I decided to replicate the experiment I saw on YouTube. I poured the same amount of boiling water over one ounce of pellets and one ounce of whole leaf. The first noticeable difference is absorption. In an hour I’ll filter thru a coffee filter and see what the resulting tea looks like.
BTW: ordering from Hops Direct was a very positive experience. I ordered Mon at 0830 and the hops were delivered Thurs at noon.
One hr later:
The whole leaf quickly drained thru the filter to fill the stange with a golden tea.
The pellets clogged the filter and took an extraordinarily long time to drain a Golden/Green tea into the stange.
The pellet tea is sharply more bitter than the whole leaf tea.
Edit: overnight the pellet particles settled out resulting in a less green stained golden liquid: