1908 (said 1904), Thomas Sullivan, a tea merchant in new york, USA, put a small amount of tea samples into vegetarian bags and sent them to potential customers for tasting. Customers received these strange small bags, but there were no instructions to tell them how to use them and the tea inside, so someone swallowed them into a cup of boiling water. For a time, the tea was fragrant.
Sullivan's customers think it's convenient to use vegetarian tea bags. Then, orders poured in. Sullivan achieved his goal of selling tea. But after it was delivered, the customer was very disappointed-the tea was still in bulk, and there was no convenient plain bag, which caused complaints and even returned goods.
Sullivan, a clever businessman, was inspired by this incident. He quickly designed a tulle cloth bag and processed it into a small tea bag. As expected, this kind of small tea bag is very popular with consumers, which has brought considerable profits to Sullivan.
In this way, teabags were born. Sullivan's careless move made the teabag industry today. However, the recent patent information shows that 1903 has seen hand-sewn silk cotton bags. No matter what the truth is, teabags have changed people's drinking habits. The Daily Mail once quoted Sarah Howe, director of the public relations department of tetley Tea Company in Britain, as saying, "I can't imagine what life would be like without teabags."
Since its birth, teabags have undergone various changes. 1930, American William Hermannsen obtained the patent right of heat-sealed paper tea bag.
In Britain, tetley Tea Company began to produce tea bags on a large scale on 1953, and constantly improved the design of tea bags. 1964 made a more detailed improvement on the material of tea bags, which also made tea bags more popular. Today, there are about 2000 micropores in each tea bag, so that the tea leaves can be fully dissolved in boiling water.
From 65438 to 0989, tetley Tea Company changed the standard square tea bag design and introduced round tea bags. A few years later, tetley Tea Company introduced a kind of tea bag with rope, which contained 30 different kinds of tea. Since then, pyramid-shaped tea bags and nylon tea bags have successively entered the British market.
William Goeman, chairman of the British Tea Council, said: "Nowadays, the pace of life is fast, people don't have that much time and don't want to make their own tea."
The material of tea bags has evolved several times.
From 65438 to 0945, teabags began to enter the market on a large scale. Teabag is accepted by consumers because of its advantages of quickness, sanitation and convenience, and has become the main variety of tea consumption. In Britain alone, people drink about 65438+300 million cups of teabags every day. Since 2000, the global total consumption of tea is 2.84 million tons, of which the total consumption of teabags is 540,000 tons, accounting for 23.5% of tea consumption.
Internationally, the British teabag market has remained above 85% since 1995. From 65438 to 0993, the consumption of teabags in Canada accounted for 96% of the total domestic tea consumption. Relevant data show that teabags have developed rapidly since they were put into the market. Especially after 1985, the overall growth rate of tea bag consumption is higher than that of tea consumption. Teabag has become the main consumption variety in the tea market in developed countries.
Lipton is the largest tea brand in the world. 1890, Scottish Thomas Lipton founded Lipton black tea. 1898, Lipton black tea won the reputation of "the king of black tea in the world". Today, Lipton sells 36 billion tea bags and 70,000 tons of tea every year, with an output value of about 23 billion yuan, while the output value of China tea industry is 30 billion yuan, equivalent to more than two-thirds of the output value of China tea. From 65438 to 0992, Lipton entered the China market and promoted Lipton black tea. From 65438 to 0997, Lipton ranked first in China tea bag market. From the development history of Lipton's tea bag market in China, we can see that Lipton has a dominant position in the tea bag market in China, accounting for more than 70% of the tea bag market in China.
With the development of teabags, the materials, shapes and types of teabags have been improved and enriched.
First of all, the material of tea bags changed from silk at the beginning to gauze woven by silk and cotton later. Until 1930, the development of teabags made another leap in materials-American William Hermannsen obtained the patent right of heat-sealing paper teabags. This design process has been used to this day.
