Call it sacrilegious (sacrilicious?) or just downright crazy but a British drinks maker just introduced a new kind of drinkable tea that has somehow managed to ditch its companion bag. Aptly dubbed No More Tea Bags, this newfangled way to enjoy a piping hot cup of tea comes in the form of an aerosol can; simply spray it into a mug before adding hot water — or into your mouth if you’re looking for a quick hit.
Developed and manufactured by Yum Cha Drinks, No More Tea Bags launched this past summer in a few mom-and-pop shops around the United Kingdom, with Jasmine, Earl Grey, and English-breakfast varieties. Prebrewed by Yum Cha Drinks before being canned, the business makes use of equipment typically reserved for crafting wine to produce each batch which returns roughly 20 cups of standard strength tea. According to the drink’s maker, it was all about creating a beneficial advantage.
“It was really about just trying to make a better cup of tea,” No More Tea Bags creator Guy Woodall told Reuters. “Of course there’s an element of convenience with this and not having a soggy tea bag to get rid of at the end of it. I started developing it in glass … The trouble was we had to use chemical preservatives and I didn’t want to do that. I realized that … you could put the tea in [an aerosol can] in a sterile condition and it’s completely isolated from the atmosphere.”
As expected, a growing number of British tea drinkers haven’t taken kindly to tea that abandons its beloved bags. As far as Tea Box co-founder and tea sommelier Jemma Swallow is concerned, there may not even be significant demand for such a product despite its novelty.
“This is probably more like your average cup of tea. There’ll be a lot of people who’d probably love … this flavor and this convenience,” she added. “But I think as people are demanding more from their tea, I think this market may get smaller.”
Though it may not revolutionize the tea industry, you can’t fault Woodall for injecting a minor dose of innovation into something you’d least expect to see reformed. Sacrilicious indeed!
