Which country is credited with inventing the tea bag?

The United States is credited with inventing the modern tea bag.

Tea-bag patents date to 1903, when Milwaukee inventors Roberta Lawson and Mary McLaren patented a reusable “tea-leaf holder.” Around the same period, New York tea importer Thomas Sullivan sent tea samples to customers in small silk bags. Many recipients steeped the samples without removing the leaves from the bags, revealing the convenience of the idea and helping tea bags enter commercial use.

Early tea bags were made from silk or gauze and often looked like small sacks. The heat-sealed paper-fiber tea bag was patented in 1930 by William Hermanson, while the familiar rectangular form developed later. German engineer Adolf Rambold helped mechanize production with Teekanne’s packing machinery in the 1920s and 1940s.

The answer refers to the invention’s commonly credited American origin, not to the country that first made tea bags popular nationwide. Britain adopted them widely after the Second World War, and Tetley launched tea bags in the United Kingdom in 1953 after tea rationing ended. Japan, China, and Britain later developed important tea-bag markets, but they are not normally credited with inventing the device.