The shape of teabags is also constantly improving the design. Some surveys show that the shape of tea bags is an important factor to attract consumers. As a result, the tea bags in the market developed from the initial small bag shape to rectangle, square and circle. Later, the Germans invented the two-room tea bag. The bottom of this kind of tea bag is W-shaped, which can be opened after entering water, with high brewing efficiency and more interesting tea making.
But these paper bags are designed to hold tea powder, and they can't hold the original leaves of tea. In 20 13, Lipton Company of the United Kingdom introduced the latest triangular three-dimensional design in the shape of a tea bag. Pyramid-shaped tea bags make the tea fragrance dissolve faster and more thoroughly, and give the tea the greatest extension space. Three-dimensional triangular bags are usually filled with original leaves, so that tea drinkers can return to their original nature. People pay attention to this in China. The latest and best bag material is corn fiber, which is healthier, more environmentally friendly and easy to degrade. This kind of tea bag is the future direction and is called "Zongjiao bag".
Not only that, the varieties of teabags are becoming more and more diverse. From the original categories of black tea, green tea and scented tea, it has developed into various teas on the market today: health tea, hangover tea, eyesight tea, slimming tea that attracts women's attention, beauty tea and so on. And it has almost reached the level of "nothing unexpected, nothing can't be bought".
It is no accident to save trouble and time.
British writer George Orwell said that tea, which entered Britain in the17th century, was "one of the pillars of civilization". However, before the invention of teabags, tea drinkers had to filter all the tea leaves in their cups before drinking, and filtering tea leaves was a rather complicated process.
From 65438 to 0953, tetley Tea Company began to produce teabags in batches because of its promising market prospects. They think that teabags are easy to operate and can make tea leaves fully contact with boiling water, thus brewing fragrant hot tea.
Of course, it is not easy to persuade the British to drink teabags instead of bulk tea. It is said that when tetley first introduced teabags to Britain, the advertising words designed for it were quite concise. It just said, "it's simple and quick to make a good cup of tea and use a tea bag, as long as it's a penny."
Statistics show that the British drink 65.438+0.3 billion cups of teabags every day. There are even media reports: "40% of the liquid consumed by British people every day is tea, and most of them use teabags."
Compared with other ways of drinking tea, teabags have unique advantages, the most obvious of which is to save time and trouble. You know, time and efficiency are not as important to modern people as before. Tea bags are easy to carry and can be brewed at any time, so you don't need to carry a big teapot with you. From the point of view of saving trouble, when you want to drink tea, but don't want to go through the complicated brewing process in the traditional way, teabags are undoubtedly the best choice. For example, when making milk tea, grab a handful of tea leaves and throw them into a container, filter them before drinking, and clean the filter tools. Such troubles are inevitable. But it's not so troublesome to use teabags. Put a tea bag in, and there will be no tea residue left in the container when it comes out. Moreover, the weight of tea in the tea bag is certain, and the amount of water injected is also marked.
In fact, there is another incomparable advantage of traditional tea-making methods, that is, the nutrition of tea leaves is released more completely after grinding. From the dissolution of vitamins and amino acids contained in tea, 80% of teabags are leached at the first brewing; The leaching rate of the second brewing reached more than 95%; The same is true of other effective ingredients contained in tea, such as tea polyphenols and caffeine.
If the accidental discovery of teabags is only due to an oversight, then the popularity of teabags is not accidental, but deliberately designed. Creativity is accidental, and design is inevitable. Nowadays, the pace of life is getting faster and faster and people are getting busier, so what people need more often is a simple lifestyle. Teabag, a simple way of drinking tea, just meets people's needs of saving trouble and time. Simplifying complex affairs in one step is what people need most today. The design of tea bag omits the complicated process of traditional tea drinking in a standardized and simple way, but retains the effect of tea drinking. The new way of drinking tea formed by teabags facilitates people's modern life.
Why don't people in China recognize teabags?
Tea bags in China are mainly packed in square bags, mainly tea powder. China people's understanding of tea is still inclined to prototype tea, and they have a low-level understanding of tea powder. Therefore, although the teabag was born at the beginning of last century, it has not been paid attention to by the industry in China, and it is even considered as a dirty role in tea products.
