Tea Bags Are Made Of What?

ST24 | 02:45 Thu 18th Apr 2013 | Food & Drink

7 Answers

Presumably tea bags are made of some kind of paper but what kind ; what else makes up the actual bag (not it's comtents, string or staple) itself ?

Are the same materials used all over the world?

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knowabit

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06:20 Thu 18th Apr 2013

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Canary42

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_bag

ST24

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My browser won't go to Wikipedia. Could you answer the questions please Canary42?

knowabit

A tea bag is a small, porous sealed bag containing tea leaves and used with water for brewing the beverage called tea, or herbs or spices for brewing tisanes (also known as "herbal tea"). Tea bags are commonly made of filter paper, silk or food grade plastic. The bag contains the tea leaves while the tea is steeped, making it easier to dispose of the leaves, and performs the same function as a tea infuser. Some tea bags have an attached piece of string with a paper label at the top that assists in removing the bag while also displaying the brand and/or variety of tea.
In countries where the use of loose tea leaves is more prevalent, the term tea bag is commonly used to describe paper or foil packaging for loose leaves. They are usually square or rectangular envelopes with the brand name, flavour and decorative patterns printed on them.

knowabit

The first tea bags were hand-sewn silk bags and tea bag patents date as early as 1903. First appearing commercially around 1904, tea bags were successfully marketed by the tea and coffee shop merchant Thomas Sullivan from New York, who shipped his tea bags around the world. The loose tea was intended to be removed from the sample bags by customers, but they found it easier to brew the tea with the tea still enclosed in the porous bags.[1] Modern tea bags are usually made of paper fibre.
In 1929 german inventor Adolf Rambold, who worked for German company Teekanne, invented a tea bag with two chambers.[2] The heat-sealed paper fiber tea bag was invented by William Hermanson,[3] one of the founders of Technical Papers Corporation of Boston[citation needed]. Hermanson sold his patent to the Salada Tea Company in 1930.[citation needed]
The rectangular tea bag was not invented until 1944. Prior to this tea bags resembled small sacks.[1]

knowabit

Main article: Filter paper

Three different teas in tea bags
Tea bag paper is related to paper found in milk and coffee filters and is a blend of wood and vegetable fibers. The vegetable fiber is bleached pulp abaca hemp, a small plantation tree grown for its fiber, mostly in the Philippines and Colombia. Heat-sealed tea bag paper usually has a heat-sealable thermoplastic such as PVC or polypropylene as a component fiber on the inner tea bag surface.