Friday Funny: How to Use Stringless Tea Bags

I’ve had websites in one form or another since 1999, and I’ve seen my share of funny search queries lead to my pages. Now, I don’t want to make fun of anyone who clicks through to my site, but when how to use stringless tea bags showed up in my stats for the second time, I had to take the bait.

If you’re perplexed because you’ve found yourself with a tea bag that didn’t come with that string and little square tag (common in England, and increasingly here in the states), or worse, you accidentally broke the string off your tea bag, you’re in luck. I happen to be a freelance “How-to” writer on the side, and I’m here to show you how to make tea in the face of adversity.

How to Use Stringless Tea Bags

Supplies

First, it’s of utmost importance that you have the proper equipment. See below:

What to do if your tea bag doesn't have a string

  • 1 Tea Bag without a string
  • 1 Tea cup
  • Boiling water
  • 1 Spoon

Step One

Use your fingers to drop tea bag into water

Fill your cup with boiling water. Using your fingers, carefully plunk the stringless tea bag into the water. Alternatively, you can place the teabag in the cup first, and then add the water. In fact, that is probably a better idea. I should have thought of that before I snapped the picture.

Step Two

Let the tea bag sit in the water for 3 to 5 minutes. This is called steeping.

Step Three

How to remove a stringless tea bag from water

Use a spoon to fish the tea bag out of the water. You can hold it above the cup for a few seconds until it stops dripping, then discard of the tea bag.

Tips

You can use this very same method if brewing your tea in a teapot! If you can’t find a spoon, you might also use a coffee stirrer, a fork, a spork, or your fingers. If you’re really particular about getting every last bit of tea, you could even buy tea bag squeezer tongs. Who knew?

Additional Resources

How to Make a Proper Cup of Tea

Okay, enough teasing. Whoever you are, thank you for clicking through to my site, and I hope you’ve enjoyed a few nice cups of tea since then.

Jennifer Roberts

is the founder, designer and author of Jen Spends Less. Formerly an architectural drafter and designer, Jen cut her spending and embraced a frugal lifestyle to be a stay at home mom.

6 thoughts on “Friday Funny: How to Use Stringless Tea Bags”

  1. I laughed aloud as I read this post, felt better about a dental-appointment day I had been dreading, then made myself a cup of tea, ripping out the string so I could put your method to the test. It seems to be foolproof.

    Reply
  2. None of the tea bags (without strings) have ever filled completely with water. There’s always a small corner floating above the water. This corner is easy to grab with your fingers and then you just throw it. Obviously this is not the case for the bags with a string on, as you have the string to pull it out.

    This is how I’ve found it works with Celestial anyway. Has someone noticed the same thing elsewhere?

    Reply
  3. I’m so used to loose leaf tea that when I ordered fancy pyramid teabags and I pulled it out of the wrapper to find no string I was perplexed. I thought “it must be a manufacturing error”. Then I remembered having seen the square paper teabags before without strings. I assumed a spoon would work just fine, but it seemed unfortunately impractical when you’re making a thermos of tea to-go. Haha I don’t know what special advice I was hoping to find by googling it. I liked your cheeky article though. 🙂

    Reply
    • Do not use pyramid tea bags. At least I would not recommend it. Payramd tea bags are made of nylon and leach plastic when you drink it. So when you’re enjoying your cup of tea you’re actually drinking microplastics with it. I stick to the traditional string and tag or pillow tea bags. They’re also compostable if you have a garden and provide many nutrients vs pyramid tea bags which do not break down.

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