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It’s 6:30, and our train departs at 7:45 a.m. After factoring in the worst possible traffic on the ITO stretch, we have roughly 15 minutes to brew some tea and 'freshen up’ as we do in a typical Indian family. But is there enough time? And who will take charge of making the tea in such a hurry? To brew or not to brew is the question, to which no one has an answer. And just then, my mother pulls out three teabags from her mini handbag that she had packed for the train; three disposable cups follow next, and in a matter of minutes, we have three hot cups of tea in front of us. Tea bags: 1, time crunch: 0.
Tea bags are inarguably one of the most pathbreaking inventions of modern times. And would you believe that it was actually an accident? Well, sort of.
It is said that around the turn of the 20th century, Thomas Sullivan, a tea importer, was shipping samples of his latest imports to potential buyers. The usual way to do the same was to pack them in small metal tins. Tea was a luxury item back then, so they had to be in proper metal containers, but one year, to cut costs, he sent his samples out in hand-sewn silk muslin bags or sacks instead of tins.
A lot of Sullivan’s customers were confused to see the new packaging. They placed the bag directly in the cup, added water, and were thrilled with the results. The tea was much easier to brew this way, and let’s not forget how it made it easier to clean the cup afterward. They placed more orders for the sample, and Sullivan was thrilled; only this time, he used the standard tea tins to ship the samples. When his customers came back asking for the old samples, he deduced that it was the "tea bag" that worked wonders for him.
Since similar tea bags and pouches had already reached the market in 1903 with Roberta Lawson and Mary Molaren's tea leaf holders, Sullivan couldn't patent the invention under his name. But he is still largely credited for popularising the idea.
With time, tea producers used various fabrics and materials to make these small bags, such as cheesecloth, gauze, cellophane, and perforated paper. It took many years of experimentation for our tea bags (made of paper fibre) to look this way.
