Tea bags are a tribute to the present. They are very convenient when you rush to the office in the morning, at work or in the evening, when there is absolutely no strength to mess around with making this drink. With them, everything is simple: put a bag in a mug of boiling water - and that's all, after three minutes, delicious tea is ready. But there is much debate about the benefits of such a product. For most people, this tea is the lowest grade drink and they generally refuse to drink it. But, nevertheless, this kind of tea exists and takes pride of place on store shelves. Therefore, before making hasty conclusions about the benefits and harms of the product, you need to carefully familiarize yourself with it.
Historical information
Thomas Salivan, a merchant from America, was the first in 1904 to offer an extraordinary method of drinking tea. He began to send his customers a drink packed in silk bags. With it, you could brew only one cup of tea. These were trial bags. They allowed customers to try different types of tea, choose the best, and make a large order.
During the First World War, the Dresden tea company Teekanne used the idea of Mr. Salivan. Modifying his idea a bit, the company began to supply gauze tea bags to the army. The soldiers gave this product the name "tea bomb", because it was possible to drink a mug of tonic drink at any moment.
In the 1920s, manufacturers tried to replace gauze and silk with cotton, and then with glued parchment paper. But when drinking tea from parchment bags, the taste of glue was felt. Then until 1950, began to operate perforated cellophane.
In 1950, Teekanne proposed producing two-chamber tea bags made of filtering finest paper for tea. Glue for them was not used at all, so the taste of the drink became the best. A tea bag began to spread rapidly around the world and in the 1990s, he reached the expanses of our country.
Varieties of Tea Bags
The modern market produces a wide variety of tea bags:
- Empty sachets - they are used for convenient brewing a drink. The necessary portion of the infusion is poured into an empty bag, dragged by a thread and lowered into a container. So, you can even fill up a granular product and enjoy it without the slightest discomfort from floating grains.
- Thermo-closed bags - for such packages only filter paper is used, which contains thermoplastic fiber.
- Flat round pouches - they are incredibly popular in England. Such bags are placed on the bottom of the cup and poured with boiled water. They can also be brewed in teapots or coffee pots.
- Pyramidal sachets - they are closed with a metal bracket, since the final drink can get an unpleasant taste from glue.
- Drawstring bags are the most common type of packaging. Pulling it, such a bag can be pulled out of a mug of liquid at any second.
- The bags tightened in a knot are packages tied with a thread, and not rolled up in the usual way.
Every tea lover can choose the most convenient bag for him and enjoy the magnificent aroma of the drink.
Tea Packaging Bags
Today, the packaging of tea in bags and boxes occurs automatically. Filling the bags with the dry mixture takes place on designed machines that are specially designed in order to maximize the effectiveness of reducing the air effect of the brew on the wrapping paper and prepare the boxes for the goods for international distribution.
Nowadays, these teas are sold in all kinds of options: you can purchase boxes of different shapes and volumes. So, on the shelves of supermarkets bright packaging with colorful images is offered.
The advantages and disadvantages of tea bags
Tea bags can be brewed directly in the mug. This is the first advantage of such a product. Its second advantage is that in the bags there is that dosage of dry product, which is necessary to obtain one cup of the drink. The selection of such teas is simply amazing, so you can buy the one that is most liked in quality, aroma and taste, and is optimally priced.
The advantages of the advantages, but also the disadvantages of tea bags are not few. All such products contain quite a lot of fluoride. Because of it, the strength of the teeth decreases, pains in the joints appear, the risk of kidney diseases increases, muscle weakness occurs, and bone spurs form. In addition, excess fluoride in the body provokes osteoporosis and fusion of the vertebrae.
The negative impact of the drink on human health begins when the daily norm of fluoride is exceeded - more than three to four milligrams.
Tea Bag Features
Everyone knows that in order to make tea in bags, waste tea leaves are used - tea dust. It consists of overcooked small pieces sprinkled during the processing of tea leaves. These pieces are almost not enriched with anything useful.
When brewing tea dust does not provide a saturated color, which encourages some manufacturers to add dyes to the product. Also added are flavors that discourage the taste of paper and glue. But, on the other hand, teas in bags are much stronger than ordinary ones. This peculiarity is explained by the fact that during brewing, the whole leaf has a much smaller contact area with water than the smallest particles of tea dust.
Recommendations to help make tea safe
If you prefer to drink black tea in bags, then you must follow some rules for its use. Before purchasing a product, it is important to carefully examine its packaging. A high-quality product is packaged in bags made of rayon, corn starch or nylon. In a bag made of paper, the quality and taste of tea will be lower. It is better to buy a tea pack in which each bag is packed in a separate envelope that protects the powder from moisture, light and drying.
Brewed tea bags must be transparent. Turbid liquid indicates poor-quality products. There should be no smell or taste of glue.
Cheap fruit and flower teabags in bags are almost completely artificial products that consist of fragrances and colorings alone. All this can be read on the packaging.
You always need to follow this pattern: a better drink is always contained in expensive packaging. Therefore, it is better to purchase the one that is more expensive.
Which bag is better
Tea in pyramid-shaped tea bags will become more saturated if you leave the bag in a cup for three to five minutes. If you just dunk the bag, then just color the water, or you will need to continue the procedure for three minutes, so that the drink acquires a taste. But here it is important to take into account that tea of different varieties must be left in the mug at different times.
It is better to buy tea, sprinkled in bags or pyramids, which visually look large in size. In such a package, the tea leaf will have enough space to turn around, which will provide a more intense aroma and taste.
Of great importance is the material from which the tea bag is made. The nylon or silk handbag will best convey the taste and smell of the drink. The difference is palpable after you try the product from such packaging. You no longer want to buy tea leaves in paper bags.
Other uses of tea bags
Used tea (25 bags or any other quantity) does not need to be thrown away immediately. Bags from under it are useful for pasta and cereals. The used bag is lowered into a container of water in which pasta or cereals are cooked. As soon as the liquid boils, the bag must be removed. The taste of the dish is just amazing.
To get a very strong tea, you need to add an already used one to a fresh bag. The drink will become not only stronger, but also much tastier.
No office option
It doesn’t matter in which package you purchased the tea (100 bags, 25 or 50), but if you make it in a plastic cup, you will make the drink as harmful to your health as possible. And an economical product box will turn into a time bomb. This method of preparing a packaged drink is mainly used in offices, since it is not necessary to wash dishes every time. But it is better to bring a porcelain mug from the house and drink only from it.
Have a nice tea party!