Abstract:
A tea bag ( 1 ) including a sealed pouch ( 30 ) having an internal tag ( 50 ) disposed inside the sealed pouch or nestled between the lobes ( 31   a   , 31   b ) of a multi-lobed pouch ( 3 ). The internal tag containing text ( 60 ), or other message comprised of letters, words, images, symbols or other indicia imprinted thereon or created using a cut-out technique. When the sealed pouch becomes wet and translucent, the text, or other message, is revealed to a user.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001]     There are many products or packages which provide hidden items or indicia. The hidden items or indicia are either hidden inside the product or appear on a surface of the product upon activation. Examples include toys in cereal boxes, fortunes in fortune cookies, or words which appear by rubbing, providing heat, water, etc., to a surface of a product.  
         [0002]     In the case of tea bags, standard external tags have had indicia, such as words, quotes or logos applied to them. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,989,279 to Levy, similar hidden indicia is placed on an outer surface of the tea bag itself. Thus, for example, when the surface of the bag gets stained by brewing tea, words or symbols appear. However, the hidden indicia disposed on the surface of the bag may get rubbed-off or worn-off prior to use, which would result in only partial words or symbols being displayed to a user upon activation. A non-toxic, durable, heat resistant, water-resistant, inexpensive ink that changes from invisible to visible from tea stain though common tea preparation techniques, would probably be very challenging at best.  
         [0003]     It is therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a bag, such as a tea bag, that provides a visible message to a user from a tag within the bag upon submersing the bag in a liquid.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0004]     In an illustrative, non-limiting implementation of the present invention, a tea bag is provided. The tea bag includes a sealed pouch, an internal tag, and dried tea leaves disposed inside the sealed pouch along with the internal tag. The tag may alternatively be placed internally between the lobes of a multiple-lobed tea bag. The internal tag has text, which may include letters, words, symbols, images or other indicia, imprinted on it, or cut into it, for example, by a punching method, or applied by any other method, so that when the sealed pouch becomes wet and translucent, the hidden text is exposed to the user. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0005]     Aspects of illustrative, non-limiting embodiments of the present invention will become more apparent by describing in detail embodiments thereof with reference to the attached drawings in which:  
         [0006]      FIG. 1  shows a front view of a tea bag in accordance with a non-limiting embodiment of the present invention with the internal tag hidden;  
         [0007]      FIG. 2  shows a front view of a tea bag in accordance with a non-limiting embodiment of the present invention with the internal tag exposed;  
         [0008]      FIG. 3  shows a front view of a string-free tea bag in accordance with a non-limiting embodiment of the present invention having an internal tag.  
         [0009]      FIG. 4  shows a front view of a non-limiting embodiment of the present invention with the multiple-lobed tea bag with the internal tag exposed.  
         [0010]      FIG. 5  shows a side view of a non-limiting embodiment of the present invention with the multiple-lobed tea bag with the internal tag exposed. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0011]     The following description of illustrative non-limiting embodiments of the invention discloses specific configurations and components. However, the embodiments are merely exemplary of the present invention, and thus, the specific features described below are merely used to more easily describe such embodiments and to provide an overall understanding of the present invention.  
         [0012]     As shown in  FIG. 1 , tea bag  1  includes a sealed pouch  30  containing a dried substance, such as dried tea leaves  70 . The tea bag  1  further contains an external gripping tag  10  which connects to a hidden internal tag  50  by means of a string  40 , which extends through an unsealed portion  20  of the sealed pouch  30 .  
         [0013]     The sealed pouch  30  can be made, for example, of any material currently used to manufacture tea bags, or any material having similar properties of a tea bag. Specifically, the material should be fairly opaque when dry and translucent when wet. Examples of materials suitable for the pouch include a non-woven fiber fabric, a non-woven cellulose material, and unbleached paper. In addition, the sealed pouch  30  can be made larger than a standard tea bag if so desired. Also, dried substances, other than dried tea leaves  70 , may be disposed inside the sealed pouch  30 . An example of such a dried substance is ground coffee.  
         [0014]     The external tag  10  can be made of virtually any material, including material currently used for tags, either on tea bags or other products. The tag material must be durable enough to allow a user to grip and pull the tea bag  1  from a container of liquid without the tag breaking or tearing. The external tag  10  can also be any desired size. In an alternate embodiment, no external tag is provided and the user pulls the bag from a container of liquid by pulling the end of string  40 .  
         [0015]     The internal tag  50  should preferably be made of a suitable material on which printing can be applied (printing will be discussed in more detail below). Since the internal tag  50  is submerged along with the sealed pouch  30 , it may be preferable to provide a water-resistant coating or laminate over the internal tag  50  either before or after a printing process in order to protect the printing from being damaged. As shown, the internal tag  50  is rectangular, however, the internal tag  50  can be formed in any desired shape or size to fit inside the sealed pouch  30 .  
