Today, I'm going to talk about a topic that is particularly close to my heart because I'm a huge tea lover as well as DIY (Do it Yourself):making your own homemade tea bags.

Why make your own tea bags?

If you like tea, you'll recognize that teas in bags offer a limited variety of flavors, and many brands market teas containing numerous pesticides. In addition to offering this variety, loose teas generally have much more flavor and allow you to dose the amount of tea you want to brew.

"But why not just usea tea ball? "you might ask? It goes without saying that this is still the most eco-friendly, zero waste and convenient solution. But imagine that you have friends and family over and you want to show them your teas or infusions in bulk. You can either make the same tea for everyone, mandating one flavor and use yourtea ball for the entire teapot, or you can have one tea ball per person so that everyone can enjoy the tea of their choice, which is quite invasive in your cabinets on a daily basis.

Another drawback of loose tea is that if you go on a road trip, you'll need to take yourtea box and tea ball with you, which you'll agree is not always practical.

That's why I'm going to show you a simple solution below: make your own bags of home-made tea.

DIY: my homemade tea bags

As far as materials go, it couldn't be easier: you need paper coffee filters, a pair of scissors, string, a stapler and...bulk tea!

There are several ways to make tea bags:

- You cut 8-10 centimeters diameter circles in the coffee filters, put a teaspoon of tea in the center of the circle and form a small ballotin that you tie with a small cotton string.

or

- You cut your filter into long rectangles, put a teaspoon of tea in the bottom part of a rectangle and fold it lengthwise in three and then in half heightwise. Make a small edge with the top part, slip a small string through the fold, and staple it closed.

To replace the coffee filters, you can use muslin cloth.

And that's it.  

Tea bags: our tips

Be aware that there are tea bags to fill. These are usually sold in boxes of 50 or 100 bags. Then just put the tea of your choice inside and close them in one of the ways mentioned above, stapling the top edge after slipping a small string through.

You can make a whole bunch of tea bags ahead of time to save time and store them in a tea box with compartments. In order to differentiate them, you can staple a small label mentioning the flavor contained in the bag.

Tea bags: my little zero waste plus

This homemade tea bags solution is great and you can enjoy your teas in bulk to your heart's content and let your friends and family discover them or take them easily to work or out, but from a zero waste point of view it's still not the optimal solution because these are not reusable.

To makea reusable tea bag, you'll need some fabric scraps, some fairly thin cord, and most importantly, some sewing skills. Many tutorials are available on the internet, which will allow you to make your bags. Here is an example: http://violettefactory.com/tea-time-diy-petite-dinette-a-the-tissu/

However, in order to avoid staining, it is recommended to wash them under water with a little soap immediately after use.

Now here you are with all the tips to make your homemade tea bags. You can also customize them and offer them as a gift on Mother's Day, Christmas or as a little end of year gift to your children's teachers. Make sure, however, that these people are as tea fan as you are 😉