One look at Takahashi Shota’s teabags will lead you to believe that the days of dull traditional teabags are almost over. This is because this Japanese teabag designer churns out teabags in amazing animal designs that include sea creatures, such as giant squids, cephalopods, sea turtles, anglerfish and the like, as also mammal-shaped teabags in the shapes of otters, squirrels, red pandas, foxes and many more.
Shota created his first teabag in the form of a dolphin in 2015 with the help of a crowdfunding campaign. It found such a positive response from the public that there was no looking back for him. He established a tea company, called Ocean Tea Bag, for manufacturing this unique product.
Shota uses folds, layers, and perforations to create sachets in the form of creatures. These sachets contain different tea blends. For example, a penguin-shaped teabag contains chamomile tea, while the octopus teabag is filled with Keemun tea and the double-bagged squid teabag contains black pu’er tea, depicting squid ink.
Relying on his imagination and expertise, Shota has added many creatures to his product line. Not only this, but he has also teamed up with a Tokyo-based bookstore and oddity shop to get his ideas for a series of animal-inspired teabags. Today, his online shop offers 50 unique teabags with a variety of teas.
The company has gone international and is accepting overseas orders. The teabag sets are priced around $16 each and are also available on Amazon. The company is set to design moving as well as glowing teabags in the future.
Ocean Tea Bags: Website