Availability of tea
It is very important that you use the right type of tea. If everyone uses the same tea, it will be possible to compare results. With different tea types this is not possible.
In 2013, Lipton produced both green tea and rooibos tea in woven nylon mesh bags. In 2017, they changed to nonwoven bags made of polypropylene. Late 2021, Lipton changed again to ‘plantbased bags’. As far as we can tell, the tea inside the bag has remained the same. In 2024 however, Lipton discontinued ‘our’ green tea. Since any comparison between old and new tea is going to be different, we do not recommend using other types of tea to calculate k and S.
If you however want a measure of mass loss within your sites, and you want to use a standardised tea, we would recommend Japanese Sencha, but you can also source tea locally if you find tea in non-paper bags.
One study has compared different types of tea: Middelanis T, Pohl CM, Looschelders D, and Hamer U (2023) New directions for the Tea Bag Index: Alternative teabags and concepts can advance citizen science. Ecological Research 38:690-699
Technical details
Green tea – Lipton Indonesian tea Sencha tradition: EAN 87 22700 05552 5.
Green tea – Lipton Japanese Sencha: EAN 5063270101797. Cannot be used to calculate k and S!
Rooibos tea: Lipton Infusion Rooibos: 5 063270 101612. This is the exact equivalent of EAN 87 11327 5143 48 that is not sold anymore
The wrong tea
Easy confusion exists with ‘Green tea with flavoring’ as well as with ‘red tea’ and ‘African rooibos’. Those are not the right type of tea. Always check the EAN number.
Do not calculate k and S from ‘Green tea Japanese Sencha’
Online
If you cannot find the right tea in your local shop, you can order it online.
e.g.
Green
NA
Japaneese Sencha
Apotea
Scandinavian
Onfos.de
cheapbasket.com.cy
Dutchsupermarket.com
Sporadically also via amazon available.
Rooibos
Dutchsupermarket.com
Dutchsupermarket sponsors our project and provides 10% discount when you apply the coupon code TBI10 in the shopping cart.