Eager to boost orders for his teas. New York tea merchant Thomas Sullivan devised a new method of distributing samples of tea to his customers. He stitched them into small silk muslin bags, making them easy to ship and less messy for the recipient to unpack. Some customers did not bother opening the cloth bag and simply poured boiling water over them. Sullivan was inundated with orders for more tea packaged in this way. Responding to suggestions that the silk mesh was too fine, Sullivan used cotton gauze instead and began to sell the bags commercially,
The patent for the tea bag was registered by Sullivan in 1903. By 1920, tea bags were in wide use by the catering trade in the United States. Later, paper was used instead of cotton and a fine string and decorated tag were sometimes added, making them more convenient for drinkers making a single cup.
The American market for tea bags was well developed by the time they were introduced into Britain several decades later by Joseph Tetley and Company in 1953. It is not clear whether this delay was a result of war-time shortages of materials, or of initial resistance to change on the part of the British tea- drinker. However, once they were launched, tea bags took off rapidly in Britain, as one of the many labor- saving products that emerged in the postwar period, offering convenience and saving time.
By the 1970s, tea bags were also being used for herbal teas. Tea bag technology continues to develop, with new tea bag shapes to increase the effectiveness of the infusion process, such as the pyramid, and to attract the interest of the tea-drinker.
