Loose Leaf vs Tea Bag

A good quality tea bag is preferred to a cheap loose leaf - always!

Some of my favourite tea that is sold in sachets (or bags) are Twinning, Organics brand available at Pharmaprix (Shopper's Drug Mart) and Mighty Leaf. Most recently I discovered that the Marche de l'Ouest has a shop, I believe it's called Cavallero, which sells a nice selection of inexpensive to "wow that's expensive" teas. For example, they have Mighty Leaf and Numi brands.
My newest find comes from this store: Taylors of Harrogate English Breakfast tea made my little taste buds revel and ah! It's a tea bag format, full-bodied black tea.

As for loose leaf, my favourite place to get it used to be Sipps in Kingston, On, but since I've moved back to Montreal, the 3 hour trip seems a bit excessive. If ever in K-town, do stop by this lovely little shop which is right to the east side of the town hall and square (and farmers' market!) They serve you a little pot and their desserts are sinful!

But luckily for me, David's Tea (http://www.davidstea.com/) has been expanding and opened a store in Fairview mall. Hurray! Their David's Organic breakfast is really nice, as is their English Breakfast, but not as good as the Taylors. David's has a few other locations around Montreal.
Another really awesome store is Un Amour des Thes (http://www.amourdesthes.com/). The one I went to is on Monkland. It's a bit more expensive than David's, but their Enlish B is fantastic. It's also quite a beautiful store full of great tea pots.

To avoid: The Tea Store, which, luckily for Montrealers, we don't have here. Tea should never, ever, ever, ever be stored in clear glass containers exposed to light. You want weak tea, then go there. Otherwise go to the grocery store and buy a box of Twinning.

A note on Twinning loose leaf: I hate it. They use the same processed leaves as for the bags, so they end up being too small and you end up swallowing a mouthful of grainy leaves - yuck.
A nice loose leaf should 1) be a nice full leaf and 2)have a greenich tint rather than a brown or black one.