In China, tea sales are still dominated by loose tea. China tea has long been in an embarrassing situation with varieties and no brands. Longjing, Pu 'er, Tieguanyin, Dahongpao, Taiping Monkey Kui, Xinyang Maojian, Guagua Pian, Jasmine Tea, etc. They are all tea varieties. Although there are some regional time-honored tea shops, they are not well-known locally. It is not clear which kind of tea is really good quality. Britain, which does not produce tea, has a world-famous tea brand-Lipton. Brand is synonymous with standard and quality. Teabag is suitable for brand operation. Large and medium-sized cities, economically developed cities and cities with fast pace of work and life have an increasing market demand for teabags. With the integration of design service and tea industry, strengthening the construction of China tea brand and building a strong brand will open a broader overseas market for China tea.
At present, the annual consumption of tea bags in the world accounts for 23.5% of the total consumption of tea, while the consumption of tea bags in China only accounts for about 3% of the total consumption of tea, so the future development space of domestic tea bags is very huge. Michelle Bengston, Chairman of the International Tea Committee, once said that tea, as a healthy drink, is being accepted by more and more people in the world. In the past 20 years, global tea production and consumption have increased by 50%. As the largest tea producer and consumer in the world, China has great advantages in developing tea industry. When the development of tea bag industry is surging, we urgently need to change.
The whole vast world.
As a tea bag
Encounter creative design
In modern life, many products are inextricably linked with creative design. What kind of sparks will tea bags have when they meet creative design? In the spring of 20 1 1, when Prince William got married, a teabag with cartoon patterns of Prince William and Princess Kate appeared on the market, which was very popular! Perhaps the British are still looking forward to seeing them fall in love.
In fact, the idea of making celebrity patterns into tea bag labels has long existed. Politicians such as Obama, Putin and the Queen of England have all been "packaged" in this way. People seem to have a soft spot for such products, and such creative design continues. It can also be said that when tea bags meet creative design, they have special added value. Every creative design is unique and novel, and teabags can always be novel. The tea bag industry will also constantly cultivate new consumer groups because of its innovative design.
future trend
Convenient tea
Create a "quick time" for drinking tea.
According to the survey, with the changes of the times, 80% consumers in China need simple, convenient, safe and tasty tea. Therefore, China tea needs to be innovated urgently.
People in the industry generally believe that the breakthrough of innovation lies in the development of "instant tea" such as teabags, instant tea and tea drinks. In fact, the development of teabags is also the full use of tea resources. Famous tea, camellia oleifera. Tea stems are called attached tea, but they also have high nutritional value. The emergence of teabags is related to the diversification of consumer groups, especially the emergence of foreign brands of teabags, which has brought consumers into the "fast era" of tea drinking, while the emergence of domestic teabags, which are mainly middle-end people, has provided consumers with brand-new tea drinking concepts and choices. Tea bags in China started late, and the output of 199 1 is 8000 tons, accounting for only 1.6% of the total tea in China. By 200 1, the output will reach 20,000 tons, and the output of teabags will increase by 250% in ten years.
With the birth of triangular cone-shaped packaging bags, the volume of teabags has increased, which can be used to package large-leaf tea such as Tieguanyin. Because of its advantages of portability and sanitation, although the cost of triangular cone-shaped packaging bag is 100 times higher than that of ordinary square tea powder bag, it is a consumption trend and has been recognized in the international consumer market.
In fact, the tea bag on the side is the open ground for the development of tea industry, and it is also the commanding height for China tea to go to the world in the future. In the form of packaged tea bags, China tea resources and tea culture are integrated, and a convenient, fast, economical and hygienic tea drinking experience is designed and developed for consumers according to different consumption needs, so as to fully open up modern channels for tea products.
Extended reading
Ancient people used the Tea Classic to drink tea.
China is one of the cradles of tea and tea culture in the world. Our ancestors left many ancient books about tea science to future generations, among which the earliest and most comprehensive is the Tea Classic written by Lu Yu, the "tea god" in the Tang Dynasty. This paper discusses the origin, varieties, distribution, production, brewing water, utensils and anecdotes of tea, which has greatly promoted the development of tea industry in China and even the world.
