9 Best Loose Leaf Teas in 2024

The best loose leaf tea brands package their products with an abundance of healthy nutrients and antioxidants. But finding the best option for your taste pallet can be a long and arduous process. That’s where we come in.

After analyzing the taste, scent, and price of countless loose leaf teas, the best loose leaf tea overall is Dilmah Premium Ceylon Black Tea. While Dilmah ranked well in every category, tea comes in all different varieties — which is why we’ve curated the top flavors around. Check out this list to find your next go-to loose leaf tea. 

Our Top Picks

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Closer Look: Best Loose Leaf Teas

Let us read the leaves- here’s a more in-depth look at all of the best loose leaf teas on the market.

This Sri Lankan family-owned tea company was founded by one of the world’s most renowned tea makers, Merrill J. Fernando. The loose leaf teas from Dilmah are unblended, making them some of the world’s freshest tea.

Along with being fresh tea, Dilmah also practices ethical production methods. Drinkers should note that this loose leaf resembles coffee grounds over traditional loose leaf, but that’s normal for this brand. That said, it’s best to use a strainer with tight holes to avoid a cup of tea with loose leaf sediment at the bottom. 

The best loose leaf black tea on the market.

Harney & Sons has consistently ranked among top tea brands. They produce a range of flavors, from matcha to oolong. With flavors like their Green Tea Blend (with hints of berry and coconut), there is certainly a loose leaf tea flavor here for every drinker.

For those seeking a tea to use as their ritual morning pick-me-up, Harney & Sons might be a good option as their teas tend to contain a higher caffeine content than many other brands. Traditionally, loose leaf sencha tea is expensive, but Harney & Sons price theirs at an affordable rate. 

Yorkshire Tea is a family-owned business founded in 1886. Since its inception, the company has prided itself on remaining true to its core values. They don’t cut corners when producing their tea, keeping it as traditional and tasty as possible.

Every flavor of tea endures a rigorous set of taste testing before leaving the building. Drinkers of the tea often remark that Yorkshire is “one of the best teas to come out of the UK.”

Yorkshire offers the best black tea for those who want to avoid bitterness while maintaining a smooth, robust flavor. 

Vahdam Earl Grey Loose Leaf Tea might be one of the best earl grey teas you’ve ever tasted. 

Their earl grey contains 100% natural oil of bergamot, which is a pure source of antioxidants and fantastic for your health. While reviewers rave about the brand’s earl grey, don’t forget about the other flavors Vahdam has to offer. The brand’s teas are consistently reviewed as tasting fresh and smelling divine. There is sure to be a flavor for everyone from Vahdam. 

Davidson’s should be the brand best known for crafting teas for specific purposes. Whether it’s falling asleep quickly, losing weight, or boosting your immunity, Davidson’s has concocted a loose leaf tea blend to meet these needs.

Davidson offers one of the best decaffeinated teas on this list. It’s 100% USDA certified organic and 98% caffeine-free, complements of a natural carbon dioxide rinse. Davidson’s is also fair trade certified. 

In recent years, the brand has gotten creative with ayurvedic infusions that intended to help balance the mind and body.

Tea Forte produces some of the finest teas on this list. Their taste and smells are heavenly enough to make even non-tea drinkers fall in love. Most reviewers report having first tried the brand at a hotel or restaurant and instantly loving it.

The decorative packaging of their variety packs also makes Tea Forte teas a great gift. The largest complaint for drinkers is simply the price. For the number of cups you get from a single purchase, this brand is easily the most expensive on this list. Most drinkers counter this by saying the taste of the tea simply can’t be beaten. 

This is the ultimate tea brand if you want to start with a robust sampler set.

Solstice Tea Traders is the best tea sampler because it features 12 different teas: green, chai, black, herbal, and more. Once you’ve found your perfect flavor, purchasing loose leaf teas in bulk is easy with Solstice Tea Traders.

Drinkers of this brand consistently remark on their love for the brand’s wide selection of flavors with the sampler set. They say the taste is strong and smooth across all teas. While the sampler set does fall on the more expensive side, it is a more cost-efficient way to try many teas at once. 

This loose leaf tea is coming to your home straight from the Ghograjan Tea Estate in India. The brand’s history dates back to the 1930s when the garden was first planted. This loose leaf comes in beautifully packaged containers. Flavors include Assam Breakfast, Assam Golden Tips, Premium English Breakfast, Vintage Earl Grey, and Royal Masala Chai.

For generations, Ghograjan has prided itself on producing quality tea. Most reviewers consistently remark on the exceptional quality of the brand’s chai. The flavor is fresh and sophisticated without being overbearing or bitter. Like Tea Forte, Ghograjan prices their loose leaf higher than average, but they offset this by crafting an exceptional tea. 

Tiesta Tea should be the first choice for those new to loose leaf tea. The most common complaint of new tea drinkers is on the bitterness of most earl grey or black teas. A simple solution to this is to try more herbal or fruity brews. Tiesta Tea has no shortage of fun and vibrant herbal teas to choose from. From chunky watermelon to blueberry hibiscus, every tea drinker, will be able to find a flavor to suit their tastes.

If you’re curious to try more than one flavor from this brand, try purchasing their sampler pack with their five most popular teas. The brand likewise offers tea designed to boost your immunity, assist in weight loss, and help you relax for a good night’s sleep. 

What to Look for in Loose Leaf Teas

Along with tasting delicious, loose leaf tea comes with a wealth of health benefits. You’re treating yourself right when sitting down with a nice warm cup of tea.

Whether you’re a daily or an occasional tea drinker, it’s essential to know what to look for when choosing your favorite blend.

1. Type

One of the biggest questions people ask in regards to tea is the difference between loose leaf tea and tea bags. Most of the flavor of the tea is lost when using a teabag. It’s less fresh and generally a lower-quality product. Teabags are suitable for one use only, but you can re-steep some of the more high-quality loose leaf teas, giving you a bigger bang for your buck and making it a more sustainable practice. 

2. Quality

As a general rule, the larger the leaf, the higher quality the tea. Make sure that you also smell the tea before brewing. This will inform you if the tea has gone stale. Smelling the leaves is especially crucial for herbal teas. The color and scent of herbal teas will tell you about the tea quality once it’s been brewed. If the colors are faded or have a weak scent, it’s probably best to find a new loose leaf. 

The other essential factor in regards to quality is the ingredients list. Most people think that the ingredients in tea are pretty straight-forward, but this isn’t always the case. Some brands will add artificial sweeteners or flavors to enhance the taste of their product. This is often done to mask low quality tea. Ideally, your tea brand should be certified fair trade, organic, and eco-friendly. 

3. Flavor

As a final note, for those relatively new to tasting and learning about tea, the most common complaint is that it is too bitter. Instead of adding spoonful after spoonful of sweetener to your drink, try first an herbal or dessert tea. There are naturally-occurring sweeteners in these flavors that offset the “bitterness” and help you build a foundational pallet for trying countless flavors of tea. 

Our Process

For this guide on loose leaf teas, our team spent 6 hours researching the most popular blend from over 20 brands big and small. We then read about two hundred and fifty user reviews (both positive and negative) to discover what shoppers thought about each flavor. After comparing this data, we narrowed our list down to the top 9 loose leaf teas on the market. You can count on this research to guide you to a mindful purchasing decision.

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