A small detail in an otherwise tragic story caught my attention: the Glatfelter mill at Lydney in Gloucestershire makes two out of three of the world’s tea bags.
Tell me more.
Well it might be not entirely accurate. The American parent company (founded 1864) makes this claim, but it has operations in Germany, France, UK, and the Philippines as well as Pennsylvania, who may all make tea bags too.
My first (heated) discussion about the correct application of VAT rules concerned tea bags.
The rules governing which locally manufactured items could be sold within the Free Trade Area without imposition of import duties stated that local input should make up at least X% of the Value Added of the final product.
The Head of the Customs department was insistent that putting tea into tea bags added no value whatsoever to the product, which was, & remained, just tea.
Links
Glatfelter History
Tea Bag Papers for First-Class Aroma
[PDF] Beyond Paper
George flies in with parting gift for town
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Dyadic death
