A Lipton bag costs $0.05 a cup and a Twinings bag $0.17. Loose black tea at 2.5 g a cup runs $0.18 (Harney & Sons, 1 lb) to $0.41 (Rishi, 1/4 lb), so bulk loose leaf costs about the same as a branded bag. A $79 puer cake brewed gongfu works out to about $0.31 per 8 oz of tea because one 6 g dose gives 10 infusions. Prices checked Oct 1, 2026.
The short version: price per cup by format
We checked every price below on Oct 1, 2026 on the vendor or retailer page linked in the table. A "cup" is 8 fl oz (237 ml) for western brewing: one bag, or 2.5 g of loose leaf, the dose Harney & Sons prints for its English Breakfast ("1 teaspoon loose (2.5 g) per 8 oz cup").
| Format | Cheapest we found | Typical | Most expensive we priced |
|---|---|---|---|
| Supermarket tea bag | $0.05 (Lipton) | $0.17–$0.18 (Twinings, Bigelow) | – |
| Premium bag or pyramid | $0.26 (Harney bag) | $0.40 (Harney sachet) | $0.80 (Adagio pyramid) |
| Loose black tea, 1 lb bag | $0.18 (Harney) | $0.24 (Adagio) | $0.28 (Rishi) |
| Loose, small pack | $0.41 (Rishi EB, 1/4 lb) | $0.45 (Dian Hong, 100 g) | $0.93 (Rishi Sencha, 100 g) |
Two numbers matter more than format: pack size and how many times you steep the leaf. The same Rishi English Breakfast costs $0.28 a cup from a 1 lb bag and $0.41 from a quarter pound.
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Tea bags: what you pay per gram
Bags look cheap per cup because each holds only about 2 g. Per gram they are not always cheap.
| Product | Vendor | Pack price | Grams | g per bag | $/g | $/cup | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lipton Black Tea, 100 bags | Target | $4.99 | 226 | 2.26 | $0.022 | $0.05 | Oct 1, 2026 |
| Twinings English Breakfast, 50 bags | Target | $8.69 | 100 | 2.00 | $0.087 | $0.17 | Oct 1, 2026 |
| Bigelow Constant Comment, 6 x 20 bags | Bigelow | $21.95 | 198 | 1.65 | $0.111 | $0.18 | Oct 1, 2026 |
| Harney & Sons English Breakfast, 50 wrapped bags | Harney | $12.99 | n/a | n/a | n/a | $0.26 | Oct 1, 2026 |
| Harney & Sons English Breakfast, 50 sachets | Harney | $19.99 | n/a | n/a | n/a | $0.40 | Oct 1, 2026 |
| Adagio English Breakfast, 15 pyramids | Adagio | $12.00 | n/a | n/a | n/a | $0.80 | Oct 1, 2026 |
| Rishi Sencha, 15 sachets | Rishi | $10.00 | n/a | n/a | n/a | $0.67 | Oct 1, 2026 |
Net weights: Lipton 8 oz (226 g) per CVS listing, which matches Target's $0.62/oz unit price; Twinings 3.53 oz (100 g) per iHerb listing; Bigelow 1.18 oz (33 g) per box per Target listing. Vendors that do not print a bag weight are marked n/a.
- Lipton is the price floor: $0.05 a cup and $0.022 a gram.
- Twinings and Bigelow cost 3.9x and 5.0x Lipton per gram. The extra cost is not more leaf: the Bigelow bag holds 1.65 g against Lipton's 2.26 g.
- Harney's sachets are sized for a 12 oz mug, so their $0.40 buys 1.5 of our cups, or about $0.27 per 8 oz.
Loose leaf: the per-gram math
Loose leaf prices per gram fall hard with pack size. The table shows the cost at three doses: 2 g (light), 2.5 g (the vendor dose above) and 3 g (strong, or for large-leaf teas that weigh little per spoon).
| Product | Vendor | Pack price | Grams | $/g | 2 g cup | 2.5 g cup | 3 g cup | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harney & Sons English Breakfast, 1 lb | Harney & Sons | $32.00 | 454 | $0.071 | $0.14 | $0.18 | $0.21 | Oct 1, 2026 |
| Adagio English Breakfast, 16 oz | Adagio | $44.00 | 454 | $0.097 | $0.19 | $0.24 | $0.29 | Oct 1, 2026 |
| Rishi English Breakfast, 1 lb | Rishi | $50.00 | 454 | $0.110 | $0.22 | $0.28 | $0.33 | Oct 1, 2026 |
| Rishi English Breakfast, 1/4 lb | Rishi | $18.50 | 113 | $0.163 | $0.33 | $0.41 | $0.49 | Oct 1, 2026 |
| Yunnan Sourcing Feng Qing Old Plantation Dian Hong, 100 g | Yunnan Sourcing | $18.00 | 100 | $0.180 | $0.36 | $0.45 | $0.54 | Oct 1, 2026 |
| Yunnan Sourcing Feng Qing Old Plantation Dian Hong, 1 kg | Yunnan Sourcing | $140.00 | 1000 | $0.140 | $0.28 | $0.35 | $0.42 | Oct 1, 2026 |
| Rishi Sencha, 100 g | Rishi | $37.00 | 100 | $0.370 | $0.74 | $0.93 | $1.11 | Oct 1, 2026 |
Two comparisons fall out of this:
- Bulk loose black costs the same as a branded bag. Harney's 1 lb English Breakfast at 2.5 g is $0.18 a cup, against $0.17 for a Twinings bag and $0.18 for Bigelow. At 2 g it drops to $0.14. Adagio's own page puts its 16 oz bag at about 200 cups and 22¢ a cup, which implies about 2.27 g per cup.
