Loose leaf tea - mess and what to do with tea leaves

[ClawsandEffect]

I'm a loose leaf fan and a year ago switched over from tea bags. The taste is better and I prefer it.

But the mess does my head in. I don't want to put the finished tea down the drain, don't like it in the bin. It stains and leaks and just makes almost more mess than it's worth.

How do others deal with the mass of wet clumped left-over tea? I drink a lot of tea so it's a lot everyday.

I've gone back to tea-bags temporarily but I hate the thought of the plastic content of them and think the taste isn't as good. (Yorkshire uses plant based plastic but I'd still rather not have it.)

I have a small food composter on the windowsill by the sink and a large fine strainer, carefully strain it down the plug hole and put it straight on the composter.

(larger fine strainer I mean - it's about 4 inches or so a f lives on the food bin lid)

My mum uses a tea strainer, I prefer to use a teapot with a little strainer basket built in. Or I have a little metal strainer on a chain to brew individual cups. Either way I wait til it is cold and put it in the food waste. Quite simple.

I meant any tanin staining of the sink. In our house there is always either a teapot on the go or a brew in progress. During the day we empty the basket, rinse it in the sink and use it for the next brew. We put it in the dishwasher at the end of the day. (If you are putting your sink in the dishwasher I salute you!)

I use a large coffee filter in a teapot, the kind that's like a conical paper bag. After use I just lift it out and it goes in the food waste bin. By far the easiest way I've found.

Compost, sometimes dig it into the soil as is. Once a fortnight or so, I wash it down the sink a habit from my mother, who was convinced it cleaned the pipes.

Do you have a garden? If so throw the leaves on the plants. I have lots of patio pots and the tea leaves help keep the soil in them fertile plus keep moisture in. Roses love tea leaves as do other flowering plants.

Our area doesn't have a food waste bin service.

I do have a garden, but it's tiny and all lawn, not really room to put the leaves on, plus it's already quite damp so don't want to add to it.

I used to have a tub on the countertop and empty the leaves into it, but it was messy. I do use a teapot with a filter, so can just empty the leaves. I think it's the amount of tea I drink that's the issue!

I wasn't aware I could reuse though. How do I dry the leaves so they can be used again?

Do not dry the leaves to use them again, you can make yourself very ill from mould spores. You can keep pouring hot water over the leaves for a few hours though. (Eg, make a pot of tea at 9am and keep topping it up till lunchtime)

My Mum always brewed pots of tea.
She threw the tea leaves under garden bushes like Daphne.
Compost is also good.
Do you have any potted plants or tomatoes etc?
What do you do with food scraps?

We don't have a food waste collection either (I compost) but all areas are going to be starting them next year, we've had notification. But for now all non fruit/veg stuff does have to go in the normal bin.

This or if it's not raining I'll empty it out into the garden. Leaf tea is so much better than tea bags.

I only really use loose leaf, but I’m a bit perplexed about how you’re finding it so messy?

Here’s what works for me as someone who likes things neat;

• spoon the dry tea into a tea ball or mesh strainer that can go into the cup/pot respectively
• when finished, put the tea ball/strainer in a little dish/on a small plate and leave them to dry out overnight
• tip the dry, used tea leaves into the bin
• done!

If you’re using a loose leaf tea that you can use more than once (oolong, white tea etc) then you can just reuse the tea ball or internal teapot strainer again for your next cup.

Having multiple tea balls really helps - we have three in circulation in the house, so never have to empty wet tea leaves out, which can be messy.

I agree with you @ExcellentDesign . I find even reusing tea leaves twice to be weaker than I would like, and I too have been composting 20 years and have never had a problem with rodents.

I chuck mine on the flower beds but will be putting on my compost heap now that we've evicted Mr Rat and made sure he can't get back in, little monster
I've been composting for years and this is the first time we've had an unwelcome guest.🐀

As others have said you just pour boiling water onto the leaves again. I sometimes have chamomile or rose tea or pumpkin tea and they encourage you to reuse the leaves

edited for typo

It's because of the quantity of tea I drink. For example, 11am here. Had 5 cups already (I know it's an addiction). By bedtime, it's probably 10 to 12 cups. That's a lot of loose tea.

I just found it messy and hard to dispose of all the leaves when I was on leaf tea before. No food waste bin (goes in main bin). Garden not big enough for a compost bin (northern terraced house with TINY garden).

I'd just like a less messy way to dispose of the leaves. Down the sink is easier but I don't want the tannins staining the sink OR the leaves blocking the waste pipe.

Yeah, I've tried double using before but had the same issue. BUT my granny used to top up her tea pop without this issue so maybe it's the tea I use?

I think with good quality tea, Pu Erh tea, lapsang souchong or chrysanthemum tea reusing may change the taste a little but it isn't worse/weaker. I find with Yorkshire tea it's too weak the 2nd time.

Food waste caddy and then into the bokashi bin with a little bit for the wormery.

I only re-use rhe leaves when feeling lazy/in a rush and always regret it because it takes ages to brew and still isn't strong enough.

Most of the time I use a tea infuser straight in my mug or cup. No mess, just tip the leaves into the food waste bin.
On the weekend I used a teapot so it is more messing. Here I just strain the teapot to get rid of liquid and spoon the wet leaves into the food waste bin.

You can get infusers to put into tea pots, or tea pots with built in infusers which less mess than a regular tea pot.

You can also use a french press, slightly less mess than a regular tea pot as it's easier to get the leaves out.

Loose leaf tea is a bit of a specialist subject of mine 😅

Is it that you don't want to keep going outside with the teapot/tea leaves?
Get a small bin or food waste caddy just for the tea leaves, empty them into the caddy then take out to the main bin once a day.

Use biodegradable food waste bags and then it's easy to tie up and throw in the main bin.

Years ago you could, I feel, get away with pouring water over used tea leaves, at least once, and maybe more.
These days, over the last few years, I and many others have found tea to have lost much of its former good, strong flavour.
I know this is due to the tea leaves being affected by the weather as the environment changes.
I also empty the infuser full of wet tea leaves right into the kitchen recycle bin which will end up in the garden composter container.

If you make your tea in a large flask, you can top it up with boiling water to make it go further. Then you don’t have to boil the kettle for every cup. I currently drink two full flasks a day so roughly 2.5 litres of green tea.

That's a great idea @Indicateyourintentions an economical way to save both time and energy.

I think even the master of the dishwasher aka my husband does not manage that.