In 1903, New York tea merchant Thomas Sullivan found that it was more convenient to send tea samples to his customers in small, hand sewn muslin bags rather than in boxes. But, instead of removing the loose tea, customers began brewing the bags intact, accidentally creating the first tea bags.
So, Sullivan began packaging his tea samples in little bags made of silk. The customers were meant to open the bags and pour out the tea to infuse it. In those days, his customers were using metal infusers to brew their tea. When they received the little bags of tea, they assumed that they were meant to be used like the infusers, so they just put the bags into the pot and poured hot water over them. It worked and the tea bag was born. Sounds like Sullivan’s customers were even more clever than he was.
This may be how the tea bag was popularized, but there is more to the story. Or, rather, there is another story about the invention of the tea bag. The true inventors of the tea bag seem to have done so at least seven years prior to Sullivan’s accidental innovation.
In 1901 Roberta C Lawson and Mary Mclaren filed a patent, which was granted, for a Tea-leaf holder. This tea leaf holder was what we today would call a tea-bag. And, unlike Sullivan, the inventors meant for the cloth mesh packages to allow liquid to pass through the contents and for each bag to hold just enough tea for one cup. That’s right. These women truly invented the modern tea bag, and on purpose. Although they were made of cloth instead of paper, they looked quite similar to the tea bags we know today. You can’t tell much from the patent images below, but they are basically depicting mesh bags.
Credit : Culinary Lore
Picture Credit : Google
