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How to Collect Tea Bags

Although tea has been a favored drink in many cultures for centuries, the first tea bags weren't invented until 1908, by an American, Thomas Sullivan. Tea bag collecting is a simple hobby that doesn't require a lot of money to get started. You can buy tea in bags in any grocery store. As your collection builds, you can add specialty teas. In addition to the wide variety of tea available, each box and bag is decorated with unique artwork.

Things You'll Need

Tea
Index card or log book
Album
Baseball card holders

Instructions

- 1
  Search your cupboards for tea bags. Choose one example from each kind of tea in your house. Expand your collection by asking friends and relatives to donate tea bags from their homes. This will enable you to build the foundation of your collection at no cost.
- 2
  Expand your collection by buying teas. Begin at grocery stores. For more unusual teas, visit gift shops, tea specialty stores, import stores, ethnic groceries and museum shops.
- 3
  Register with tea collecting groups online. Now you can trade for different types of tea bags. Your state or region may have local favorites that are unavailable to collectors in other parts of the country. Individual tea bags can be mailed in a regular envelope for the cost of one stamp, so it's easy and inexpensive to arrange trades with collectors in other parts of the country.
- 4
  Organize your tea bag collection by type of tea or by manufacturer. Keep a log or an index card for each bag, noting where and when you acquired it. Display your tea bags in albums. Plastic sheets designed to hold baseball cards are also ideal for storing and displaying tea bags, one bag per card slot.

Other Collecting