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Tea Packaging Ideas, Tips, & Examples

Tea packaging can be as creative as the blends your brand develops. Engaging tea packaging design helps set your products apart, telling customers they can expect to experience something special when they purchase your tea. In this post, we’ll showcase different tea packaging materials and discuss the best way to package and label tea. We’ll wrap up with a dose of inspiration as we highlight five top tea brands with tea packaging design ideas that check off all of the right boxes.

Types of Packaging for Tea

Tea lends itself well to custom packaging. It’s dry, lightweight, and can easily conform to different shapes and types of containers. Here are three of the most popular options for packaging teas.

Custom Folding Cartons

This is one of the most versatile tea packaging materials. Custom folding cartons are an especially ideal tea packaging solution if your tea is in bags or sachets. But they can also be used for loose leaf teas, provided the tea is presealed in a plastic or foil bag. Paperboard folding cartons are easy to print on, making them a perfect canvas for creative branding. Tea-inspired artwork, logos, and custom fonts look great when printed on cartons. As a bonus, folding cartons come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and configurations, perfect for creating custom tea boxes that stand out.

Stand Up Pouches

Another type of popular custom tea packaging is the stand-up pouch. Stand-up pouches have a lot going for them. They’re cheap, easy to use, and provide lots of real estate for custom labels printed with your tea’s logo, design, and brand message. Since they’re resealable and can stand up on their own, this type of tea packaging is ideal for both loose leaf teas and sachets.

Cannisters

There are two main types of tea canisters: metal and cardboard. Canisters come in many shapes and sizes, making it easy to pick one that matches the character of your teas to a tee. From cardboard tubes to metal tins, this type of custom tea packaging can be found in a wide variety of colors and textures and lends itself well to custom labeling. The right custom label can turn an ordinary tea container into something truly special.

Special Considerations When Packaging Tea

You work hard to craft high-quality teas, so you want to ensure your customers are able to enjoy them the way you intend. Here are three important considerations for packaging your teas. 

Keep it fresh

Exposure to air, sunlight, and moisture can quickly affect both the quality and freshness of tea, so it’s essential to choose tea packaging that protects your tea from the elements. Many tea bags and sachets are individually wrapped, but loose leaf teas should be sealed in a resealable plastic bag or a metalized foil pouch. Vacuum sealing is another great option for keeping loose leaf tea fresh.

Make it convenient

Make your teas as easy to access as possible. Some custom folding cartons separate in the middle to serve as a holder for individually wrapped tea bags or sachets. Resealable, stand-up pouches make it quick and simple to pour out just the right amount of tea.

Consider eco-friendly 

Increasingly, consumers are looking for eco-conscious options and want to purchase from brands with products that go light on the planet’s resources. Offering biodegradable tea sachets, recyclable tea containers, or resealable pouches made from natural materials are all ways you can connect with this growing trend.

Learn more: Ultimate Guide to Sustainable Packaging (+Examples)

How To Package and Label Tea

Product packaging doesn’t just keep your tea fresh and protect it during storage and shipping; it’s also the primary way you communicate the value of your brand to the consumer. Custom tea packaging should send a compelling message about why your tea is the best choice. Here are a few things to keep in mind as you design your tea packaging and labels.

Align Your Tea Packaging to Your Brand

When designing custom tea packaging, make sure your packaging choices align with the look and feel of your brand. Your tea packaging is the first encounter potential customers have with your company. Whether you sell primarily online or in-person, make sure there’s consistency between your product packaging and brand. 

Learn more: Branding and Packaging: How to Keep Your Product Packaging On Brand

Less Is More

The most effective custom tea packaging conveys the branding message in a clear, concise way. Essentials generally include the logo, product name, a brief description about the type of experience the customer can expect, and custom graphics. Beyond that, adding more text or images tends to muddy the message.

