So I have been sent a few different pieces of information lately regarding the history of tea. The most consistent history of tea dates back to ancient China, almost 5,000 years ago. According to legend, in 2732 B.C. Emperor Shen Nung discovered tea when leaves from a wild tea tree blew into his pot of boiling water. He was immediately interested in the pleasant scent of the resulting brew, and drank some. I don’t know about you but when something blows into my drink I generally discard and start again…makes me think how many missed opportunities there may have been??
I was keen to know more about Tea Bags and how they came about. Apparently it was in America that tea bags were first developed. In around 1908, Thomas Sullivan, a New York tea merchant, started to send samples of tea to his customers in small silken bags and not realising they were just for transporting the tea leaves the recipients used them as they were bagged – voila the humble tea bag was born!
Now times have changed, we started with silk bags, to calico, to paper and now back to material type bags. However it seems that the process of making the ‘normal’ teabag in its millions is a little likely to leave an unpleasant taste…How would you like a sprinkle of plastic with your tea? Our prolific love for a quick cuppa using a tea bag, may in fact be emitting tiny micro plastics into your morning brew.
The manufacturers came up with coating the teabag to stop the tea bag from disintegrating in boiling water. Polypropylene (plastic) is coated on the outside of the tea bag and string to make it last the duration of the brewing process.
YUCK!! Looks like I will be enjoying my classic loose leaf tea instead of icky mass produced teabags. Unless of course I am filling my own and using cotton bags 🙂 https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1262960420479790
The Tea Chest Blog 