One of the most common statements I hear about tea bags is that they contain dust and sweepings from the floor; this is indeed true, but not in the way that you may think ! At the end of the manufacturing process, there is a jumble of different leaf particles that need to be sorted so that equal shapes and sizes are grouped together.

This is literally done using big sieving machines whereby the largest particles are syphoned off at the top and the smallest fall through the smaller mesh at the bottom (For fine quality teas this may be partially done by hand - as you see on the left).

The leaf grades of equal size/shape are then packed together and sold separately in the open market.

There is a very comprehensive grading system used within the tea trade and the smallest of these are known as ‘dusts’ - these grades literally look like dust as the particles are so small and it is typically these grades that are used in tea bags.

In addition to this, as a tea estate produces a large number of leaf grades, some of these grades may only account for a few kilos per day - therefore they are stored up until there is enough to sell. Once there is enough, it has to be blended together so it is uniform in flavour (tea - even from the same estate - can taste different from one day to another if the weather changes) - this is typically done using shovels in a specially designated area of floor that can be kept clean. So, there you have it, tea bags are dust and sweepings from the floor!

The following link provides a the most comprehensive insight into the complicated grading system for tea that I could find on the web - however, even this has a few holes in it!