Use DIY Cautiously

It can be tempting to design your product packaging and labels on your own — design is fun! But professionals can be a valuable source of real-world advice on what works well and what design and material choices to avoid. In addition, a company with deep industry experience can help you connect with options for packaging and label materials you may not be aware of that would really make your tea packaging a standout. Check out these 10 great places to design labels online.

5 Top Custom Tea Box Examples

The best tea packaging effortlessly blends creativity and practicality. Here are five custom tea packaging designs that showcase what’s possible when these two elements combine. 

Numi

Numi Tea is the largest tea company to make our list. The design of their folding cartons is a masterclass in how simple graphics, font choices, and an uncluttered layout can create an outstanding tea package. The product packaging follows the same format for each flavor, but with varying images and colors to highlight the type of tea it contains.

Rishi

Rishi Tea produces a wide range of teas, including loose leaf, botanical blends, and matchas. We especially want to highlight their matcha tins. Each one is a plain, white metal tin made special by its custom label featuring a modern, minimalist design that keeps the focus on the tea, not the packaging.

Teatulia

One of Hive’s house brands, Teatulia highlights what’s possible with the use of creative materials. Their cardboard tea canisters are printed with a bamboo-like finish and wrapped with a custom label. Each canister is recyclable and houses sixteen tea sachets, each one compostable after use.

Art of Tea

Art of Tea nails two elements of great design with their custom tea boxes. First, their tea bag wrappers and boxes match perfectly, creating a cohesive and frankly beautiful effect. As a bonus, the bottom half of each box doubles as a holder, keeping the individually wrapped tea bags organized and easy to get to.

Little Prayer Tea

Little Prayer Tea uses both folding cartons and canisters for their tea, but we especially love their tea cartons. We’re inspired by the bold use of color and creative typefaces used across the entire product line. While each carton is a different color, the feel of the brand remains consistent between cartons and canisters.

Ready To Take Your Tea Packaging Further? We Can Help.

Custom tea packaging begins with partnering with the right product labeling and packaging company. At Sttark, we print high-quality product labels and manufacture custom cartons ideal for many types of custom tea products. With years of industry experience, our team has the expertise and equipment to turn your inspiration into finished goods.  If you’re unsure what materials to choose or what features you need, get in touch — we’re happy to share our expertise and advice to ensure your custom tea packaging turns out just right.

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Just what is the best packaging for tea, anyway? Custom tea packaging design, among other tangible selling elements, is essential for marketing tea locally and internationally.

Your product packaging is an essential element of branding and efficient logistics because it directly affects your customers on first contact.

Many tea businesses shell out hundreds of dollars to find the best custom tea packaging suited for tea consumers in a given supply zone with the goal of boosting tea sales.

The manner in which your product's tea packaging presents itself to potential customers holds significant weight, as it serves as their initial encounter with you as a brand.

When asking what is the best packaging for tea, function is as important and form. You need to captivate your prospective customers' attention through the use of visually-striking materials and a compelling packaging design.

What is The Best Packaging for Tea: Different Types of Tea Packaging

The primary goal of any kind of product packaging is to protect its contents and maintain product quality.

When looking at what is the best packaging for tea, we need to first of all protect the tea material (whole or ground) to say our custom packaging is successful.

Tea leaves are delicate and must be packaged with care to preserve their aroma. Creating a sealed environment to preserve tea quality is crucial—something boxes and tea tins can't do. 

There are different types of pouches used to package tea, some of which are listed below:

What is The Best Packaging for Tea:

The high barrier bag is one of the best packaging formats for tea, and this is the kind of packaging we regularly produce for our customers at Pouch Me.

Barrier bags are multilayer, protective films that help to protect the loose tea from harmful elements, which include UV rays, oxygen, and moisture. This kind of bag material safeguards against tea quality degradation over time.

You can add zippers to make these easily resealable, and choose tin ties instead if you want to standardize your packaging height for a consistent brand presentation.

What is The Best Packaging for Tea:

Barrier Bags - Foil Tea Pouches

We form these simple and cost-effective tea packaging pouches from roll film by sealing them all around the sides and leaving the top or bottom open for filling and sealing.

