Do you use your tea bag more than once?
It feels like a waste sometimes; you just used your tea bag to make a delicious cup of tea and then you throw it out. So why not use it again instead? Let’s find out whether it is actually harmful to use a tea bag more than once.
Bacteria
Some people claim that it wouldn’t be very sanitary to use your tea bags more than once. According to these people, there would be a risk of bacteria getting into your tea bag, causing you to get sick later. But fortunately, you don’t have to worry about that. Patricia Schutte, who works for The Netherlands Nutrition Centre, says that there is absolutely no risk to using a tea bag more than once. That is because bacteria don’t grow in tea that quickly. And if you use boiling water to make your tea, you will kill all of the bacteria when you emerge your tea bag in it!
Storage
So it is okay to use your tea bag more than once. But according to Tea Trunk, you do need to store your tea bag after you used it. Just to prevent mold. When you store your tea bag in the fridge, you could save it for about 24 hours. But you can only use it a maximum of two times within those 24 hours. Because even though tea might not be as prone to bacteria as other kinds of food or liquid, it will still go bad at some point. So there is nothing wrong with reusing your tea bag for your second cup of tea that day!
One question that does come to mind, is whether you would actually want to reuse your tea bag. Since the flavor will reduce every time you use the tea bag. That means that your second cup might be a little less satisfying than the first. So if you like a strong cup of tea with a lot of flavor, don’t reuse your tea bag more than once. That will improve your tea drinking experience significantly!
Also read: How to get rid of the brown tea stains in your mug
Source: Happy in Shape, Tea Trunk, Tea How | Image: Unsplash