An investigation nobody requested. An answer nobody needs. And quite possibly the finest use of mathematics since someone invented compound interest.
This week’s question arrived while contemplating a cup of Good Earth tea.
Not the tea itself. Not its origins, flavor, or alleged health benefits.
The string.
That little cotton lifeline connecting a soggy bag of leaves to a tiny square of cardboard.
How much of the stuff does humanity use in a year?
Naturally, we abandoned whatever productive activity we were supposed to be doing and investigated.
First, the Facts
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the world produced roughly 7.3 million metric tons of tea in 2025.
That’s an extraordinary quantity of leaves destined for hot water.
And according to Japanese tea-bag manufacturer Yamanaka Industry, one of its tagged tea bags uses approximately 15 centimeters of string.
Six inches of civilization held together by cotton.
But there’s a complication.
Not all tea arrives in bags. And not all bags have strings. Some people even brew loose-leaf tea, apparently believing that life’s already complicated enough without a tiny cardboard handle.
Enter the Knucklehead Calculator
Let’s make a few heroic assumptions.
Suppose an average cup uses 2.5 grams of tea. That gives us roughly 2.9 trillion cup-sized portions from the world’s annual tea production.
Now suppose just 10% of that tea finds its way into individual bags equipped with strings.
That’s approximately 290 billion dangling tea bags.
Multiply by 15 centimeters apiece and we arrive at our magnificently improbable answer:
44 million kilometers of tea-bag string. Every year.
Enough to wrap a continuous string around the Earth approximately 1,100 times.
Or, if you prefer a more ambitious journey, travel from Earth to the Moon and back about 57 times.
All so we can fish a damp little pouch out of a cup.
But Is That Really the Answer?
Not exactly.
Our 10% assumption is an educated guess, not a verified global statistic. We also know that tea bags vary in size, some contain more tea than others, and many have no strings whatsoever.
If only 5% of the world’s tea ended up in stringed bags, our estimate would be halved.
The actual number remains something of a mystery.
But that’s rather the point of this column.
Some questions don’t have readily available answers. They require a little research, a few assumptions, and the willingness to discover that the original question was even stranger than we imagined.
And somewhere in the world, there’s probably a person whose entire professional career revolves around manufacturing tea-bag string.
We’d love to meet them.
Closer to Home: Five Tea Treasures of Monterey Bay
Having investigated the global tea-string crisis, we thought it only responsible to turn our attention to the people actually making and selling good tea here in Monterey Bay.
As it happens, we have some wonderful independent tea merchants, several of whom have largely eliminated the string problem by selling loose-leaf tea.
Apparently, they’ve been solving this crisis without government assistance.
Here are five local standouts worth exploring.
1. Gold Leaf Spice & Teas — Salinas
Founded in Oldtown Salinas in 2009, Gold Leaf offers an extraordinary selection of loose-leaf teas, herbs, and spices, including a tea bar where you can sample the merchandise before committing to a lifetime relationship with a particular oolong.
You’ll find them at 8½ W. Gabilan Street in Salinas, with another location at the Barnyard in Carmel.
2. Cha-Ya Boutique and Tea House — Monterey
At 118 Webster Street, Cha-Ya celebrates Japanese tea culture with specialty teas, elegant teaware, and traditional tea service.
The shop reopened under new ownership in 2024 and offers Japanese, Chinese, and herbal varieties, including teas from local producers.
A refreshing reminder that tea doesn’t always require a paper cup, a drive-through, or someone misspelling your name.
3. Hidden Peak Teahouse — Santa Cruz
This downtown Santa Cruz treasure specializes in traditional Chinese teas, particularly pu-erh, served using the careful, almost meditative gongfu method.
Even more remarkable, Hidden Peak maintains an electronics-free environment.
Yes, an actual establishment where customers are encouraged to put down their phones and talk to one another.
We understand this was once quite fashionable.
4. Flower Power Teas — Santa Cruz
Herbalist Julie Rothman has been handcrafting botanical tea blends since 1990, combining her appreciation for plants, cooking, and natural ingredients.
Her creations include Redwood Chai, Avena Dream, and a wonderfully named blend called Wiccan Women’s Brew.
Her Santa Cruz-made herbal infusions are available online and through local natural-food retailers.
Thirty-six years of making tea by hand. Meanwhile, some of us still struggle to remember whether the water goes in before or after the bag.
5. Asli Chai — Seaside / Monterey Peninsula
Kashka Singh creates small-batch masala chai inspired by her Indo-Fijian family traditions, using freshly ground spices and quality tea.
Asli means real or genuine, and that’s precisely the idea: chai rooted in family, culture, and the pleasure of sharing something wonderful with others.
You can find her blends through local shops, including Elroy’s Fine Foods in Monterey, and at selected farmers markets.
A Final Thought on String
After all this research, we’ve reached three conclusions.
First, humanity probably uses an astonishing quantity of tea-bag string.
Second, the precise amount remains maddeningly difficult to establish.
And third, we have some splendid independent tea businesses right here in Monterey Bay that deserve a visit.
Several don’t use strings at all.
Which, frankly, threatens the entire premise of this investigation.
Your Turn, Fellow Knuckleheads
How many golf balls disappear into the ocean every year? How much toothpaste is wasted because we can’t get the last bit out of the tube? How many umbrellas are currently sitting forgotten in restaurants?
Submit your wonderfully absurd question to KRML.
We’ll investigate with curiosity, questionable judgment, and just enough mathematics to be dangerous.
The Curious Knucklehead — An occasional KRML investigation into things that probably didn’t need investigating.
KRML 94.7 FM — Human-curated radio for the wonderfully curious people of Monterey Bay.