Tea Bags
The invention of the tea bag is said to have resulted from the small silk sample bags sent out to potential customers in 1908 by Thomas Suflivan, a New York City tea importer. Silk was subsequently replaced by gauze and later by paper. The market for tea bags in the U.K. began to grow in the early 1960s when approximately 5 percent of tea was brewed from bags. By 1965, the use of bags had risen to 7 percent, and by 1993, tea bags accounted for 85 percent of Britain’s total consumption. In the U.S. 65-70 percent of the tea...