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An Everyday Ritual Becomes a Zoological Tour with a Japanese Company’s Animal Tea Bags

Since 2016, Japanese tea company Ocean Tea Bag has been elevating an everyday ritual into an animal adventure. Intricate tea bag designs range from giant squids and otters to red pandas and cephalopods. Layers, folds, and perforations help to create the details of each creature’s body, which also doubles as a pouch for the tea blend inside. The company was created by Takahashi Shota and launched its first product, a dolphin design, with a crowdfunding campaign in 2015. Since then, Shota has added a vast menagerie of animals to the product line. Luckily, the company started accepting overseas orders just a few weeks ago. Sets of individual animals/flavors and variety packs are available on the Ocean Tea Bag website.