The Misunderstanding That Led to the Use of Tea Bags
Tea bags are popular today, first and foremost, because they are convenient. They allow us to make tea just as easily in a mug as in a tea kettle, without the need for a strainer to filter out the leaves. Just add hot water to a mug that contains a tea bag, and you’re done. Another factor that drives the use of tea bags is the belief that in order for tea to taste its best, the leaves should be removed from the hot water at the end of brewing. The initial widespread use of tea bags, however, owes everything to a fortunate mistake.
In 1908 or thereabouts, New York tea merchant Thomas Sullivan began to send samples of his teas to customers in small silk bags. The recipients were supposed to empty out the bags’ contents into hot water, but some customers assumed that the entire bag was supposed to be tossed into the tea kettle. Thus was born the tea bag. When some of Sullivan’s customers complained that the silk bags’ mesh was too fine, he developed tea bags made of gauze – the first purpose-made tea bags. Their popularity spread in the 1920s, and the final version of the tea bag we all know today arrived when Sullivan began to make them with paper instead of gauze.