h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Does anyone actually know?

Tea.

And bag.

RF

but the acutal bag. That's the most taxing. What's that made from?

It's a special semi-porous paper in the UK. On the continent i've seen perforated polypropylene used as the material.

RF

It must have been a revolution in the paper industry. I wonder what makes it special; it's probably layered with some kind of coating at a guess.

I've never seen the polyprop. bags they sound ominous.

It's made of lots of little holes all sewn together.

Apparently the first ones were made of silk.

All sorts of stuff out there on the web, just search for tea bag technology or similar.

And I must admit to being disappointed in that although the reasonably well known BSI 6008 (British Standard for how to make a cup of tea) is still current there was no entry I could find on how to make the Tea Bag. Presumably because a proper cup of tea wouldn;t use one

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_bag

"Tea bag paper is related to paper found in milk and coffee filters and is a blend of wood and vegetable fibers. The latter is bleached pulp abaca hemp, a plantation banana plant grown for its fiber, mostly in the Philippines and Colombia. Some bags have a heat-sealable thermoplastic such as PVC or polypropylene as a component fiber on the inner tea bag surface"

I wonder if this is still bugging them 14 years on....

Oddly enough, last time I was in Harrogate at my Mother's - she lives within a couple of hundred yards of the Taylor's 'Yorkshire Tea' factory, she showed me an article in the paper. It was talking about how some teabags, and Taylor's was implicated, were unpopular with gardeners because of the plastic in the bag. It wasn't decomposing on the compost heap. Typhoo were adamant that they used 100% paper. Taylor's explained that the plastic in the bag enables them to heat seal each bag on the production line.

PP.

http://www.pfree.co.uk/tea-bags-are-made-from-paper-arent-they/

PP.

I have found a company (local to me, being situated in Brentford, Middlesex) which use natural fibres for their bags.

Their sustainability policy is here.

http://www.teapigs.co.uk/m/about/sustainability-and-values

MMF