         [0016]     The string  40  can be any type of string, including string currently used in the manufacture of tea bags. The string  40  may be slidably coupled to the sealed pouch  30  at the unsealed portion  20 . In other words, the string  40  can freely move in an upward direction when pulled by the user. Such pulling action slides the internal tag  50  in an upward direction inside the sealed pouch  30 . In an alternate embodiment, the unsealed portion  20  can be omitted, so that sealed pouch  30  is sealed on all sides. In this embodiment, the string  40  is attached to the sealed pouch  30  during manufacturing and the string  40  would not be capable of sliding relative to the sealed pouch when the string is pulled. The internal tag  50  remains attached to string  40  in an upper portion of sealed pouch  30  at all times.  
         [0017]      FIG. 2  shows tea bag  1  with the internal tag  50  exposed, for example, after it has been pulled out of the tea leaves  70 . As shown, “text”  60  is imprinted on the internal tag  50 . This printing can be performed by using a standard printing process. The text  60  can include logos, messages, questions, quotes, jokes, answers to jokes, different colors, drawings or other information based on a manufacturer&#39;s preference. Since the internal tag  50  will be submerged in water along with the tea bag  1 , for example, when making tea, the text  60  must be safe and non-toxic. For example, the text can be imprinted using dye-based ink which is fade resistant, water resistant and bleed resistant. Such types of ink are well known and easily accessible by those skilled in the art. In an alternate embodiment, the text  60  can be a punch design or cut-out design using a standard punch press method or laser-cut method.  
         [0018]     Referring again to  FIG. 1 , the internal tag  50  is buried in the tea leaves  70 . Since the tea bag  1  is dry and fairly opaque, the text  60  on the internal tag  50  is hidden from view of the user. When the tea bag  1  is placed in a liquid, for instance water, to make tea, the sealed pouch  30  becomes translucent, and the tea leaves  70  tend to settle to the bottom of the sealed pouch  30 . Since the string  40  is slidably coupled to the sealed pouch  30 , a user is able to pull the string  40  upward by the external tag  10  to slide the internal tag  50  to the upper portion of the sealed pouch  30 , as shown in  FIG. 2 . This enables a user to read the hidden text  60  imprinted on the internal tag  50  through the now translucent tea bag  1 . According to additional embodiments, a question, beginning of a quote, a joke or riddle is provided on the external tag  10 , with the ending or answer being provided on the hidden internal tag  50 . Therefore, in accordance with certain embodiments, each tea bag  1  contains a hidden surprise to the delight and entertainment of the user or others in their company.  
         [0019]      FIG. 3  shows another non-limiting embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, tea bag  2  does not have a string attached to it and has a circular shaped sealed pouch  90 . Similar to the previous embodiments, where a string is attached, when the circular shaped pouch  90  is wet, it becomes translucent and the wet tea leaves  70  tend to settle to the bottom of the pouch  90 , as shown in  FIG. 3 . When a user manually pulls tea bag  2  out of the cup of tea, the internal tag  80  containing the hidden text  60  will be revealed since internal tag  80  does not travel to the bottom of the pouch  90  along with the tea leaves  70 . Similar to previous embodiments, the internal tag  80  can contain text  60 , defined as any type of information or image depending on a manufacturer&#39;s preference and can be made in any shape or size on at least one side of the tag.  
         [0020]      FIG. 4  shows a front view of a further non-limiting embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, tea bag  3  is comprised of multiple lobes, two lobes ( 31   a ,  31   b ;  FIG. 5 ), in this example, containing a dried substance such as tea leaves  70 . The tag  50  is attached with a mechanism such as a staple  100  between the lobes adjacent to the upper portion of these lobes such that the text  60  is readable when the sealed pouch  30  becomes wet and the tea leaves  70  settle to the bottom of the lobes.  
         [0021]      FIG. 5  shows a side view of the embodiment of  FIG. 4  having a tea bag  3  with the configuration of two lobes  31   a ,  31   b  more clearly apparent, such as is sometimes used with existing tea bag designs. Alternatively, at least tag  50  can be placed inside the lobes  31   a ,  31   b  with the tea leaves  70  depending on the manufacturer&#39;s preference and text  60  space requirements.  
         [0022]     The descriptions of the preferred embodiments set forth herein are provided to enable a person skilled in the art to make and use the present invention. Moreover, various modifications to those embodiments will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art. It will be appreciated that the above descriptions are intended only to serve as examples, and that many other embodiments are possible within the spirit and scope of the invention.