TIL that teabags were invented by accident. In 1908, a New York tea merchant sent tea samples to customers in small silk bags. The customers put the bags directly in hot water, and the teabag was born
The invention of the tea bag in the twentieth century was a development that would radically change our tea-drinking habits forever.
Bonus: The Britons were reluctant to the new American invention for a long time. In the early 1960s tea bags only made up 3% of the market, but in 2007 it had risen to 96%.