Tea Was Discovered Twice…
Tea was accidentally discovered, twice. Back in 2737 B.C, Chinese emperor Shen Nong allowed dried leaves from a camellia bush to steep in hot water that had accidentally been blown into his cup. Fast forward thousands of years later, in 1908, American tea merchant Thomas Sullivan sent tea samples to Europe using silk pouches. This was so they wouldn’t get mixed up during the transatlantic journey.
When the tea arrived at its destination, they were accidentally put into boiling water, along with the packaging. Many more mistakes were made, until the development of the current tea bags we know and love today. We can thank these guys for our morning brew (Goethe).