I have never been disgusted and angered by a product until I saw this product being advertised the other night. I saw it during the ad-break of “Escape to the Country”, and it disgusted me that this product existed.

“now also available in convenient tea capsules!” so says Dilmah’s website of their Tea Capsules.

I know, they’re attempting to cash in on the coffee capsule craze.

But coffee and its myriad of flavours and whatever I can sort of see a purpose, as much as any other coffee device. There’s plenty of coffee making devices, the stove top brewing the moka pot, or plunger or even coffee bags. Plus the poor cousin; instant coffee.
I don’t really know where one method of coffee sits against the other, I’m not a coffee drinker.

But tea.
Tea is different, essentially you can have loose leaf tea in a tea pot or some sort of single cup device that replicates a tea pot on a smaller scale. Or you have tea bags. Simple.
Everyone who drinks tea will make it by using either or both of these methods; loose leaf or tea bags.

Why, why, why would “tea capsules” be good?
Or more to the point why would they be better than tea bags or loose lead tea?

I presume (again as I don’t own a ‘capsule coffee make’) that you would need to pass some water through the nozzle of the coffee machine to clean it prior to making you tea other wise you might end up with a little bit a coffee in your tea. Dilmah’s website does indicate you should do this.

Also, what of cost?
High to extreme I would think.

I don’t drink Dilmah’s tea as I have always drunken Australian grown tea, which is Nerada tea. So I’ll be comparing the prices between that and Dilmah’s tea capsules.

According to the Dilmah’s website a packet of their English Breakfast has 10 servings in it and costs $5.20 AUD, according to Woolworths’ website it costs $5.90 AUD.
Compared to Nerada’s 100 pack of tea bags on Coles’ website is $4.61 AUD, I’ve listed Coles’ website rather than Woolworths as theirs is currently on special (it’s on special for $2.99 but is usually $4.57 AUD, essentially no difference in price between the big two).
So in order to equal the servings of the 100 Nerada tea bags with the Dilmah capsules you’d need to spend $52.

What of the environmental costs?
As I mentioned above, I drink Nerada Tea, which is grown in Australia, an Australian company, employing Australians. The tea only travels as far afield as Australia, from where it’s grown in the fields to the factory where it’s dried and packed.

Dilmah’s and every other tea company has to at least be shipped into the country.
But these tea capsules, they’re made out of plastic and aluminium (according to the Wikipedia page).
I very much doubt that the bits of aluminium in these tea capsules are conventionally recyclable by the council.

On tea bag front, tea bags are made out of paper, they’ll rot in any compost or in any landfill.

Finally.
Control.
I like my tea a certain way, I use tea bags because that gives me the best balance between control and simplicity. Occasionally I’ll use loose leaf tea in a tea pot (and not use Nerada’s tea, in that case I’ll use T2’s Daintree tea as Nerada’s loose leaf is sometimes blended with imported teas.
I like my tea strong, I usually use 2 tea bags and let it steep for a while.
With these capsules, high pressure hot water (from what I understand) is forced through the capsule.
So you can’t control *how* your tea is brewed, it just gets spurted out into your cup.

Tea making was already a simple process, with infinite control and minimal amounts of waste.
These tea capsules make the process complicated, produce a lot more waste and take away all control.
If I didn’t already not drink Dilmah I’d boycott it.

Buy Nerada Tea Bags or T2 Daintree Loose Leaf Tea. Both are good, Nerada’s is inexpensive, T2’s isn’t as cheap, but is still cheaper than tea capsules.