If you are regular consumer of Tea, you probably go through a lot of tea bags because they are so easy to use. Yes, indeed, tea bags are very convenient, no-mess options that make brewing faster and easier.

Tea bags are small, porous, and sealed packet, containing tea leaves which we dip in a cup of water to brew the tea.

There are a variety of tea bags available in the markets. Teas are made from the leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant which include Green Tea, White Tea, Oolong Tea, Black Tea, and Herbal Teas.

However, the after uses of these convenient little tea bags are so darn useful. Here's how you can utilise the used tea bags before throwing them out. 

1.    Hydrate Dry Skin

Yes, you read it right. Used tea bags can be used to refresh parched skin. What you have to do is to cool the tea bags, then pour it into a spray or squeeze bottle. After that spray it onto your skin or you can also apply with a cotton pad. The antioxidants in the tea are beneficial for rehydrating dry skin.

2.    Reduce Under-Eye Circles

The next super use of tea bag is that it can help reduce puffiness or dark circles around your eyes. Allow the bags to cool, then place the bags on your eyes for a few minutes. The caffeine content will work to shrink the blood vessels around your eyes.

3.    Remove Sunburn

Here is how you can use tea bags to reduce sunburn. Black tea contains tannic acid and theobromine, which help to remove sunburn from the skin and also help reduce inflammation. Soak 2-3 black tea bags in a pitcher filled with water. When water turns vibrant, dark black colour, put off the stove. Let it cool to a lukewarm temperature. Then with the help of a rag, dab the mixture on the area where you have sunburns. Allow your burned skin to absorb the mixture. Once it's dry, re-apply as necessary, but don't wash off.

4.    Restore Shine To Your Hair

You all know how tea leaves are useful to make our hair shiny and smooth. Use a few tea bags to brew a strong tea, then let the tea to cool completely. Pour the mixture into your hair. Wait until it's completely soaked. Then take your shower with shampooing your hair as usual.

5.    Remove odour

Placing a few used green tea bags in the refrigerator can absorb any undesirable smell of fish, meat, stale food or strong-flavoured foods like curry etc. Furthermore, it also removes smell from shoes. 

Though Tea Bags have so many pros, it has many cons too. This is because the leaves used in tea bags are usually chopped, sliced and diced into small particles ranging from 0.2 to 1.5 millimetres called fanning and dust. I know Tea Bags are easy to use as they are quicker to brew. But the question is, are we ready to compromise quality for convenience? Of course not !

Tea bags are made with a variety of plastics like nylon, viscose rayon, polypropylene which are detrimental for our health. Moreover, paper Tea Bags are made with epichlorohydrin, which not only causes cancer but also suppresses the immune system of our body. 

Unfortunately, tea bags which contain broken leaves created during the CTC method of production, don't provide all the healthy compounds like l-theanine and antioxidants that help to detox and improve overall health.

Another significant drawback of tea bags is that as the leaves of tea bags are restricted, they don't fully infuse flavour and so don't taste good.

The most important fact is that you will not know whether only Tea leaves are packed inside the tea bags or it contains any foreign materials which may be harmful to your health 

So, what to do when tea bags have so much side effects? Hence, the other option is loose tea, which has immense benefits for our health. Loose tea contains natural compounds such as antioxidants and polyphenols, which are incredibly beneficial for our health.  

It also has different essential oils, which are what we would call the basis of the fantastic tea flavour and taste. Loose teas, being the most natural form of the tea plant contain large and whole Tea Leaves, which means the powerful antioxidants agent of the tea are retained in the tea leaves. So, they are free of fannings and dust, which means that the health benefits aren't lost.