- Small packs cost up to 1.5x more per gram. Rishi English Breakfast is $0.110/g by the pound and $0.163/g by the quarter pound, 1.48x more. Yunnan Sourcing's Dian Hong drops from $0.18/g at 100 g to $0.14/g at 1 kg.
Green tea costs more per gram than black. Rishi's organic sencha at $0.37/g is $0.93 a cup, and that sencha also comes as 15 sachets for $10, $0.67 each. For green tea the bag and the loose leaf cost about the same per cup; the loose version gives you control of dose and water temperature, which our bitter green tea guide covers.
Re-steeping changes the math
Western cups use the leaf once. Gongfu brewing uses more leaf in a small vessel and pours many short infusions from it. Yunnan Sourcing's brewing guide recommends 6 g of puer per 100 ml, says most puer can be infused 10–20 times, and suggests 4–5 g of oolong per 100 ml.
We priced two teas at those doses. The puer uses 10 infusions, the low end of Yunnan Sourcing's range. For the oolong we assumed 6 infusions, a conservative figure since the guide gives no count. Each infusion is 100 ml.
| Tea | Pack price | $/g | Dose | Cost per session | Infusions | Total tea | Cost per 8 oz |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yunnan Sourcing 2025 Peerless Gold Label ripe puer, 357 g cake | $79.00 | $0.22 | 6 g | $1.33 | 10 | 1000 ml (4.2 cups) | $0.31 |
| Rishi Wuyi Da Hong Pao oolong, 50 g | $30.00 | $0.60 | 5 g | $3.00 | 6 | 600 ml (2.5 cups) | $1.18 |
The puer cake costs $0.22/g, more than Twinings bags per gram. Per cup of finished tea it lands at $0.31, about the price of a Harney wrapped bag ($0.26) and well under a Rishi sencha sachet ($0.67). A $0.60/g Wuyi oolong is expensive by any measure; at 6 infusions it is $1.18 per 8 oz, and each extra infusion lowers that.
You can re-steep a western cup of loose leaf too. If the leaf holds up for a second infusion, the cost per cup halves: Harney's 1 lb English Breakfast drops from $0.18 to $0.09.
Our gongfu brewing guide has timings by tea type.
What is actually in the bag
Price per gram is not the whole comparison, because the leaf is different.
- Fannings and dust. Twinings' own grading page describes fannings as "extremely small pieces of tea" left after higher grades such as orange pekoe are sold, and notes they "produce a very strong brew - so a little goes a long way." The CTC (crush, tear, curl) method, it says, is used to "manufacture black tea for teabags."
- Whole and broken leaf. Loose tea is sold by leaf grade. Twinings notes that broken grades are what remains after the larger leaf grades are sifted out.
- Pyramid sachets sit in between. Adagio describes its pyramids as "full leaf". Sachets cost more: $0.40 for a Harney sachet and $0.80 for an Adagio pyramid, against $0.18 for the same Harney blend loose by the pound.
The practical result: a Lipton bag is the cheapest cup of tea we priced, and its small particles brew fast and strong. Spending $0.13–$0.23 more per cup buys bulk loose leaf from Harney, Adagio or Rishi.
Your number: a quick way to price any tea
Use two formulas:
- Bags: pack price / number of bags = cost per cup.
- Loose: pack price / grams x grams per cup / number of infusions = cost per cup.
Worked example: a $25 tin of 100 g oolong, 5 g per gongfu session, 6 infusions of 100 ml. That is $0.25/g, $1.25 per session, and 600 ml of tea, or about $0.49 per 8 oz.
The tea cost calculator runs these numbers for any pack. For how shelf prices are moving, see the tea price index and our 2025–2026 tea tariff breakdown.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is loose leaf tea cheaper than tea bags?
About the same as branded bags, and never cheaper than the cheapest bag. On Oct 1, 2026, Harney & Sons English Breakfast by the pound cost $0.18 per 2.5 g cup against $0.17 for a Twinings bag and $0.18 for Bigelow. Lipton at $0.05 a bag is cheaper than any loose tea we priced.
How many cups are in a pound of loose tea?
At 2.5 g per 8 oz cup, a pound (453.6 g) makes about 181 cups. At 2 g it makes about 227. Adagio's figure for its 16 oz bag is about 200 cups.
How much tea is in a tea bag?
From printed net weights: Lipton 2.26 g, Twinings 2.00 g and Bigelow Constant Comment 1.65 g per bag. Harney & Sons calls for 2.5 g of loose tea per 8 oz cup.
Is expensive tea worth it if I re-steep it?
Often, yes. A $79 puer cake at $0.22/g gives 10 infusions from a 6 g dose, which is about $0.31 per 8 oz of finished tea. That is cheaper than a Rishi sencha sachet ($0.67) or an Adagio pyramid ($0.80) used once.