Our tea customers use these as secondary packaging for tea bags and always request tear notches, so customers have an easy time accessing the tea inside.

What is The Best Packaging for Tea:

Barrier Bags - Foil Stand Up Pouches

In recent years, foil stand up pouches have grown in popularity as an excellent alternative for loose-leaf tea packaging.

These feature a bottom gusset (extra material that bottoms out, much like a pocket) that allows them to stand upright and are available in different sizes and colors.

Some of our customers who sell tea also choose to order these with clear windows to showcase the contents, or fully opaque to maximize the print real estate. It's all up to how you want your tea presented to your customers.

What is The Best Packaging for Tea:

Barrier Bags - Foil Gusseted Pouches

Similar to the stand up pouch, this is a popular tea packaging pouch that comes in various colors and styles.

Styles of foil gusseted pouches include the quad seal bag, side gusset bag, and center seal gusset bag. With side gussets and reclosable zippers, you can't open the top fully due to the construction, so it is important to get the right bag size based on your SKUs.

Grab your free consultation with us if you aren't familiar with these formats and need help figuring out what is best for your specific tea product.

What is The Best Packaging for Tea: Paper Pouches

These food packaging bags come in various colors and feature a square bottom so they can stand upright on shelves.

Since most all pouch packaging manufacturers typically make these using a paper base material (and often a laminate on top), these bags only have a short shelf life since they don't have any barrier properties and are more permeable.

What is The Best Packaging for Tea: Classic Tea Bags

These are perfect for packaging small amounts of tea; your customers can use them on the go since they are small enough to fit in a purse or wallet.

Packaging materials manufacturers use food-grade plastic such as nylon, filter paper, and cotton muslin that filter various foreign particles and contaminants.

What Are the Benefits and Drawbacks of Each Type of Packaging Material?

Many consumers do not fully understand the critical role tea packaging plays in preserving product quality.

Many materials are used for tea packaging and each has its advantages and downsides. Let's get into the details now.

Paper Tea Packaging

Paper is an environmentally-friendly material that is effective for tea packaging. It is made of recyclable and completely biodegradable materials, and it protects the quality of your product.

Paper is easy to print on, which makes it easy to customize into an eye-catching design. In terms of appearing more bespoke, brown kraft tea labels will blend seamlessly and disappear on your kraft packaging pouch.

A paper tea pouch is the most convenient option if you want a packaging solution for on-the-go, eco-conscious consumers. Some consumers choose this when asked what is the best packaging for tea. Paper pouches are easy to carry around and can be made resealable.

Their biggest drawback is that they are more expensive than some of the other options, and they are not always convenient for people on the go.

Plain Plastic Bags

Plastic is waterproof and a popular choice for tea packaging, especially for startups on a lean budget.

However, plastic is not a good choice if you are going for an environmentally friendly material. It is not biodegradable and takes decades or even centuries to decompose. Plastic contributes heavily to environmental pollution.

People worldwide are becoming environmentally conscious, and there's been a growing movement toward reducing plastic use and promoting more sustainable packaging materials.

Some tea companies are adopting more environmentally friendly packaging, such as paper and bamboo, while others are switching to reusable and resealable packaging, like our custom printed tea pouches.

Aluminum Foil or Mylar

Aluminum is a barrier packaging material popular for food products, and it is strong and durable and has excellent barrier properties against contaminants such as light, moisture, oxygen, and odors.

We build aluminum tea pouches and tea bags in various shapes and sizes. Aluminum is a conductive metal, meaning it can alter the tea's flavor, so there has to be a plastic or paper layer between the aluminum and the tea.

Aluminum tea pouches are a great tea packaging option since they preserve tea quality longer than other materials.

How Does the Packaging Affect Tea Flavor?

Your delicate loose-leaf teas, powders, tisanes, and herbal blends need economical packaging that saves space in storage and transport, is leak-resistant and keeps the aroma in and unwanted odors out.

