History of tea

The most popular beverage in the world, tea was first drunk under theChinese Emperor Shen-Nung around 2737 B.C. An unknown Chinese inventorinvented the tea shredder, a small device that shredded tea leaves inpreparation for drinking. The tea shredder used a sharp wheel in thecenter of a ceramic or wooden pot that would slice the leaves intothin strips.The first tea bags were made from hand-sewn silk muslin bags and Ihave found tea bag patents of this sort dating as early as 1903. Firstappearing commercially around 1904, tea bags were successfullymarketed by tea and coffee shop merchant Thomas Sullivan of New York,who shipped his tea bags around the world. A machine was soon inventedto replace the hand sewing of tea bags.Also in 1904, iced tea was first reported to be served by EnglishmenRichard Blechynden at the St. Louis Fair, however, there is evidencethat the beverage was invented prior to that date.Thomas Lipton incorporated the Lipton Tea Company in 1915. Lipton Teapatented a novel four-sided tea bag in 1952 called the flo-thru tea bag.