Carla Ord, age 10, of Cumberland, Md., for her question:
WHO CAME UP WITH THE TEA BAG IDEA?
It was in 1904 that a New York City coffee and tea merchant named Thomas Sullivan came up with the idea of sending out samples of tea leaves tied into small silk bags instead of the usual tin.containers. His customers reacted with joy and almost immediately a new industry was born.
Sullivan's customers began to order more tea leaves in bags after finding that the drink could. be brewed easily with them.
In that same year, 1904, iced tea was also served for the first time. An English merchant named Richard Blechynden was looking for ways to increase the use of tea in the United States. He came up with the bright idea of serving cold tea over ice. He introduced the new drink at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis and the idea was well received. '
According to legend, Emperor Shen Nung of China was the first to discover the dry leaves of the tea plant could be put into hot water and produce a drink. This was supposed to have happened in the year 2737 B.C.
The earliest mention of tea drinking appeared in Chinese literature about A.D. 350.
It wasn't until about 1600, less than 400 years ago, that tea was introduced to Europeans by merchants who imported it from the Far East. History shows that the beverage was quickly accepted and became very popular.
Today tea ranks as the most popular drink in more countries than any other beverage. Among the Western nations, Great Britain uses by far the most tea. In fact, Britain imports about 500 million pounds of tea each year, which is enough to make something like 100 billion cups of tea. The United States is far behind with 150 million pounds imported annually, which will brew up about 30 billion cups.
One pound of tea, the experts say, will make about 200 cups.
About 3 billion pounds of tea are produced each year today. The largest amount, about 1 billion pounds, is grown in India. Sri Lanka is the next largest grower, coming up with about 500 million pounds annually, and in third place just a little behind is China.
Other important tea growing countries are Japan, Russia, Kenya, Indonesia and Turkey.
Tea plants grow best in tropical and subtropical countries at elevations from sea level to more than 7,000 feet. Wild tea plants can grow to be 30 feet tall, but commercial tea plants are pruned to keep them from three to four feet high.
About 3,000 tea plants grow on one acre of land. The plants mature in three to five years and then produce a flush or growth of new shoots. Workers called tea pluckers pick the flushes off the busy by hand. A plucker can harvest about 40 pounds of tea leaves a day.
At lower altitudes, tea plants may grow a new flush every week. _ At higher altitudes, a plant needs as long as two weeks to grow a flush. No flushes grow in cold weather.
There are three main kinds of tea: black, green and oolong. They differ in the method used to process the leaves.