Tea bag

Tea bags are small little bags from a special filter paper in which tea is. These portion packs are used for the simple preparation of tea beverages by hanging them in hot water and can draw some minutes. For this purpose, most tea bags have a pinned or knotted at the purse-string and a label ( rare in the UK, Ireland and the USA). For the sake of the purity of the food they are manufactured without adhesive in a special folding method. The tea bag paper used today is predominantly made of abaca fibers, there are alternatives besides from biopolymer (polylactide, PLA).

Tea bags are a pre-portioning of the actual product tea; they do increase in this sense, the value of goods in commerce. For goods tea remains one an aroma -preserving outer packaging, usually made ​​of thin cardboard and plastic film.

Commercially also empty tea filters are available, these are usually much larger than the filled tea bags. Along with special holders they serve tea from tea leaves.

History

The forerunner of today's tea bag was almost accidentally invented in 1904 or 1908 by the American tea merchant Thomas Sullivan. To keep the weight problem when sending tea samples - they were sent back in large and expensive tin cans - to get around, Sullivan completed his goods into small, space-saving silk bag and sent them to customers. This took the small bag to completely immerse them in the water, in the belief that this was so from the Sullivan. So they saved the procedure of Abseihens and decanting the tea into a second pot.

Sullivan's business idea was initially very popular with customers because of their comfort, but got the tea bags in the 1910s into disrepute, because imitators mixed into the tea bag additives such as herbs or inferior feinkrümeligen waste in order to reduce costs. So did the rumor in tea bags located generally inferior quality tea.

To eliminate this problem, the Briton John Horniman sealed tea bags and guaranteed by his name for the quality. Horniman glued the now existing paper tea bag with glue, but the tea taste influenced by contact with hot water: bonded with glue paper bags make the tea sticky, cotton adhesive makes it musty. The spherical shape was the tea bags popularly called " Pompadour " because of the spherical handbags which were at that time very popular among women.

During World War I the Dresden GmbH company teapot tea delivered in portions into small Mullsäcke packaged for catering for the troops. Of the soldiers, the tea bag was also the name " Teebombe " because the taste of the tea leaves is not unfolded in the tea bags, but the water brown colored.

Today's tea bag was invented by Adolf Rambold, an employee of the company teapot. In 1929 his first teapot tea bags made ​​of tasteless special parchment paper on the market and marketed also specially developed by employees Rambold tea bag packing machine. In 1949 which in turn developed by Rambold " Constanta Teepackmaschine " on the market. End of the same year also began marketing the patented teapot and used to date a double chamber bag with staple closure.

Rambold folded a rectangular, about 15 cm long strip of paper into a tube that was bent approximately in the middle and was filled on both sides with tea. The longer end was folded over the other and sealed with a staple. Thus, two chambers, which had the advantage that the tea could be washed by 4 sides with hot water. The only problem was when Rambolds invention in suitable packaging. It also needed to be tasteless, both tear-resistant and heat resistant as well. The cotton bag previously used had a taste of its own. Rambolds tea bag was about 30% cellulose and about 70% of Manila fibers. The fibers went through before you edit the papyrus manufacture similar multi-stage processing: They have been soaked in water, Right Angle superposed and pressed dry. Rambolds machine enabled the serial production of tea bags from Manila fibers and cellulose and the filling of fine tea leaves.

Today's packaging machines fill up to 400 tea bags per minute. Alone in teapot 10 million tea bags are produced daily.

Dissemination

In Germany in particular bag- shaped tea bags with string are common, but found in other countries also often teabag in other forms, in the United Kingdom mainly flat, round tea bags, which are placed on the bottom of the cup.

The tea bag string is often coated with a wax film, so that the capillary action of the cord does not lead to the fact that the label can soak with tea.

A related invention is the tea bag, the coffee bag, a variety of the coffee filter.

Quite similar works (mostly homemade ) herb and spice bag, the model is put in the soup cooking in the broth to remove it after cooking again without all the herbs and spices floating in the soup.

Others

• In the catering Teebeuteltellerchen be provided where you can put the tea bag after drawing.
• Due to the increasing diversity and some exotic ingredients tea bag envelopes and tea bag tags are increasingly collected. In addition, certain copies are limited regionally or seasonally, which makes them interesting for collectors. A free online catalog is for example found on Colnect.
• On the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the city of Karlsruhe, a 60 m² large blanket of dried tea bags is created. The worlds Citizen ceiling consists of 285000 tea bags, each specimen represents a Karlsruhe citizens.