Looking closer at what holds your tea and your trust.
For many of us, the teabag feels like an old friend. It is quick, familiar and quietly comforting. Yet behind that simple square of fabric lies a story that few have ever stopped to consider. What is a teabag actually made from, and how does it come to hold something so pure and natural as tea?
Where It All Began
The story of how it began is quietly beautiful. Over a century ago, tea merchants would send small samples to their clients in silk pouches. Some of those clients, rather than emptying the tea into a pot, simply placed the entire bag into hot water. It worked, it was convenient, and so the idea of the teabag was born. What began as a soft, breathable silk bag soon evolved into something far more industrial.
As tea grew in popularity, the gentle silk pouches were replaced by fabrics that could withstand mass production. Today, many teabags are made from blended fibres such as paper, nylon and plastic, or from heat-sealed meshes built for machinery and boiling water. Even those described as cotton are rarely untouched by processing.
The Journey from Fibre to Fabric
Cotton begins as a soft, natural fibre on a plant. To become a smooth, flat fabric that can be handled by machines, it typically passes through a series of treatments, including washing, bleaching, pressing, cutting and sealing. Along the way, it may meet oils, chemicals and metal plates that alter its texture. Each step takes the material a little further from its original purity.
It is not always easy to know what you are brewing your tea in. Some teabags are sealed with glues or adhesives, while others use plastics to keep their shape in hot water. Even when we
hope they are cotton, the journey from plant to finished teabag is often filled with unseen processes. Water, machinery and industrial handling all leave their trace.
It is no surprise that more people are beginning to wonder what touches their tea before it touches them.
Freedom in the Leaf
At Wild Seeds, we believe purity should extend beyond the leaf. Our teas are left free to move, to unfurl, to breathe. We keep them loose because the leaf deserves that space. There is no bag, no glue, no barrier between you and nature.
When you brew Wild Seeds tea, you meet the ingredients directly. There is no hidden filter or fine fabric in between, only water and plant working together in a slow and honest exchange. It is a quiet kind of freedom, the leaf returning to its natural rhythm as it dances in the water.
Next time you reach for a teabag, take a moment to think about where it began. Feel the fabric between your fingers and notice its texture. Wonder what it once was before it became a vessel for tea. These small thoughts remind us that everything we hold has a story.