Tea Innovation

The Louisiana Purchase* Exposition took place in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1904. At the fair was the young Englishman Richard Blechynden, who represented the tea interests of India and Ceylon – now Sri Lanka. It was his job to popularize tea drinking in the United States. The weather that summer turned quite hot, and Blechynden watched as people passed by his booth to others that were serving cold drinks. In desperation, he filled tall glasses with ice and poured hot tea over it. Iced tea was an immediate success. The invention of tea bags happened almost simultaneously. Thomas Sullivan of New York City owned a tea and coffee business. In sending samples of tea to customers, he decided it would be cheaper to sew the tea inside small cloth bags instead of sealing it in tins. To his surprise, orders for the tea bags poured in. Tea bags are now made of a special filter paper, and the manufacturing and packing of them has become an industry in itself to meet the great demand. Instant, or powdered, tea has become common on grocery shelves along with bulk and bag teas. Instant teas offer greater convenience than ordinary leaf tea as they are easy to prepare and leave no leaf sediment. The treaty signed with France in 1803 by which the USA purchased a large portion of its present territory.