Poor packaging can expose your tea to oxygen, heat, light, and humidity, which lead to the loss of its rich flavor and essential oils.

Your chosen tea packaging plays an integral role in successfully preserving your tea's flavor, aroma, and best quality.

What is the best packaging for tea? It is packaging that protects or shields your product from the most damaging external elements:

Factor #1: Oxygen

Tea oxidizes naturally with time, and certain teas, such as oolong, are purposely oxidized during the manufacturing process.

When packaged in a container that is not airtight, tea oxidizes more rapidly and loses its aroma and flavor.

Factor #2: Odors 

Few tea drinkers know the extent of damage external odors can cause to their tea leaves.

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Tea can absorb odors of fragrant spices such as cinnamon and pepper if kept in a container with a loose lid or closure.

Even as your customers may fail to store your teas properly, you can safeguard the quality of your product by choosing to use airtight packaging with excellent barrier properties.

Factor #3: Heat

When precious tea comes into close contact with heat, such as in improper storage or if transported inside hot vehicles, it can oxidize, causing its quality to deteriorate.

Choose peace of mind by choosing insulating tea packaging so your teas don't spoil prematurely, which will undoubtedly damage your brand's reputation.

Factor #4: Light

Although keeping tea leaves in a glass jar or clear packaging bag looks lovely, clear containers enable light to pass right through.

Tea leaves quickly deteriorate when exposed to UV radiation, resulting in noticeable discoloration and declining flavor. 

Factor #5: Moisture 

Moisture can cause extreme damage to tea leaves. When tea becomes moist, it begins to degrade.

Choose packaging that prevents this via secure seals that are truly resistant to moisture vapor transmission.

What is The Best Packaging For Tea: Special Considerations for Tea Packaging Design

You put in a lot of effort to make high-quality teas, so you want to ensure your consumers can enjoy them the way you intended.

Here are three critical factors to consider when designing your tea packaging.

1) Convenience 

Ensure that your tea is easily accessible to your customers.

Some specially-made collapsible cartons include a split in the center that acts as a holder for tea or sachets that have been separately packaged.

Resealable stand up tea pouches with sturdy bag zippers make it easy and quick to dispense the perfect portion of tea.

2) Sustainability

Consumers are becoming more environmentally aware and want to buy from companies whose products use fewer resources overall.

You can engage in this expanding trend by providing biodegradable tea bags, reusable tea containers, or recyclable pouches made of organic materials.

3) Product Freshness

Choosing tea packaging that shields your tea from the elements is crucial since exposure to oxygen, sunshine, and humidity can significantly alter both the quality and the freshness of the tea.

Many consumers expect individually-wrapped tea bags and sachets, while loose-leaf teas need to be kept in a metalized foil bag or resealable plastic bag.

Another fantastic method for preserving the freshness of loose-leaf tea is vacuum sealing.

What is The Best Packaging For Tea: Top 3 Tips for Choosing the Best Tea Packaging

In addition to protecting and preserving your tea throughout storage and delivery, product packaging serves as your primary means of conveying to customers the value of your brand.

What is the best packaging for tea? It should make a strong case for why your tea is the finest option.

Here are some tips for your tea package design.

Tip #1: Match the Tea Packaging to the Brand

Ensure your packaging selections for your custom tea packaging complement the style and personality of your business.

Prospective customers first interact with your business through your tea's custom packaging.

Make sure that the branding and packaging of your products are consistent, whether you sell primarily online or in-store.

Tip #2: Practice "Less Is More"

What is the best packaging for tea? The best custom printed tea packaging clearly and concisely conveys the brand message to consumers.

Essential branding elements to include in your tea packaging include the product name, brand logo, custom graphics, and a brief brand statement.

Adding too many images and text on top of that tends to dilute the brand message.

*If you need help creating print-ready designs, our Prepress Team is ready to help!

Tip #3: DIY with Caution

Designing is enjoyable; therefore, creating your own product packaging might be tempting. But choosing packaging design experts will always save you from unforeseeable technical issues and costly headaches.  

