These Tea Bags Magically Transform Into Goldfish

Not a tea lover? These gorgeous goldfish tea bags will have you seriously considering trading in your coffee habit. If you’re already a tea convert, then I can only assume that, like me, you’ve begun plotting how to add them to your tea collection. Produced by Charm Villa, a creative agency based in Taipei, goldfish tea has been around since 2013, but it’s only recently become available to U.S. customers through sellers on Amazon. At $80 for a pack of twelve (as opposed to $35 in Taiwan), goldfish tea is not cheap — but the bags are so adorable and pretty they you may find yourself pulling out your wallet anyway.

Goldfish tea bags were designed by a team of 28 students from St. Johns University in Taipei. Made of Japanese fabric and filled with tealeaves from Taiwan, the bags look like stylized paper fish when they first come out of the box. When they’re put in hot water, they swell and become translucent, taking on a more realistic appearance. Each “fish” has a string attached to its mouth, which the drinker can pull to make the fish look like it’s swimming in water. As a rep for Charm Villa told Eater, “The goldfish in Asian culture represents wealth and good fortune.”

Goldfish Tea Bag, $16 for one, Amazon

Unsurprisingly, the process of making goldfish tea bags is more elaborate than most run-of-the-mill bags. The Charm Villa rep explained, “There are 16 steps that go into making the teabag. Nine of those require manual, handicraft skill. As for the details of the production, those are trade secrets.” Goldfish tea comes in four flavors: ruby black, rose oolong tea, oriental beauty, and jin xuan oolong.

Images: Charm Villa/Amazon; Giphy