Are you wondering how to package loose leaf tea products for your business? So you can find the answer to your question in this article, you find the right place!
This article not only shares aspects of packaging but, more than that, helps you create high-quality, cost-effective, and especially environmentally friendly products. The article was written by FGC – the leading expert in tea production and export in Vietnam.
Contents
1. Decide blend for your loose leaf tea products
The first thing to start your business is to decide the blend formula for your loose leaf tea products.
Here are some ideas for your study and evaluation:
- Using one tea type such as dried black tea or green tea blend with herbal ingredients, such as chrysanthemum, artichoke, rose, or jasmine flowers.
- Using several teas and herbals in your blending and add some flavor.
You should have an in-depth understanding and serious market research on consumer taste to create the proper blend formula for the market.
If you target the youth, you may come up with modern blendings with more herbs. If you target the old generation, you may need to adjust the blending to be more traditional with more green tea.
2. Choose loose leaf tea packaging materials
The second step to bag loose leaf tea is to choose the packaging materials. There are three popular packaging types for tea production: Pouch, paper box, and canister.
2.1. Tea pouches
There are 3 kinds of materials that are suitable for packing loose leaf tea type.
Paper
Paper pouches are much more environmentally friendly in comparison with other materials as they can be 100% recycled or biodegradable in the natural environment without causing environmental pollution.
Moreover, paper pouches do not contain toxic ingredients, ensuring safety for consumers’ health. These materials are easy to design and print with many modern printing techniques such as offset printing or digital printing and therefore helping to save production costs.
Despite these advantages, sometimes a paper pouch is not the best option for loose tea package as it is not stable under mechanical influences, especially after long-distance transportation.
If packaging in a paper pouch, to ensure the quality of tea, better the manufacturers should pack these pouches in PE bags or cartons.
Plastic
Plastic pouches are made from PP, PE, OPP plastic materials. These materials are very popular as they are durable and help to preserve tea quality for a longer time and are proper for long overseas transportation. However, recently this packaging type is not favored by tea manufacturers and consumers as its ingredients are considered not good for health.
Besides, plastic tea pouches are difficult to decompose, causing environmental pollution. Therefore, many recommendations suggest that we should not use plastic pouches to store food products, including tea products. People prefer paper packaging.
Aluminum
Aluminum pouches are assembled from 2 or more layers of film in which pure aluminum film is a part of the structure. Aluminum foil pouches are a type of tea packaging with a long shelf life (almost more than 3 years) and can be used in a variety of environments. This tea packaging type is possibly the best packaging in keeping the aroma and taste of tea products. Also, it has a glossy appearance, making the products more luxurious and beautiful.
However, the disadvantages of this material are it may affect consumers’ health and some studies show that this material is far worse for the environment than plastic materials as it is the use of fossil fuels, water pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions. And regarding production cost, this material is also more expensive than other types.
2.2. Tea duplex paper box
Nowadays, duplex paper boxes are possibly the most popular packaging type for loose tea products in supermarkets. If you are wondering how to package tea leaves, duplex paper box is a good choice.
They are not only boxes to store and protect tea quality conveniently over time and during transportation, but also to effectively show information, details, and highlights of the products, helping the producers in marketing the product. Tea packed in paper duplex boxes also help consumers visualize the product easily and give purchasing decisions quickly.
Duplex paper boxes are made from paper material and therefore have the same advantages as paper pouches; they are very eco-friendly to the environment. Moreover, duplex boxes look more luxurious and eye-catching.
However, to better preserve the product quality, inside the box producers need to pack tea leaves in a nylon bag or aluminum bags, or paper bag, so the production is quite expensive.
2.3 Tea canisters
Canisters are often used for packing premium tea products. They can be made from tin or paper materials.
Paper canisters
Paper canisters for teas can be made under round, hexagonal or octagonal shapes. As made from paper materials, this packaging type is very friendly to the environment and safe for human health. However, for producers, it is quite an expensive packaging type and requires a certain enough minimum quantity of order, this MOQ is often a big quantity. Also as made of paper, the canisters are easy to break.
