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Why do some teabags still have staples?

Tetley teaSomething occured to me a moment ago, right in the middle of my fourth cup of tea of the day (and it's not even 1pm yet - it's not the caffeine I should worry about it's all that sugar): how did I get to buy the tea that I currently use?  That tea, by the way, is Tetley.

When I was a kid, we had nothing but Lipton tea in the house. It was the major supermarket brand back then, and it was the only teabag that my mother ever bought. When I got older, I discovered Red Rose, and drank that for 15 years or so. It's a nice, hearty, tasty tea that I'd still be drinking if it wasn't for...

 

...the Great Staple Paranoia of 1999! I suddenly got this fear of having the staple in the Red Rose bag come off in the cup and I wouldn't notice. Plus, you're not supposed to microwave staples (not sure about the science there - is it OK to nuke metal as long as it's not touching the sides or just not in general? I've heard both). So, I went looking for a new teabag, one that tasted great and didn't have a staple. Did such a tea exist?

Yup! Tetley has no staple, just a string and a tag. In fact, their British Blend doesn't even have a string. It's just a round teabag. I buy their both their regular tea and their British tea. They're both quite excellent.

But now the question is: why do tea bags still have staples in them?

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