Choose to leverage a wealth of resources from professionals for practical guidance on what works effectively as well as what design and material choices to avoid.

Additionally, a professional with extensive industry knowledge may provide you with possibilities for packaging supplies that would genuinely make your tea package stand out but that you might not be familiar with.

Ready to grow your tea business with custom tea packaging?

Finding the ideal product packaging agency is the first step to creating excellent custom tea packaging.

At Pouch Me, we create custom packaging for various unique tea products that helps you stand out from your competition. 

Our accommodating staff has decades of knowledge and industry experience required to translate your ideas into final, unique, professional tea packaging solutions.

We are ready to help and share our know-how and give you the best recommendations if you need help deciding on suitable materials and features for your custom tea packaging. 

What Is the Best Packaging for Tea FAQs

+ How do you package tea?

Loose-leaf tea can be packaged in a tightly lidded plastic jar to protect the product from damage and maintain its flavor and aroma.

You can also package tea in an airtight plastic pouch, tin container, or cardboard box.

We recommend using flexible high barrier pouches that give you the best of all worlds:

  • Economical - costs 5x less than rigid packaging to produce, store, and transport;
  • Protective - airtight, unlike tea tins and boxes; and
  • Won't fill up a lot of space - saves space in storage, transport, in landfills.

+ How do you attract customers to your tea business?

You can take several measures to ensure your tea packaging appeals to customers. Some of them are:

  • Identify your target customers. If you focus all your marketing efforts on anyone who likes tea, you will end up focusing on no one.

With a target audience in mind, you will be able to tailor your message to their persona and successfully establish a connection with them.

  • Make your packaging stand out. It is easy for consumers to pick the low-cost regular tea brand from the retail shelf.

They could also easily choose to purchase from your competitor. And they will unless your tea packaging visuals catch their attention at first glance.

+ What material is used for tea packaging?

Common tea packaging materials include metallic tins, stand up pouches, and cardboard boxes.

Many companies selling their tea in teabags use the standard product carton containing some type of kraft paper inside as packaging.

+ What is the best material for tea packaging?

The best material for tea packaging depends on the specific needs of the tea and the brand. However, some common materials include natural kraft, airtight stand-up bags, metal tins, and cardboard product boxes. These materials help to keep the tea leaves fresh and protect them from external factors like moisture and light.

+ What is the best way to package tea?

The best way to package tea is to use airtight and light-proof packaging, any protective packaging that keeps your tea from deteriorating in quality and freshness.

This could be in the form of stand-up pouches, metal tins, or cardboard boxes.

Your packaging should also be attractive and reflective of the brand to appeal to consumers. Eco-friendly packaging is also becoming increasingly popular.

+ What are the different types of tea packaging?

There are several types of tea packaging, including bulk tea packaging pouches like quad seal bags and flat bottom bags, stand-up pouches, metal tins, cardboard product boxes, and compostable tea packaging.

  • What packaging type you choose will depend on various factors, such as:
  • the type of tea you are selling (if these are whole or ground, for example);
  • your brand's values (if your packaging needs to be sustainable);
  • and your target market (use and tea ritual behaviors to compliment how your tea is packaged).

+ What is required on tea packaging?

The specific requirements for tea packaging can vary by country and region due to different food labeling laws.

However, generally, your tea packaging should include relevant, need-to-know information such as:

  • your brand name
  • the type of tea you are selling
  • specific brewing instructions
  • net weight
  • ingredients (if these are blends)
  • any allergen information
  • the manufacturer's or distributor's details
  • a "best before" date
  • any storage instructions.

+ Which packaging material is suitable for tea and coffee?

Packaging materials that are suitable for tea, coffee, and spices include paper, plastic, glass, tinplate, and aluminum which are all types of flexible packaging.

When compared to rigid packaging, flexible packaging is more lightweight and can be utilized for softer items that are less likely to sustain damage.

Tea Packaging Ideas, Tips, & Examples

What is the Best Packaging for Tea?

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