Tin canisters
Tin canisters have more strength, are less likely to break, and come in a range of shapes when compared to other tea packaging types such as plastic or paper. The tin canisters are densely packed, effectively blocking air contact with the tea and preventing moisture, oxidation, light, and a unique taste. At the same time, it has no distinct taste and will not affect the tea’s aroma.
However this packaging type is very expensive and has cylinder costs and it is difficult if producers want to change information in the design of the tin. Therefore only premium products are suitable for this packaging type.
2.4. Package loose tea leaf in bulk
For bulk loose tea, paper cartons and kraft bags are the most effective packaging types.
Paper cartons
Paper cartons have several popular types such as 3 or 5 layer paper cartons which are printed by flexo technique or offset printing cartons. For packaging tea under 5 kg net weight, producers can use 3 layer cartons. For more than 10kgs to 20kgs net weight, 5 or even 7 layers of cartons are recommended. To keep the quality and aroma of teas during transportation, there is a PE bag packed inside the carton and the cartons should be wrapped tightly.
Kraft paper bag
Kraft paper bags are perhaps the most popular packaging types of loose tea leaf in bulk because of their economic effectiveness: save space, reducing the cost, and easy processing. These bags are also friendly with the environment as they can be reusable.
Sometimes before producers often used to pack the tea in wooden boxes as well, but the cost for wooden boxes nowadays is expensive and not very convenient for stuffing, packing, so it is no more popular.
Related post: Tea packaging: All necessary factors to select the best one
3. Design loose leaf tea packaging
Tea packaging design is also quite significant in gaining attention from buyers amid so many products of other competitors. To make the loose leaf tea packaging unique and appealing, we can design and label it with relaxing colors, choose the designs suitable for each brand.
When we talk about the branded experience, we’re talking about a method of creating memorable, pleasurable motions that deliver on the brand promise while also meeting crucial demands. Design should be visually appealing and emotionally connected in such a way that it stays in the consumer’s memory. When it comes to designing tea packaging, there are a few things to keep in mind:
- The origin of tea: The design must show the typical characteristics of the origin of the product.
- Types of teas: Images, graphical representations, font style, personality, colors, brand story, and value propositions, which can be health advantages, are added depending on the type of tea
- The uniqueness of the tea product: Each product has its unique characteristic that may be communicated to the target audience using the right combination of design and language, or perhaps a tagline.
- Packaging type: Each packaging type should have different design ideas so that they can be effectively printed.
Each element of the design must work together to create a cohesive brand image. You can have the best tea in the world, but if the colors and design of your container aren’t attractive, your sales and business can not be developed.
The following are some of the basic rules of good loose tea packaging design:
- The correct position of the logo
- A precise description of the product
- Sincerity and authenticity
- Distinguishing yourself from similar offers
Of course, there are other ways that tea packaging can help you sell your product, but these are the basics of effective design that should be considered.
4. How to store loose tea leaves
Knowing how to store the loose tea leaves is the thing every tea drinker should know. Here are a few notes for loose tea storage:
- Do not keep the tea in a humid place.
- Tea should not be exposed to bright light, heat, or sunshine.
- Use a tea canister, paper bag, or metalized foil bag to store loose leaf tea
For more details about the effective way of storing loose tea leaves, please read more at here.
5. How will you save time and costs when cooperating with FGC?
So there is a lot of work we need to package loose leaf tea: From choosing the blending to packaging, design, and marketing for the final products.
This process will take you a lot of time and expenses to:
- Research the blending formula
- Research packaging materials
- Design the packages, think of the brand name, logo
The solution is you can cooperate with FGC – the leading tea company in blending and private label service.
With more than 25 years of experience in the tea business, FGC has general knowledge of the different overseas markets, so we will have reasonable advice for our customers, especially to the newcomers. Our experienced tea tasters bring out various blending offers which are suitable for each import market.
FGC also supplies customers from bulk loose teas to final tea products, and therefore it is very cost-saving for the buyers. Our services are not only proper for bulk tea buyers but also very good for customers who start-up for tea businesses and online tea traders.
For more information about how to package loose leaf tea, please feel free to contact me at huongmaifgc@vietnam-tea.com
1
