This is one of those debates that tea people can become surprisingly passionate about.
Loose leaf is often seen as the “proper” way to serve tea, and in some situations I completely agree.
But cafés are businesses, not tea ceremonies.
So the real question is:
What gives your customer a great cup of tea while still working operationally?
Loose leaf has some obvious advantages.
You can see the tea. There is a bit of theatre to it. The leaves have plenty of room to open, and when it is presented properly in a teapot, it can create a very premium experience.
For hotels, restaurants and cafés where tea plays a bigger part in the overall offer, loose leaf can be fantastic.
But it also has drawbacks.
Your team needs to measure it consistently. You need infusers or strainers. Cleaning takes longer. And during a very busy service, it is surprisingly easy for one pot to end up much stronger than another.
This is where pyramid tea bags become incredibly useful.
A good pyramid is completely different from the dusty square tea bag most of us grew up with. The larger shape gives whole leaf tea much more room to infuse properly, which means you can retain the quality of the tea while making it far easier and quicker for the café to serve.
One pyramid.
One pot.
Correct water.
Correct brewing time.
Done.
The consistency improves enormously.
That is especially valuable for high-volume coffee shops where tea might only represent a smaller percentage of overall drinks sales, but customers still expect the same level of quality.
There is also far less mess.
That might sound like a small thing until you have spent an entire Saturday scraping wet loose tea out of sinks.
So which do I recommend?
It depends entirely on the business.
If you are a hotel offering afternoon tea, I would probably lean strongly towards loose leaf.
If you are a busy speciality coffee shop making hundreds of drinks a day, high-quality pyramids can make a huge amount of sense.
Some of our customers actually use both.
Loose leaf for table service and more premium occasions.
Pyramids for speed, consistency and takeaway service.
That can be a very good compromise.
The important thing is not to get distracted by the format and forget what is actually inside it.
A beautiful pyramid filled with poor tea is still poor tea.
A good tea should smell fantastic when you open it, taste clean and distinctive, and leave the customer thinking:
That was a really good cup of tea.
Because ultimately, that is the bit they are going to remember.