Seems kind of odd to celebrate something that's packed so wastefully!

Pretty they are, but c'mon guys, how can you run this in the middle of the 'waste of packaging' contest. ANY tea bag is a waste of packaging - and silken ones? DEFINITELY. Get a fancy tea ball and some bulk packaged tean instead.

And this is the problem with the environmentalist movement- it's not very practical. Now, if these were cheap, practical, and natural, I'd go buy some.

Tea Forte is smashingly cool design, but in all honesty, I think it's a candidate for the un-treehugger excessive packaging award.

15 Tea bags, packed in their own individual pyramids, packed in a holder, packed in a Tin, which is then sometimes shrink wrapped... yikes!

Totally agree with Trey - especially as this post follows a piece on wasteful packaging.

A TeaStick looks just as nice and can be reused for about 20 years :-)

http://www.rainydaymagazine.com/RDM2005/Workshops/Kitchen/RainyDayKitchen_Teastick.htm

I agree, seems like excessive packaging, and did I miss something? Is there any green benefit to these tea bags?

Why couldn't they have designed an infuser that looked similar but is reusable?

This entry illustrates what I think is one of the main reasons many people don't take environmentalism seriously. Too often, environmentalism comes across as simply the aesthetic sense of the haute bourgeoisie.

People with a refined aesthetic and the money to indulge it can feel better about their consumerist impulses if it's wrapped up in a veneer of higher purpose. There really isn't an enormous ecological difference in between buying a $50 bamboo cutting board and a $15 maple board that is probably harvested from a tree farm and lasts 10 years. But the one made of bamboo LOOKS so much more exotic and stylish, and can plausibly be described as coming from a feedstock that is more sustainable and ecofriendly (even though the bamboo board probably requires a lengthier manufacturing process due to the amount of "environmentally benign" resins needed to keep the board in one piece).

$24 for 15 overpackaged (but exquisitely designed) tea bags betrays the wants of the aesthete, not the needs of the planet. Why not use a $3 tea ball that will last for 20 years? If you want, spend $10 for a pretty one.

These were designed for the gift market, something more along the lines of a box of chocolates than a daily-morning-tea for yourself. This doesn't forgive wasteful packaging, for sure, but maybe that puts it into a bit of perspective.

my favorite tea infuser - works like a charm and does not leak tea bits, easy to clean

http://www.coffeegizmo.com/

What's the big deal? Is it that these are made of silk? That they're pyramids? I don't get it. PG Tips has had their tea in pyramid tea bags for ages. Makes it easier to pull them out of a cup.

This is just green bling. Look at me! My tea is steeping in silk! I'm so enlightened! I'm awesome!

But I'm not sure about Brian's comments there about the bamboo cutting boards. Bed Bath and Beyond has bamboo boards for $15.

Not only is the packaging wasteful, tea bags are generally made from tea that is too low-quality to sell in bulk.

So they're using that pretty, wasteful packaging to get you to pay more for crappy tea.

Fungus -

Of course there are $15 bamboo board at BB&B, but that's just the inevitable down marketing of trendy items. I've seen them myself - like most such items, they are almost, but not quite, as nice as the pricier ones.

Which is what I was originally getting at. The tea bags mentioned above are exquisitely designed - the aesthete in me loves the way they look. If enough people with the ability to spend $24 for 15 cups of homebrewed tea buy them, you will inevitably find similar, but not quite as refined, tea bags at Costco.

If we are talking purely in terms of design and "beauty", this is, overall, a good thing. Well designed objects that please the eye as well as perform their function are preferrable to similar ugly items. But at a site like TreeHugger, you would expect there to be a slightly more global view - is this item not just more beautiful, but does it have a greater or lesser impact on the environment. Quite obviously, these tea bags (even if created largely for the gifting market) have a much larger impact on the environment (in terms of packaging) than a similar amount of loose leaf tea purchased in an attractive reusable tin from a local tea merchant.

Which should, I think, be the point of environmentalism. To be able to say "this is pretty and appeals to me, but is wasteful and not worth it". It's really easy to be against consumerism in the form of ugly products, not so easy when the product is so pretty.

I thought treehugger was a blog promoting the environment and against wasteful consumerism?

The original article and what it advertises is a waste of resources.

This makes me wonder if the staff of treehugger has any ethics or credibility. Do a little journalistic work and don't serve as a product placement site. Just because it costs money does not make it good.

Try this: please profile a list of quality bulk loose teas that are grown organically and provide a list of tea balls/strainers made of recycleable material which are sold by good companies.

