History
The first tea bags were made from hand-sewn silk muslin bags and tea bag patents of this sort exist dating as early as
1903. First appearing commercially around 1904, tea bags were successfully marketed by tea and coffee shop merchant Thomas
Sullivan from New York, who shipped his tea bags around the world. Modern tea bags are usually made of paper fiber.
Production
Tea bag paper is related to paper found in milk and coffee filters. It is made with a blend of wood and vegetable fibers.
The vegetable fiber is bleached pulp abaca hemp, a small plantation tree grown for the fiber, mostly in the Philippines and
Colombia. Heat-sealed tea bag paper usually has a heat-sealable thermoplastic such as PVC or polypropylene, as a component
fiber on inner side of the teabag surface.
Tea bag shapes
Traditionally, tea bags have been square or rectangular in shape. More recently circular and pyramidal bags have come on
the market, and are often claimed by the manufacturers to improve the quality of the brew. This claim, however, only holds
with a proper preparation. Certainly preparations of tea with a teabag in a cup often results in poor infusion time.
Empty tea bags are also available for consumers to fill with tea leaves themselves. These are typically an open-ended
pouch with a long flap. The pouch is filled with an appropriate quantity of leaf tea and the flap is closed into the pouch to
retain the tea. The resulting tea bag combines the ease of use of a commercially-produced tea bag with the wider tea choice
and better quality control of loose leaf tea.
Because of the convenience of tea bags, a wide variety of herbs can be purchased as "tea bag cut", a grade which is
specified in terms of the particle size, typically with the bulk of the leaves around 1 - 1.5 mm.
The nylon pyramidal teabag containing tea leaf fragments instead of the tea 'detritus" or dust made an appearance in the
marketplace for afficiandos. The pyramidal shape allows more room for the leaf to steep. Enviromentalists prefer silk to
nylon because of health and biodegradability issues.
Criticism
A well-produced tea bag, with enough space for the tea to infuse properly, is a convenient alternative to loose leaves. On
the other hand, cheap tea bags may contain poor quality tea — small, dusty leaves from many different sources ('floor
sweepings') which tend to release tannin more quickly, making the tea taste harsh.
Some tea drinkers claim that loose leaves brew a superior cup of tea, and believe that the ritual of handling the leaves
is part of the experience of your tea.
Coffee
The concept of pre-measured portions to be infused in disposable bags has also been applied to coffee, although this has
not achieved such wide market penetration (similar to the market penetration of instant tea as compared to instant
coffee).
Other uses for tea bags
Decorative teabags have become the basis for large collections, and also for the hobby of teabag folding. Begun in the
Netherlands, and often credited to Tiny van der Plas, teabag folding is a form of origami in which identical squares of
patterned paper (cut from the front of teabag sachets) are folded, and then arranged in rosettes. These rosettes are usually
used to decorate gift cards and it has become a popular craft in both the US and UK since 2000.
Click on Tea Bags at http://www.HealthyTeaCup.com
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