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Who doesn’t like the feeling of comfort and peace that flows through your veins when you drink aromatic hot tea? Today, there are over 1 500 different types of tea in the world. On the shelves of almost any supermarket today, you can find both loose and bagged teas, as well as in the form of a flower, in granules, in capsules, tubes, etc. For every taste and budget. But still, the most popular are tea bags — cheap and easy to use. But did you know that was a mistake? Yes, the teabag was actually a mistake. Let me explain it.

Once upon a time, in 1904, an American coffee and tea dealer named Thomas Sullivan decided to pack tea samples to send to Europe in small silk bags so that different types would not be muddled up. The recipients, due to the lack of knowledge, didn’t take the tea out of the bags, so they mistakenly placed the tea along with the packaging in boiling water. That’s how simple and unexpected the tea bag was invented. By mistake.

Of course, tea bags in the form we are used to today were invented a little later (after a few more mistakes, actually). After people realized that tea could be brewed faster and simpler, tea dealers and companies got interested in this idea.

The first was the Düsseldorf company Teekanne — the world leader in the production of tea in bags. During the First World War, the company made tea bags from gauze. This material was available and quite cheap (definitely cheaper than silk), but it was so thick that the taste of tea was almost or not felt at all, so people drank, in fact, just boiled water, perhaps with a taste of tea leaves.

Also, a Briton named John Horniman once decided to seal his tea bags, but when he did that, the tea had a strong smell and taste of glue. So, closer to modern tea bags, but still a mistake.

Everything changed in 1929, when one of the employees of the Teekanne company, Adolf Rumbold, created a bag with two compartments from baking parchment, which he stapled. These are the tea bags that we use today. In addition, Rumbold also invented a machine for packing tea bags.

Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. As the history of the invention of the tea bag shows, mistakes can be unexpectedly useful. You never know for sure! The next time you brew tea, remember you wouldn’t do it now if it had not been someone’s little mistake once.