Tea drinking originated from eating fresh leaves of tea trees, which is the product of our ancestors' struggle with nature for survival. In primitive society, humans hunted animals and looked for plants as food in Shan Ye, picked leaves of various plants and tried to chew them with their mouths. Sometimes I meet some poisonous weeds and get poisoned after eating them. Although the taste of fresh tea is bitter, it can make people excited and detoxify after eating.
Because it is inconvenient to go to Shan Ye to pick the leaves of raw tea trees, it is even more difficult when it rains. Moreover, the growth of tea trees is seasonal, and the collected fresh leaves are not resistant to storage. Therefore, people put fresh leaves in the sun to dry in sunny days, so as to take them at any time. This is the most primitive tea processing method, and now it is called "green slice". But the dried leaves are hard to swallow, and later they developed from eating to drinking.
China has a long history of tea making. Since its discovery, wild tea trees have experienced complex changes from raw boiled soup to cake tea, from green tea to multi-tea, from manual tea making to mechanized tea making. The formation of various tea quality characteristics is not only influenced by tea varieties and fresh leaf raw materials, but also by processing conditions and manufacturing methods.
The use of tea began with chewing the fresh leaves of tea trees and developed into raw boiled soup, similar to modern boiled vegetable soup. The history book Yanzi Chunqiu, which records the life story of Yan Ying, the prime minister of Qi Jinggong in the Spring and Autumn Period, records that tea is a meal: "When a baby is beautiful, eat rice except millet, cook three or five eggs and only drink tea." It is said that Yanying, as a country, eats all brown rice, except a few meat dishes, which are "tea dishes" made of tea. During the Three Kingdoms period, the simple processing of tea appeared in Wei, and the collected tea was first made into cakes, dried or dried in the sun, which was the bud of tea-making technology.
There is such a record in Guangya written by wei ren Zhang Yi in the Three Kingdoms period: "Tea is picked between Jing and Ba to make cakes, and rice paste is used to make cakes." It is said that people will first make the collected tea leaves into cakes, dry them or dry them in the sun, grind and brew them when drinking, and add seasonings to make soup. In the Jin Dynasty, more and more literati joined the ranks of drinking tea. Not only tea tasting poems such as Deng Chengdu Tower and Chu Ge appeared, but also Du Yu's Ci Ze came from the east corner, shaped like a male willow. It can be seen that the etiquette of literati "entertaining guests with tea" is obvious, and so is making tea.
From the Tang Dynasty to the Song Dynasty, tribute tea rose, and a tribute tea academy was established to organize officials to learn tea-making technology, thus promoting the continuous reform of tea production. Steamed green cakes have been gradually improved in the Tang Dynasty. Lu Yu's "Creation of Tea Classics III" records: "Clear, adopt it. Steam, pound, pat, bake, wear, seal and dry tea. " Picking tea leaves in sunny days, steaming in retort, mashing steamed tea leaves with Chu Jiu, patting tea powder into cakes, and finally putting the tea cakes, baking and sealing. After such processing, the smell of raw grass is removed, and the tea leaves become delicious and mellow.
Tea-making technology developed rapidly in Song Dynasty, and milk tea and wax tea appeared. Later, dragon and phoenix patterns were added to the surface of cake tea, which was called dragon and phoenix cake. With the further development of Tang, Song and Yuan Dynasties, the number of fried green tea gradually increased. Its production method is generally as follows: high-temperature enzyme fixation, rolling, re-frying, baking, which is very similar to the modern method of frying green tea. In the process of making tea, due to the discussion of ensuring the aroma and taste of tea, people have explored some laws through different processing methods and a series of different fermentation procedures from non-fermentation to full fermentation, thus making six kinds of tea with different color, fragrance, taste, shape and quality characteristics, namely green tea, yellow tea, black tea, white tea, black tea and green tea (oolong tea).