.50 for 125g! Am I happy to spend, but would appreciate your wise advice as to whether upping my budget is worthwhile. I understand that I have been stuck in my comfort zone for so long that I may have become something of a tea neanderthal, so might need to refresh my education.

Don't know if they do loose leaf, but Clipper teabags are plastic free. And tasty!

Twinings created the original Earl Grey for the then-Prime Minister to suit the water type for the spring at his stately home. It's a classic for a reason. The loose leaf is better than the bags anyway as you can tailor the amount of tea leaves to your personal taste.

Yorkshire Tea use plant-based blasics in their teabags, which do biodegrade eventually, although aren't compostable at home. Tea Pigs are the same, but make rather bolder claims.

Update - I checked on the Twinings website and they use the same plant-based plastic as Clipper, Yorkshire Tea, Tea Pigs etc.

Fossil-fuel-based plastics in tea bags seem to have been phased out pretty much everywhere (hurray!) if that was your concern.

Can you buy loose leaf, and a metal tea mesh basket thing, slightly more of a faff to put the leaves into the mesh ball and then remove, but it's dishwasher-able and good for environment as no plastics?

I changed from teabags, to supermarket loose leaf tea, to fancy brand loose leaf and I think the fancy brand is worth it for the taste and aroma.
My understanding is Twinings and the other supermarket brands cut the tea into very small pieces, making a lot of dust. The fancy brands don’t cut the tea leaves.
Where the tea comes from also makes a difference, and if they use the new tips or the older growth leaves. Chinese tea is quite different to Ceylon or Assam tea.

Russian caravan earl grey from a tea company called Seibiant coffee, is the best I've ever tasted. Full of dried bits of bergamot peel and a few cornflowers I think, it's pretty special.

Sorry, it's loose leaf tea- very much worth buying some nice tea strainers for, though ~and ending up with a cupboard stuffed with loose leaf teas~

This is great, thank you everyone.
I will start gently with loose earl grey by Twinnings and work my way out from there. I managed to find a website that analysed each brand.
Now for a new teapot!
Any recs there appreciated!

sostrenegrene.com/en-gb/products/food-and-beverages/on-the-go/tea-strainer-p-bae5dcc9

Sadly you can’t try before you buy with teapots.