tea & coffee, coffee & tea

March 4, 2017 9:15 AM

So I know tea and coffee developed with different traditions for brewing. But with the food industry always seeking the latest spin on novelty for selling the same food products in different ways, why haven't we seen coffee sold in tea bags (which seem like they're basically the same material as coffee filters), and why don't I see tea being marketed to be used with coffee pots or french presses (which seem like they're basically the same as tea pots)?

I am hoping for answers to come from people who work in food manufacturing and marketing (etc).

posted by aniola to Food & Drink (21 answers total)

I've seen coffee packets, did not seem to catch on. Tea in a french press works for large leaf teas but the mesh is not fine enough for some teas. (and a press in just not a teapots, some traditions are important man :-)
posted by sammyo at 9:21 AM on March 4, 2017

We have, on both counts. I may be wrong but about the brand but some years back Maxwell House ( I think) had single serve coffee in 'teabags'.

I have been served loose leaf tea in from a receptacle much like a French press (it had a plunger).

The coffee in a bag didn't catch on because it didn't make a tasty cup, is my guess.
posted by Klaxon Aoooogah at 9:23 AM on March 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

Oh, I tried those instant Folgers bags they made 15-odd years ago. They managed to somehow be worse than regular Folgers, and I do not have a delicate palate. Single-serve tubes of instant coffee are still awful, but they aren't any more so than the regular jar of instant coffee, and they are as portable and usable as teabags.
posted by Countess Elena at 9:27 AM on March 4, 2017 [3 favorites]

I remember coffee bags being a thing: slightly larger tea bags, but filled with grounds. They made okay coffee, nothing special. They looked very much like those paper pods you get in some budget hotels for their single-cup coffee machines.

If you've ever had tea made in a coffee pot, you'd know why this wasn't a good idea. Since one should never really wash a teapot, the idea of getting the patina tasting like coffee is revolting.
posted by scruss at 9:52 AM on March 4, 2017

I've got this thing, which is sort of like a french press for tea. Instead of plunger though it's spring loaded and when you set it over your tea cup it drains direct into the mug.
posted by COD at 9:53 AM on March 4, 2017

Well, coffee bags are just not really functional, cause coffee tastes way better when it's brewed in a traditional way. I tried to use coffee in granules as instant coffee (=take a spoonful, put it in a cup with boiling water, wait for it to brew and drink), it's wasn't good at all. French press for tea - well, it's commonly used. As far as I know, there're even separate presses designed for brewing tea and coffee. As a tea fanatic, I even have one at home. It makes wonderful tea, especially if compared to tea from packets.
posted by HelenShepl at 10:02 AM on March 4, 2017

I've been served tea in French presses in a number of restaurants. As to why we haven't seen tea marketed to be used with French presses--well, it's just loose leaf tea. I'm not sure how you would market it any differently.
posted by HotToddy at 10:51 AM on March 4, 2017

There's this: http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/liquid-coffee. Sorry, on my phone so can't do real links.
posted by Bella Donna at 11:05 AM on March 4, 2017

There is such a thing as "iced tea machines" which basically function exactly like a coffee pot except with a different type of pitcher. So now I just make tea for iced tea in my coffee maker (which I run through the dishwasher so it doesn't taste like coffee). I think manufacturers don't want you to think too hard about these similarities because they want you to buy 10 different gadgets for pouring hot water over plant matter.
posted by bleep at 11:41 AM on March 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

Best answer: I have had tea served in French presses of various types on many occasions. If you google "french press for tea" you will get a lot of results, often with pretty pictures.
posted by bile and syntax at 11:51 AM on March 4, 2017

Coffee bags do get marketed from time to time. Not much different that pourover coffee, but they steadfastly never catch on.
posted by theora55 at 12:35 PM on March 4, 2017

You can still purchase Folger's Coffee Bags. They take much longer to brew a cup of coffee than a pour-over method (cone + filter) and produce a much worse cup, even when compared to regular Folger's.

The packet recommends you steep for five minutes. To me that wound up with lukewarm nasty coffee.
posted by blob at 12:47 PM on March 4, 2017 [2 favorites]

Folgers still makes Coffee Singles. They're a mix of superfine grind and instant. So, a step above pure instant, but not as good as brewed. I am guilty of having used them for several years. I like bad coffee and am lazy.

On preview: What blob said, except only steep for 2 minutes and it is still hot enough if you started with boiling water.

If I had a french press, I'd be using it for tea. I've got teapots.
posted by monopas at 12:53 PM on March 4, 2017

We use a french press for loose leaf tea. Allows the leaves to unfold properly. I no longer drink coffee but I have done the bags. They're horrible. But they do exist.

