Why is this the answer?

The answer is teabag because this clever riddle uses fun word pictures to tell the whole story of how tea is made! Riddles often make everyday objects sound like people or animals, and that is what makes them so much fun to solve. Let us look at the first line, "Late afternoons I often bathe." This clue is a little trick. A teabag does not really take a bath like you do with bubbles and toys, but it *does* get soaked in water when someone makes a cup of tea. Since many grown-ups enjoy drinking their tea in the afternoon as a relaxing treat, the teabag often gets its "bath" at that specific time of day. Next, the riddle says, "I'll soak in water piping hot." This is a perfect, direct hint about how a teabag must be used. To get all the tea flavor out and to "brew" the tea, you have to dunk the little paper bag right into a cup of very hot, steaming water. The hot water is the most important part of the process! The next line gives us a great clue about what happens as the tea brews: "My essence goes through. My see through clothes." The "essence" is all the wonderful flavor, smell, and color that comes out of the tiny, dried tea leaves inside the bag. As the teabag sits in the hot water, this essence soaks right through the paper or mesh of the bag, which the riddle calls its "see through clothes." This material is very thin and almost transparent when wet, so it lets the goodness pass into the water. Finally, the riddle wraps up with a clever play on words: "Used up am I – I've gone to pot." Once the teabag has given all its flavor to the water, it is considered "used up" because its job is done. The funny part is the phrase "gone to pot." While this can mean something is wasted, here it is a playful way of saying that the wet, used teabag is often tossed right into the teapot, the trash can, or maybe a compost pot after helping to make a delicious cup of tea. Every clue perfectly describes the life of a teabag!