Roy, I agree with most of the criticism about this item.

I can *maybe* imagine it as a one-time gift for purely aesthetic reasons, especially as an alternative to something else that is worse, but it certainly doesn't deserve high praise on the sustainability level since it takes something simple and elegant and turns it into something complex and wasteful, even if very artfully.

The fact is, this probably got featured here because we're human and sometime slip up. We are impressed for the wrong reasons and forget to question our motivations for liking something; bam! we press the "publish" button. Oops, too late, thousands of people are reading and writing comments.

I know this from experience: I've written 400+ posts for TH and regretted a handful of them. But it's okay to make errors, we learn from them and tomorrow is another day. Our batting average isn't 100%, but I think that in general TH has been getting better and better, and you haven't seen half of it yet; we're working on LOTS of cool things behind the scenes.

Thanks for taking the time to write.

I actually came back to this item to see if the editors had yet agreed that this is a phenomenal waste of packaging.
The whole thing casts a rather long shadow on the credibility of a site that seems to place a lot of products.

As a private label tea packager, I can clear up a few things about these bags.

1. some of the pyramid bags are biodegradable (not sure what the material is).

2. the tea used in these bags is generally much nicer than usual teabag tea - the idea being that the pyramid offers more room for whole leaf tea.

3. Yes, bulk leaf tea is better for price, and often for quality, but teabags do have their place in regard to convenience. If anyone has a better idea of how to bag tea, talk to me! id love to introduce a more natural teabag!

I was given one of these tea bags to try and was searching for them online for gifting when I came across this website. Just want to make one comment that no one has made... These tea bags are pretty strong and therefore reusable several times. You'll get about 45 cups of tea from the tin, not 15. They are also excellent quality tea. I'm not saying they necessarily belong on Treehugger, but they are not as extremely wasteful as they seem. And a side note... I'm glad I found this website... serendipity.

Lucy,
I'm interested in how to reuse these tea bags? Is there a way to open them so you may put in new tea leaves?

its really great that u have developed Edible tea bags?? can u please give more information about this??
what is the material used for these edible tea bags?? how much these edible bags cost??

All I wanted was information about tea bag material, what is it, where can you get the best biodegradable material to make your own that look good as well and at first when I saw these tea bags I thought don't they look great. The packaging and cost (individual and to the environment) really is the issue, the comments made about this product are great. I'm glad I also found this website and if anyone has the answers to my original enquiry I would like to thank you in advance.

I just had Tea Forte's in a hotel. I had ordered Decaf Tea and received one of these pyramids. I hate to say this but I think people are wrong these are made of silk. True, they can be used for several cups of tea because the tea they've used is very high quality however I am concerned about the "silken" infuser. The material to me looked more like plastic. I actually took the pyramid apart once I was finished with brewing. After 4-5 brewings it still had its pyramid shape perfectly intact which proved to me it was not made of a harmless "silk" material. Regular silk would have collapsed. My best guess is a white plastic or a mixture which means everytime you brew a "Tea Forte" you also get exposed to some kind of chemical. Hot water will leach chemicals out of plastics. If you are interested in this product, please check with the company first before you order. I looked at their website and I could not see any details about the infuser material. It only says "Silken". That's not clear enough for me. If someone learns something new, could you please post here? Thanks.

I'm REALLY surprised that Planet Green is linking to this article now. I would have thought that with all the negative comments, Treehugger would have put this one to bed.

This is just a ridiculous waste of resources, as so many others have commented. I don't think I'll be subscribing to Planet Green if they are going to continue to promote products with so much excess packaging!

Oh, this is a perfect gift for my Poulsbo florist.

Just had this tea at Mayfair Hotel, London. Takes a little longer for the tea to brew, but it's worth the wait. Best tea I've ever had :) That said I agree with Minnie, it's not silk, so if that's what you want then look elsewhere...I believe my colleague uses real silk pouch tea bags, but only has exotic flavoured ones so being a typical English tea drinker I am waiting for the right moment to endulge myself on an exotic journey for the senses!

I was very worried about the packaging material myself - especiallly since I was just reading about the new style of tea packaging which is hitting the market, namely plastics. What is happening with the world. I am hoping to do some tea-packaging myself and was shopping around for the right type of packaging materials, especially since I consider myself an herbal person. You know, you want to give the best to your customers.

Cathy - Brooklyn

Im trying to source an environmentally friendly tea bag material. Can anyone enlighten me on who to contact.