Generally coffee needs more surface area and water flow and sometimes more coffee volume to brew. Technically tea needs the same but bagged tea is ground and torn down to tiny bits compared to loose leaf which is higher quality and better. (There are some in-between with larger leaves in bags that allow for more expansion though.)
posted by Crystalinne at 1:00 PM on March 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

I swear by Treeline Geo single serve coffees for camping. Great coffee, very easy.
posted by Marinara at 1:45 PM on March 4, 2017

Best answer: Companies that focus on 'instant' products, typically don't care about quality. Coffee singles, as it has been mentioned use a combo of dehydrated flavor crystals and superfine grind. The superfine grind will over extract if you glance at it wrong, and the flavor crystals were so extracted to begin with (Flavor crystals are crazy by the way, in a really cool way...but most producers overdo extraction for the sake of production volumes). Basically, they're kind of not on the radar (though they do exist) because they're pretty shitty. They're fine in a pinch,

The tea in bags is typically substandard as well; these routinely contain the rough bits and broken leaves of tea (which allow for an uneven extraction into water...which will leave you with under extraction, over extraction, or both in your cup. Bummer).

That said, there are some forward thinking companies like Sudden Coffee and Colona are putting a fantastic amount of engineering and effort into producing instant (and instant-ish) coffee. It's perfectly doable, to make coffee a coffee-bag thing, and it's perfectly doable to do a good job. But if you look at the 'quality' cost, it's pretty drastic. Starbucks Via goes for like $.75 a cup, where Sudden sells for a $3+.

There is a pretty giant marketing hurdle to get over for these companies. Instant/quick coffee is almost always not great (and usually bad), and the reputation is really difficult to overcome. But Sudden especially is getting some traction. They're actually quite tasty, and I've had them on a couple occasions. I use them pretty exclusively when I travel, because they're way easier to lug around than my (admittedly obscene) coffee kit.

As far as tea in french presses, I don't know any shops that do it, but I know plenty of folks who do at home. It works great *shrugs* I know a large cross section of coffee people, and its probably just because they already have a press around?
posted by furnace.heart at 1:57 PM on March 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Coffee packets and sachets are common products here in Malaysia/Singapore, and it's very popular for convenience. The terms are interchangeable between instant coffee, and packed local ground roasted coffee (often premixed with sugar and non-dairy creamer, but you can get them plain), so you do need some familiarity with the packaging style and phrases, but here's a typical selection, in between the instant coffee jars. Definitely though, if you're talking about bags of ground coffee, and not instant, it's strictly understood to be local kopi.

They're usually individually vacuum packed before packed further together in packagings of 15s, 20s or even 30s. If we're talking about the ground coffee, because of various reasons (like the local beans tend to be Robusta/Liberica) and the roasting here caramelizes the beans with margarine/butter and salt), the prep is simply steeping them in fresh boiling water for about 3 minutes.

The only other country I know of who sells their coffee products in a similar way is Japanese, that I can get here, because they also prefer coffee brewed rather than espresso (traditionally). So I can buy single serve sachets in a box of ready to brew coffee. I can't recall if they sell them in bags like the ones I mentioned above, but the popular type is like seen here. Each bag already comes with a paper scaffold you unfold to place on your mug, and then you carry on with the hot water to brew as usual.

again, these are not instant.

We have our respective tea traditions, and none of it looks similar to a press, so definitely I don't notice anything like it. We have tea socks though.
posted by cendawanita at 5:01 PM on March 4, 2017

"tea" bagged coffee is a thing from some office coffee vendors. It's popular because the bag ensures consistency in strength of the coffee; or at least that's why the office I was in who bought it that way do so for that reason.

blob: "The packet recommends you steep for five minutes. To me that wound up with lukewarm nasty coffee."

The Coffee stays hot in a vacuum travel mug (like a Contigo)
posted by Mitheral at 7:06 PM on March 4, 2017

Coffee bags made by The House of Robert Timms. The brand is well known here and fairly synonymous with the bags range. They claim one variant was formulated for the Queen.
posted by esto-again at 7:26 PM on March 4, 2017

Best answer: They do have tea K-cups for use in Keurig coffee machines. I tried it a couple times, but abandoned it since every cup has a coffee taste to it. I've also seen tea packets that are supposed to be used with coffee makers in hotels, and they have the same problem.

And at home I use a French Press. It isn't used for anything other than tea and herbal teas (it gets poured into a teapot when steeping is complete). It isn't crossover equipment used by the coffee drinkers of the house. In fact part of me wants one for the black teas, another for oolongs, and another one for herbals.
posted by mountmccabe at 11:13 PM on March 4, 2017

I never understood the tea K-cups. If you're going to make a bad cup of tea anyway, why not just use a tea bag and use the Keurig with no pod to pull a hot water shot? That way you can at least control how long the tea steeps. The few tea pods that I tried always came out under-steeped and weak.
posted by xedrik at 9:09 AM on March 5, 2017