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Tea bag

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For other uses, see Tea bag (disambiguation).
A tea bag being dipped into a cup of tea

A tea bag is a small, sealed bag containing tea leaves for brewing tea. Tea bags are commonly made of porous paper, silk or plastic. The bag contains the tea leaves while the tea is brewed, making it easier to dispose of the leaves, and performing the same function as a tea infuser. Some tea bags have an attached piece of string with a paper label to the top that assists in removing the bag while also identifying the variety of tea.

In countries where the use of loose tea leaves is more prevalent, the term tea bag is commonly used to describe a paper or foil wrapper packaging for loose leaves. They are usually square or rectangular envelopes with the brand name and flavour printed on them, as well as interesting decorative patterns.

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. The loose tea was intended to be removed from the bags by customers, but they found it easier to prepare tea with the tea enclosed in the bags.[1] Modern tea bags are usually made of paper fiber. The heat-sealed paper fiber tea bag was invented by William Hermanson,[2] one of the founders of Technical Papers Corporation of Boston[citation needed]. Hermanson sold his patent to the Salada Tea Company in 1930[citation needed].

The rectangular tea bag was not invented until 1944. Prior to this they resembled small sacks.[1]

Production

Teas

A broad variety of teas, including herbal teas, are available in tea bags. Typically, tea bags use fannings, the left-overs after larger leaf pieces are gathered for sale as loose tea, but some companies such as Honest Tea sell teabags containing whole-leaf tea.[3]

Paper

Main article: Filter paper
Three different tea bags

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 tea bag surface.

Bagging

The top tea-bagging machine companies in the world are MAI from Mar del Plata, Argentina[4] with customers in 78 countries[5] and innovating designs,[6] Teepack from Meerbusch, Germany,[7] and IMA, from Bologna, Italy.[8] A standard machine produced by MAI company can envelope 120 rectangular bags per minute[9] with a weight up to 3.3 grams per bag, which allows the packaging of herbal teas. Another company, the Italian Tecnomeccanica, has a faster design capable of packaging 250 pyramidal bags per minute.[10]

Tea bag shapes

Circular tea bags
Pyramidal nylon tea bag

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.

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 tea bag containing tea leaf fragments instead of the tea "detritus" or dust made an appearance in the marketplace for aficionados. The pyramidal shape allows more room for the leaf to steep. Environmentalists prefer silk to nylon because of health and biodegradability issues.[11] Another material for tea bags is Soilon, made from corn starch.[12]

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).

Decorative tea bags have become the basis for large collections and many collectors collect tea bags from around the world. An online catalog of tea bags for collectors is found on Colnect.

Teabag folding begun in the Netherlands, and often credited to Tiny van der Plas, tea bag folding is a form of origami in which identical squares of patterned paper (cut from the front of tea bag 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.[13]

Cold used tea bags are used as a treatment for sunburn and arc eye.[citation needed]

References

  1. ^ a b Editors, Time-Life (1991). Inventive Genius. New York: Time-Life Books. p. 99. ISBN 0809476991. {{cite book}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  2. ^ Bloxham, Andy (2008-06-13). "Tea bag to celebrate its century". Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 2009-07-15.
  3. ^ Fabricant, Florence (2000-02-09). "Florence Fabricant, "Whole Leaves, No Strings For a New Tea Bag", ''New York Times'', Feb. 9, 2000". Nytimes.com. Retrieved 2009-07-15.
  4. ^ "Mai S.A". Mai S.A. Retrieved 2009-07-15.
  5. ^ "Tea & Coffee 03/03". Teaandcoffee.net. Retrieved 2009-07-15.
  6. ^ "Goliath, business knowledge on demand". Goliath.ecnext.com. 2006-03-20. Retrieved 2009-07-15.
  7. ^ "TEEPACK GmbH & Co. KG". Teepack. Retrieved 2010-02-17.
  8. ^ "IMA Tea & Coffee Division". Ima.it. Retrieved 2009-07-15.
  9. ^ "Maisa Tea Bagging". Allianceindia.net. Retrieved 2009-07-15.
  10. ^ "Faster tea-bagging machine". Foodproductiondaily.com. Retrieved 2009-07-15.
  11. ^ Fabricant, Florence (September 13, 2006). "Tea's Got a Brand New Bag". The New York Times. The New York Times Company.
  12. ^ Tea Stick Brewing Package and Method
  13. ^ jbritton (2009-06-29). "Tea bag folding". Britton.disted.camosun.bc.ca. Retrieved 2009-07-15.
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