Tea in nylons? Must be the hottest tea in town! (badoom-tish)
Jokes aside, the morning Metro today had a one page special on tea in tea bags, focusing on the latest innovation in the field: replacing the traditional paper filter bag with a nylon variety. According to a sales spokeperson quoted in the article the nylon has several advantages over the paper. It doesn't break the leaves, which means that there is less "dust" and leaf debris in the bag (which means that a better taste is produced with less tannin I believe); the nylon material allows for better circulation of the hot water which means more taste can be released; since ultrasound is used to seal the bags less energy is used in production.
Sounds amazing! There is of course the slight downside that the nylon might not be biodegradable. And, oh, the small potential health risk hinted at by the fact that there aren't any long term studies made on use of nylon in this way.
The Metro article even specifically says, and the sales person from Asda seems to verify, that the brand sold by Asda is not biodegradable. Now, how a company in this day and age can have the gall (be allowed at all, but that's a different discussion entirely, how about more laws about producer responsibility anyone?) to put a new product on the market and have no plans on how to deal with the waste other than, and I quote, "We hope to source other methods to improve the nylon bags's impact on the environment," is a mystery to me. No more tea from Asda then.
Interesting choice of words by the way. "Improve" the impact on the environment? I think I would have used the word "reduce" instead, but that's just me...
That said, there are biodegradable nylon varieties available, and nylon has been used in other kitchen utensils such as food containers and frying spatulas for years and years and I haven't seen any panic reports about people dying from nylon shock anywhere. Just make sure you check up on it before you buy a particular brand I guess... When non-biodegradable ends up in landfill (or your own compost) it takes forever (a term I here use loosely in the meaning of "longer than we have been counting years since the death of Christ") to break down and as it does it releases poisonous substances.
URL: The tea bag is dead. Long live the tea bag
URL: The new shape of tea bags
URL: Google answers - Nylon silken tea bags
URL: Digg - Tea's got a brand new bag (wish I thought of that title!)
