Legend says that brew tea dates back to around 2737 BC , when tea leaves fell into water being boil for Emperor Shennong of China . There does not appear to be any hard grounds of Camellia sinensis being discovered this way , but grounds we do have suggests that brewing tea did indeed likely start in China , first as part of a medicinal philosophers' stone . The first document reference to this is found during the Shang Dynasty ( 1600 BC to 1046 BC ) . By the Qin Dynasty in the third C BC , it had become a relatively popular drink using just the tea ( camellia sinensis ) , rather than mixed with other thing as seems to have been common when used medicinally . From the beginning until the early twentieth century , very little founding came about in full term of the vulgar method of brew tea . This all vary in 1901 .
Contrary to popular belief ( and what every single tea producer I could find say on their websites , and many - a - tea history book and paper consulted also put forward ) , it was not teatime merchandiser Thomas Sullivan who excogitate the tea leaf bag in 1908 . While he did ( probably independently , throw his report intention was quite deficient to the original ) invent a tea grip that year , he was beat out by about seven years by Roberta C. Lawson and Mary Molaren of Milwaukee , Wisconsin .
On August 26 , 1901 , the two unfearing women file away a patent ( US723287 ) for a rather unequaled ( at the time ) “ Tea - Leaf Holder ” that is remarkably similar to the modern tea leaf bag .
They had identified an issue with the mode teatime had been commonly brewed for thousands of years . In their own words , the traditional method of get to brew a whole quite a little at a time ,
involves the use of a considerable measure of tea - leaves to prepare the desired provision of tea leaf , and the tea , if not used now , soon becomes moth-eaten or wanting in freshness , and therefore unsatisfactory , and frequently a heavy circumstances of the tea leaf thus prepared and not used directly has to be contrive away , thus necessitate much waste and corresponding expense .
Thus , they forge an overt - meshed wind cotton wool udder , “ close down over upon itself and stitch along its side edge , form a air pocket - like construction give a flap at its open end … with the flapping at the upper final stage folded down over the top end of the pocket and inclosed … ”
A pocket-sized portion of afternoon tea was then contained inside the enclosed cotton wool - mesh bagful and allow the preparer to set it “ in a cup and have water rain buckets thereon to develop only a loving cup of tea reinvigorated for immediate use . By this means only so much of teatime - leave is used as is need for the single cup of tea , and thereby a cupful of fresh . fragrant tea leaf is prepared … ”
About two years after the lady filed their patent of invention , it was granted on March 24 , 1903 . However , ostensibly they were abortive at bringing this to market , at least on any far-flung weighing machine that would have registered in documented account .
This institute us to Thomas Sullivan . Sullivan worked as a tea importer in New York when he ( purportedly ) accidentally formulate tea bag in 1908 . The story give-up the ghost that Sullivan began sending minor silk traveling bag containing samples of the various forms of tea leaf he sold to his customers as a way of further sales .
The “ fortuity ” part is that a telephone number of those people who he sent the bags of tea to decided to use the bag as something of a tea infuser , rather than opening the bags up and brewing the tea normally . As with Lawson and Molaren ’s aforesaid invention , this let a somebody to make a undivided loving cup of afternoon tea , rather than an entire pot , and made for much more commodious clean up- when done , simply toss the udder . No need to clean out all the afternoon tea leaves from the pot and strainer or infuser .
The niggling selling safari turn and gild started drift in , which Sullivan initially filled via standard containers of loose - leaf Camellia sinensis . Customers who had used the purse as infusers complain and Sullivan presently start out offering his tea once again in bags .
However , silk bag were n’t ideal for soak up standard wanton - leaf tea , due to being a little too fine and expensive for undivided service . He , thus , interchange the silk of the original sample bags with veiling and then further fine-tune things for better steep by satisfy the afternoon tea bag with fannings , the broken afternoon tea still hunt , and Camellia sinensis debris leftover from processing the tea . Sullivan then began heavily market his little founding and the Camellia sinensis bag was on its way to becoming a household raw material .
How much of this story is true is difficult to discern . While it does appear there was a tea leaf merchandiser named Thomas Sullivan who help generalize selling tea in unmarried - serve bags ( as well as in with child tea bags for brew whole pots ) , there seems to be niggling in the fashion of documented grounds stake up the single bits of the oft - repeated tale .
Whatever the case , we do get laid that commercial tea bag in the early days were not , on the whole , as good as Roberta Lawson and Mary Molaren ’s original designing , other than perhaps the later addition of a drawing string to draw the bags out of the raging H2O when steeping was complete . You see , former old bag often used glue to seal the tea in , rather than a folded , sewn travelling bag . This glue then steeped along with the tea , greatly regard the flavor . Various early fabrics used also often negatively impacted the taste .
However , despite many company former designs being less than idealistic at raise the desired taste , widget won out , and , partly thanks to WWI with certain commonwealth ’ soldier being given Camellia sinensis old bag as part of their rations , the tea leaf bag began to turn out in popularity significantly by , and then during , the 1920s .
However , while Americans comparatively cursorily encompass the tea leaf pocketbook , the British consider the conception with incredulity and a bit of retrousse noses . dearth of the materials used to make tea bag during World War II also facilitate keep the tea suitcase unpopular in the UK , despite the convenience factor and that by this time the tea bag was mostly perfect in price of limiting its influence on the taste of the tea leaf .
However , when the 1950s strike , when mathematical product make unwashed household undertaking easier begin becoming all the madness , the tea base saw a huge surge in popularity , and for the first time commence gaining traction in the UK .
By the late fifties , the tea bag had expire from well-nigh unavailable in the UK to controlling about 3 % of the mart , begin its dim and unfluctuating climb . As of 2008 , tea bag made up 96 % of the tea market in the UK , a total surprisingly more than in the United States around that same metre , where Camellia sinensis bags only have got about a 90 % share vs. loose - foliage tea .
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Bonus Fact :
Contrary to what you might think , the highest tea consumption per capita is not notice in the United Kingdom , but rather Turkey at 7.682 kg per person per year . The U.K. ring in at number 5 , and has in reality been on the decline of belated , with a 6 % drop in tea leaf sale in the last yr alone in the U.K. , which has only stay the late trend . On the flipside , coffee gross revenue are rising in the U.K. at about the same charge per unit as the afternoon tea sales are come down p.a. .
This posthas been republished with permission fromTodayIFoundOut.com . Image byDanielChloe Blanchfieldunder Creative Commons license .
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