Relax Up Here

The ancient Egyptians and Greeks, and the American Indians, sometimes chewed the leaves of the willow tree and other plants to relieve pain. But no one knew why these plants helped fight pain until in the 19th century, when scientists found that these plants contain pain-relieving drugs called salicylates. But in their pure form, these drugs made people nauseous. So in 1898, a German chemist named Felix Hoffman found a way to make a salicylate drug that didn’t upset the stomach. This new drug was called acetylsalicylic acid, but we know it much better today as ‘aspirin’. Until this century, all tea was sold in large bags or in tins. Then in 1904, a New York merchant named Thomas Sullivan began shipping tea to his customers in small silk bags. The customers found that it was easy to brew the tea right in the silk bags – and the tea bag was born!