Tea Bag
A tea bag is a sealed porous sachet holding a single serving of tea, usually 2-3 g of broken or CTC leaf, for brewing in a cup or pot.
Definition
Tea bags hold a pre-measured portion of tea in a porous material, most often filter paper made from wood and plant fibers, so the leaf can be steeped and removed in one motion. A standard bag contains about 2-3 g of tea for a 200-250 ml cup. The tea bag is commonly credited to New York merchant Thomas Sullivan, who around 1908 sent customers samples in small silk pouches that some brewed whole, though a patent for a fabric "tea leaf holder" had been granted earlier, in 1903, to Roberta Lawson and Mary McLaren of Milwaukee. Heat-sealed paper bags spread in the mid-20th century, and today they account for most tea sold in the United Kingdom and North America. Most bags are filled with small, uniform particles, either CTC black tea or the fannings and dust grades of orthodox tea, because small particles extract fully in 2-4 minutes inside a confined bag. Pyramid-shaped bags made of nylon, PET or plant-based PLA mesh give room for larger whole-leaf pieces. Many standard paper bags also contain a small amount of plastic, often polypropylene, to allow heat sealing.
In Depth
Brewing: one bag per 200-250 ml of water at 95-100°C (203-212°F) for black tea, steeped 3-5 minutes; green tea bags at 75-80°C (167-176°F) for 2-3 minutes. Squeezing the bag against the spoon forces out the most tannic, bitter liquid; let it drain instead.
Quality signals: visible whole or large-cut leaf, an origin or estate on the box, and individually sealed sachets for freshness. Fine dust in a paper bag gives a dark, strong, uniform cup but little complexity, which is why it suits milk tea.
Paper bags also slow extraction slightly compared with the same tea loose. For a second cup, a strong single bag can be resteeped once, but most CTC and dust grades give a weak second infusion.
See Also
- CTC Tea
- Tea Grades
- Pyramid Tea Bags