While most people might associate tea with the British, it was an American who invented the tea bag in 1908, and entirely by accident. New York tea merchant Thomas Sullivan, decided that it was cheaper to send small samples to potential customers in silk bags instead of boxes. Some assumed that the silk bags were supposed to be used in the same way as metal infusers, putting the entire bag into the pot rather than emptying the contents. Customers soon started specifically requesting more of Sullivan’s ‘tea bags’.
