Friday, June 13, 2008

Happy Birthday Dear Teabag

The teabag is 100 today - I wonder if it was also a Friday!

Anyhow, it was all a mistake,

"...Thomas Sullivan, a New York coffee merchant who turned to tea, sent out samples in small silk sachets rather than as loose tea. His penny-pinching was misunderstood by his customers who failed to realise that they were supposed to cut open the sachet and empty its contents into a pot before brewing their tea. The result was an instant success with American tea drinkers." Say no more...

(Times)

Reading the article reminded me of what my dad always said about teabags, "they just fill them with the leftover dust in the crates! Grrr..."

But I also recall clogged plug-holes, jammed with tea-leaves... and that horrible moment when you are draining your cup and you get a mouthful of them... bleeeuuuuugh! That is the reason that I still leave a drop in any cup of anything I am drinking.

(Cup... not glass)

I have kind of got used to teabags now, but I do miss tea caddies, those funny little spoons for the tea, teapot cosies and the sound of the boiling water pouring onto the leaves in the pot...

Time for a cuppa!



3 comments:

Anji said...

"a New York coffee merchant who turned to tea, " I like that, could you then say 'It was enough to make him turn to tea'?

I haven't heard the sound of boiling water pouring onto the leaves in the pot for years.

I confess I was sipping coffee as I read this.

Neutron said...

...it could be an incredibly ingenious pun on tea urn...no? Ok, please yourself!

Anonymous said...

That's funny. And I sit here in the US of A, where they really don't understand how to make tea in restaurants and hotels. They think if they bring you a rapidly cooling cup of hot water and the teabag, it will work. The American friends I've made tea for, properly, so you can't see through it, have all loved it, and have said things like 'Oh! So that's what it's supposed to taste like! This is really very good!'

LOL!