article_snippet.sent: Did you know that the tea bag was accidentally invented by a New York tea merchant?
article_snippet.sent: A lot of people know that tea was first grown in China, which was then taken to India by the British.
article_snippet.sent: But did you know that the tea bag was accidentally invented by a New York tea merchantNew York ?
article_snippet.sent: Invented by tea merchant Thomas Sullivan in New York City in June 1908, they can now be found in virtually every one of Britain's  homes.
article_snippet.sent: But if it wasn't for a handful of confused Americans, the tea bag may never have made the tea bag into our cups at all.
article_snippet.sent: the tea bag came about only after tea merchant Thomas Sullivan in New York City, in an attempt to cut costs, sent samples of tea leaves to potential customers in small silk pouch-like purses.
article_snippet.sent: Unsure quite what to do with the strange little bag, the Americans dunked the strange little bag into a cup of hot water.
article_snippet.sent: And so was born the tea bag.
article_snippet.sent: After complaints that the mesh on the silk was too fine, tea merchant Thomas Sullivan in New York City developed sachets made of gauze - a method which was instrumental in today's tea bag design.
article_snippet.sent: But it was not until 1953, when British tea producer Tetley spotted the commercial potential of the bag, that it began to take off here.
article_snippet.sent: The firm now sells around 200million tea bags every week.
highlights_snippet.sent: The tea bag was accidentally invented by a New York tea merchant .
  