Loose leaf tea vs Tea Bags, is one truly better than the other? Well, it comes down to a few things: quality, freshness and flavor.
Loose leaf tea is made up of whole, unbroken leaves. Due to the whole leaf being used and it having no restraints in the steeping process, the leaf is able to fully open and unleash more flavor and freshness. As the leaves open and interact with the water, it allows for the vitamins, minerals and aroma to flourish.
Loose leaf tea is typically produced seasonally in small batches to allow for easy hand picking and sorting of quality leaves. Even the packaging of loose leaf teas are usually in an airtight package/container to ensure freshness is kept.
Also, because loose leaf is of a higher quality you can reuse the leaves and steep them multiple times without compromising any flavor.
Now, lets talk about about commercial bagged tea. Tea inside of tea bags are usually made from low grade dust and fannings. Flavors are usually one dimensional; but if any essential oils are used in these teas it easily evaporates, which in turn makes the tea dull and stale.
Store brand bagged teas are often bagged in bleached materials that can add chemicals into your brewed cup.
Bagged teas are machine produced in high volumes and stored for long periods of time. Receiving a second quality cup of tea is hard, due to the flavor being fully extracted after one steep.
Some tea brands do provide quality tea in tea bags that are not harmful to ones body, but research would have to be done by the consumer to ensure it meets their standards.
The way one decides to enjoy their cup of tea is completely up to preference, but there is no doubt major differences between loose leaf tea and bagged tea.