††††Tea is made from the dried leaves of a small evergreen shrub or tree that grows to approximately 4 metres high. The tea plant is native to Burma and Assam. It is cultivated in China, Japan, India and Ceylon.
Tea was known in China as long ago as 2737 BC. It was brought to Europe in 1610 by the Dutch and rapidly became a fashionable, if expensive, drink.
Joseph Tetley and Company of London were the first to develop the tea bag in the 1930's, but it was first introduced to the United States in 1935.
It was not until 1953 that the United Kingdom, the nation of tea lovers, first accepted the tea bag.
