In the Western world tea bags first appeared commercially in the early s, including those of Thomas Sullivan based out of New York. Prior to the early s when Thomas Sullivan started selling teabags, or when Roberta C Lawson and Mary Mclaren patented them, tea had been packaged into bags as early as the eighth century in China, in the Tang Dynasty.
Thomas Sullivan would send out samples of his teas in small silk bags and his customers would dunk the entire bag in boiled water, not realizing that they were supposed to take the loose leaf tea out of the bag. As time went on, there was another innovation within the tea bag industry to come. The Lipton Tea Company, in , created a flow-thru bag. They created this four-sided bag with the intention of people using mugs to brew.
As the name suggests, the bag aided the flow of water into the bag during steeping. The design also easily allowed the leaves to expand while in the bag. What did all of these lead to? A shorter and faster infusion time that produced stronger and richer tea tastes. This allowed tea lovers to enjoy the tea flavors better, compared to designs that limited the contact of water with the tea. With the desired infusion time, the water could come in contact and flow through the tea leaves.
Regarding the tea tags, the Lipton company is often credited with being the first to use paper tags. The company used the tags to print instructions for brewing and add a little more convenience as people became accustomed to bobbing their tea bag in the cup.
In , Tetley rose again to contribute to the evolution of the tea bag. The company launched the round tea bag during this period. Their marketing efforts led to popularising the round tea bag, which was a significant shape change. These tea bags from Tetley were suitable for large tea mugs because they contained more tea. The classic square tea bags came with strings and paper tags. Another major invention during the 90s came from Brooke Bond. In , this company created the pyramid bags as we know them today.
These tea bags had more room for the concealed teas to move around compared with the previous flat designs. It was also better suited for teapots and big mugs because of the shape.
This meant people were able to make more tea and produce their desired infusion. The pyramid design especially helped when making tea for more than one person. There are various types of tea bags these days. Due to sustainable and eco-friendly reasons, the market is filled with reusable tea bags that you can buy.
The world is also seeing a rise in specialty tea, which is a premium version of loose leaf tea from single tea gardens. Apart from this, companies produce tea in different pouches. They use materials like cotton muslin, filter paper, or food-grade plastic.
Also, some brands manufacture silk bags as a premium or high-end version. For packaging, various options are available such as tins, single-use packets, and general packets. Cotton strings are a popular addition to tea bags today. They serve the purpose of making steeping easier and also enable easy removal after steeping. Another recurrent theme is paper tags. Paper tags are popular because they reflect the brand name and identity. Although brands have implemented major changes over the years, some still embrace specific processes.
This also includes the amount of tea contained in each bag. The tea bag has gone through several stages and processes since its inception. Many people praise it for its ease of use. However, there are still many others that have refused to accept this invention fully. The way the American population received tea bags was drastically different from the British population.
Also, many tea connoisseurs struggled, and some still do, with accepting this way of making the drink. Fabric was then replaced by filter paper strong enough to hold in the tea but light enough to allow the tea color and flavor to seep out into the water. By the s, giant bagging machines on the floors of a dozen American tea packers whirled around the clock, delivering as many as 18, assorted teabags each day. Soon the disposable one-cup wonders were found in every American home kitchen, and loose leaf tea began to disappear from store shelves.
The machines that were invented to pack the first patented teabags only allowed the use of small particles of tea. But the industry found that it was not making enough small grades to fill the growing demand for tea bags, and so a new manufacturing method was introduced in order to specifically create large quantities of small tea particles for teabags.
Thus CTC cut, tear and curl manufacture was invented, and the first CTC machines were installed in a number of Assam tea estates in the s.
Teas produced by these machines quickly steeped a strong dark liquor, perfect for the addition of milk. By , that had risen to a still negligible As a consequence of teabag use, tea drinkers could no longer see, feel, smell or respond to the leaf inside the bag.
The round tea bag is a revolution in tea-making, inasmuch as it finally sanctioned the marriage of the bag to the bottom of the cup in a fit so appropriate, it would be adopted by Tetley, and a host of other brands. As far as we can tell, the drinking of tea has its roots way back in B. China at least 2, years B. In just a few years, tea would become a smash hit amongst the upper classes, thanks to the marriage of Charles II and Catherine of Braganza - a Portuguese princess and avid lover of tea.
Ordinary Britons would circumvent regular tea routes and crippling taxation, to buy tea from smugglers at a much cheaper price. By the eighteenth century, it was estimated that as much as three million kilograms of tea was being smuggled into the United Kingdom annually.
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