Drinking Tea in Groups is Good for the Environment!
As you know, we learned that by delivering our teas in our new paperboard canisters (instead of our previous steel containers), we cut the carbon footprint of tea delivery by approximately 80%. We’re very excited about this, but, of course, it’s only one piece of the story. We also learned that, pound-for-pound, the energy required to brew the tea once it reached the customer rivaled that of delivering it to them in the first place (in our new-and-improved packaging)!
Now, unless your super-power is to boil water spontaneously, energy will certainly be required to boil (or nearly boil) water to brew tea in the traditional fashion. So what’s an environmentally-conscious tea drinker to do? Here are a few suggestions:
- Only heat as much water in your kettle as you need for the amount of tea you’re making. In other words, don’t boil a full kettle for a single cup of tea!
- If you’re making iced tea, experiment with cold-brewing your tea in the refrigerator (results may vary depending upon the type of tea you’re brewing, however).
- If you’re going to be brewing tea one cup at a time over the course of a day, consider using an insulated electric kettle instead of the stove — we haven’t tested this one yet, but I have a suspicion that it would result in lower energy consumption.
- Last, but not least, make the most of that energy used to heat your water, and brew tea in groups – it’s certainly going to be more efficient to brew one large pot of tea than several individual cups!
February 14 2008 03:24 pm | Energy and Tea Preparation
Jason Rakowski on 14 Feb 2008 at 3:34 pm #
I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you.
Jason Rakowski
Scientific Ink » links for 2008-02-20 - not particularly objective musings on odds and ends - Dunrie Greiling, Ann Arbor, MI 48103 on 20 Feb 2008 at 6:31 pm #
[...] Drinking Tea in Groups is Good for the Environment! Now, unless your super-power is to boil water spontaneously, energy will certainly be required to boil (or nearly boil) water to brew tea in the traditional fashion. So what’s an environmentally-conscious tea drinker to do? Only heat as much water in (tags: tea green sustainability community) [...]
Chris on 23 Feb 2008 at 3:47 pm #
What about microwaving?
Sarah on 01 Apr 2008 at 11:43 pm #
I have also read that just preparing the water for the necessary tea temperature for white tea or green tea is lower in temperature therefore reducing the energy impact. There is also a certain amount of gratitude that I have read on http://artoftea.com/wordpress/2007/06/24/sado-or-chado/ which brings in the intention of preparing a perfect cup of tea.
Gil on 05 Jun 2008 at 9:16 am #
Has anyone actually calculated the carbon footprint of a cup of tea?
By that I mean, from production to disposal or even more ambitious from raw material to disposal?
Marilee on 10 Nov 2009 at 10:09 am #
I feel a little hesitant to say this, because I know that it’s considered traditional and “proper” to heat your water in a kettle, but I heat my water-just the amount that I need for the cup of tea-in a glass cup in the microwave, then put in the tea, and cover the cup to let it steep. I then pour the tea through a strainer into my teacup. I’m not sure how much energy this saves over heating the water in a kettle, but I would think it might be at least half.
Barbara on 10 Nov 2009 at 12:57 pm #
I believe that the electric kettles are the most energy efficient way of boiling water….of course they are pretty much all made in China, so there’s that.