Colm O'Regan: I'm brewing ideas about tea leaves v tea bags

For the first time in decades, I’m back on the loose tea. Teabags have been mainstays since they first crept in years ago. Displacing the loose tea like a grey squirrel chasing away poor Sammy.

When they arrived first, the tea bags were cleaner. Or so we thought back then. They brought convenience. Peace of mind. Our teapots always allowed a significant amount of leaves into the mug. So if you were drinking tea in our house, you had to know that the last mouthful was a dicey, leafy prospect. You had to slightly pucker. A gulp was out of the question. I do remember visitors from the future who assumed we were using teabags wincing slightly as they drained their first cup and got a mouthful of essence.
Then teabags squirrelled their way in and the tea could be thrown back the throat. (Unless the tea was being drunk outdoors in which case it was compulsory to hurl the dregs ‘up the yard’.)