A tea bag being removed from a mug of hot
tea to halt the brewing process
Tetrahedron shaped tea bags made of
polylactide (PLA), a bioplastic, shown here containing dried peppermint leaves
Three
different teas in tea bags
A tea bag is a small, porous sealed bag
containing tea leaves and used with water for brewing the beverage called tea,
or herbs or spices for brewing herbal teas (also known as "tisane").
Tea bags are commonly made of filter paper, silk or food grade plastic. The bag
contains the tea leaves while the tea is steeped, making it easier to dispose
of the leaves, and performs the same function as a tea infuser. Some tea bags
have an attached piece of string with a paper label at the top that assists in
removing the bag while also displaying the brand and/or variety of tea.
In countries where the use of loose tea
leaves is more prevalent, the term tea bag is commonly used to describe paper
or foil packaging for loose leaves. They are usually square or rectangular
envelopes with the brand name, flavour and decorative patterns printed on them.
History
In China, during the Tang Dynasty
(618–907), paper was folded and sewn into square bags to preserve the flavor of
tea.
The first tea bags were hand-sewn fabric
bags; tea bag patents date as early as 1903.First appearing commercially around
1904, tea bags were successfully marketed by the 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 sample bags by customers, but
they found it easier to brew the tea with the tea still enclosed in the porous
bags. Modern tea bags are usually made of paper fibre. The heat-sealed paper
fiber tea bag was invented by William Hermanson,one of the founders of
Technical Papers Corporation of Boston.[citation needed] Hermanson sold his
patent to the Salada Tea Company in 1930.
The rectangular tea bag was not invented
until 1944. Prior to this, tea bags resembled small sacks.
Production
Teas
A broad variety of teas, as well as other
infusions like 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 sell teabags containing whole-leaf tea.
Paper
Main article: Filter paper
Tea bag paper is related to paper found in
milk and coffee filters and is a blend of wood and vegetable fibers. The
vegetable fiber is bleached pulp abaca hemp, a plantation banana plant grown
for its 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 the inner tea bag surface.
Polymers made from epichlorohydrin are
sometimes used in the manufacturing of tea bags. Epichlorohydrin is classified
by several international health research agencies and groups as a probable or
likely carcinogen in humans.
Tea
bag manufacturing machines
The top tea bag production machine
companies in the world are MAI from Mar del Plata,
Argentina with customers in
78 countriesand innovating designs, Teepack from Meerbusch,
Germany, and IMA, from Bologna, Italy.
A standard machine produced by the MAI company can fill 120 rectangular bags
per minutecontaining 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 filling 250 tetrahedral bags per minute. And
the new manufacturer is CAMA from China, they produce various teabag packing machines, including
single chamber teabag, double chamber teabag and pyramid teabag. CAMA is the
top supplier of packing machinery in Asia.
Tea
bag shapes
Tetrahedral
nylon tea bag
Traditionally, tea bags have been square or
rectangular in shape. More recently circular and tetrahedral bags have come on
the market and are often claimed by their manufacturers to improve the quality
of the brew.
Empty tea bags are also available for
consumers to fill with tea leaves themselves. These are typically open-ended
pouches with long flaps. The pouch is filled with an appropriate quantity of
leaf tea and the flap is closed into the pouch to retain the tea. Such tea bags
combine 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 particle size, typically with the bulk of the
leaves around 1–1.5 mm.
The nylon tetrahedral tea bag containing
larger tea leaf fragments made an appearance in the marketplace for
aficionados. The tetrahedral shape allows more room for the leaf to steep.
Environmentalists prefer silk to nylon because of health and biodegradability
issues. Another material for tea bags is Soilon, made from corn starch.
Coffee
bags
The concept of pre-measured portions to be
infused in disposable bags has also been applied to coffee in the form of
coffee bags, although this has not achieved such wide acceptance as tea bags.
Tea bag related activities
Decorative tea bag labels have become the
basis for large collections and many collectors collect tea bags from around
the world.
Teabag folding began in the Netherlands and
is often credited to Tiny van der Plas. It 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.
