Should 2 teaspoons expand this full?

[xdunlapx]

Hi! I have a question I hope some of you can help me answer. I have Harney & Sons Irish Breakfast in a 4oz tin. I've had it for about a year and a half and not used much of it but today made a teapot of it and am not sure if I did something wrong in process or if the tea is too old/crumbly or what..

Here are a few pictures of my teapot, strainer and size of dry leaves.

Loose Irish Breakfast dry tea next to splenda and stevia packets.

loose tea next to splenda stevia packets.jpg (41.81 KiB) Viewed 886 times

Tea strainer with wet leaves after steeping

tea pot with strainer showing leaves.jpg (53.79 KiB) Viewed 886 times

teapot showing tea level after pouring about 16oz

tea pot showing water level after abt 16oz poured.jpg (53.22 KiB) Viewed 886 times

[xdunlapx]

Here is the last picture.

Angle 2 of wet tea leaves in strainer

tea pot with strainer on top showing leaves2.jpg (62.63 KiB) Viewed 885 times

[PurplePotato]

That looks about right. If you've been drinking a lot of larger, full leafed teas lately the result probably looks weird. This is because broken up teas are a lot more dense in comparison.

Or to put it another way, when you put full leaf teas into a teaspoon, there is still a lot of air still in the teaspoon, but with chopped up teas there is less air.

This is why some people weigh their tea, as the weight will give you a better idea of how much tea you are using than volume. (Professional bakers will do this too, as some flours are more dense than others).