The tea bag was invented in the US

The tea bag was invented in the US, guess you didn’t see that one coming, although it came more than one hundred years ago when Thomas Sullivan in 1908 started sending tea samples to his customers in small silk bags. People misunderstood the bag and used it the way we use tea bags today and then the invention was complete.

After that the bag was developed for commercial production and was a hit in the US. In Britain tea drinkers were a bit more skeptic and it was not until Tetley introduced the tea bag in 1953 Britain that things started to change. But it was a slow start, in the early sixties tea bag made up less than 3% of the British tea market, since then things went up to say the least, today tea bags make up more than 96% of the British tea market. And the Brits can thank a New Yorker for that.

In the photo you can see the delightful Lady Gaga tea bags designed by student Nathalie Hallman.