The Concept: Tea Bags

By Drina McDonald

Summer time in America is synonymous with sunbathing, fire crackers, and cold drinks.  One of the most sought after beverages being tea. While we celebrate our freedom, and sweeten our tea as we wish, we forget that it was the tea leaf itself that helped give us this independence.

The Boston Tea Party of 1773 was a display of educated rebellion, in which three ship- loads of tea were dumped into the Boston Harbor. Nothing but the cargo was damaged in this event. However, the act sparked an international response that later lead to the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4th of 1776.

The tea that went floating down the harbor in 1773 was nothing like the instant bags of tea you see in coffee shops, hotel lobbies, and grocery stores today. The leaves were dried in their natural form to soak and seep, taking time to unfold in physicality and in flavor. It wasn’t until 1908 that an American accidentally changed the way we consume tea forever.

Before Thomas Sullivan came around, tea was an event as much as it was a refreshment. The flavor varied depending on how long the leaves had been seeping and when they were removed. Meaning you had to practically watch water boil. Metal sifters and egg-shaped strainers would house the tea, making removing the leaves easier. When Sullivan, a New York tea merchant, began handing out samples in small silk sacks, some of his costumers were happily confused: were these bags for packaging or for seeping?

After many questions and much critique, the silk design was exchanged with gauze and the tea bag, or tea fanning, was born! Though created during the First World War, it wasn’t until the 1920’s that the tea bag gained commercial success. By the end of the Second World War, the convenience of prepackaged (or instant) tea had found fertile ground. Like so many other things, this new-found advantage came with it’s draw backs.

“A tea fanning is the little tiny bits of a tea leaf that have been left at the bottom of the barrel…after its been made and oxidized and ready for shipment either here or in China,” explains Chloe McPherson, an experienced employee at the Mana Bar: Exotic Beverage Lounge here in Lawrence.

“Bagged tea are extremely overpriced, and I really don’t want to work at a place where we up-sale something that is at the bottom of the barrel,” says McPherson. “Like, a lot of the times people will sweep it off of the floor and put it in a bag: thats what you’re getting at the grocery store.”

Today, 65 percent of tea in America is sold in tea bags. Whereas places like France and Britain sell the vast majority (96 percent) of their tea prepackaged. On Mass Street alone there are over half-a-dozen shops selling caffeinated beverages, including teas, and all but Mana Bar get at least some (if not most) of their tea in disposable baggies. The small flakes inside these bags release flavor rapidly, and can be taken on-the-go in any travel container. However, these individual servings only get seeped once, while a full tea leaf can be seeped several times. The full leaf comes with full benefits that prepackaged tea lacks. Prepackaged tea may also be misleading in flavor due to the thing it is seeping through.

Most mass produced tea bags are made with wood and/ or vegetable fibers, then sealed with polypropylene, one of the leading commodity plastics produced for packing. Standard tea bags do not decompose very well, and some are even made with nylons that demand industrial decomposing.

Today there is a global push to reduce the use of several disposable objects including the straw, plastic shopping bags, to-go containers, and plastic water bottles: all designed for convenience. Although handy, there are several other methods to tea-sipping than advertised. Either way, our love for this leaf has lead to 242 years of freedom (so far) and 110 years of tea- bagging our planet! 1

1 SOURCES: https://worldteanews.com/news/tea-bags-staid-stable

https://www.tea.co.uk/the-history-of-the-tea-bag

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world-0/fourth-of-july-4th-independence-day-why-do- americans-celebrate-it-explained-a7821961.html

http://stir-tea-coffee.com/features/perfect-teabag-paper/