What packaging is best for packing tea?

[Mountain Stream Teas]

Hi All,


I have a question about packaging. What does everyone look for in the packaging of tea? What is your favorite packaging? What is your least favorite? How important is the packaging for you? I am trying right now to figure out which direction to go. For sure, I have printed labels so no sees my handwriting

I have been experimenting with different things so far but I am not sure which direction to go. The tea gets to people safely in vacuum sealed foil packages, but without much aesthetics. Resealable? Brewing instructions on the stickers? Straw packing material vs bubble wrap? I need some ideas of which way to go. What do serious tea people like?!

If anyone wants to help with an opinion, I would greatly appreciate it!

[ShuShu]

Vacuum is important to me, especially with green oolongs, as sometimes I might drink what I have ordered only after a few weeks. Resealable makes it even more convenient. As for labeling, for me what matters is harvest date, cultivar, elevation...

[pedant]

It really depends on the type of tea and who the target consumer is.

Since you specify serious tea drinkers, I don't think it's necessary to include brewing parameters. If you want, you can put them online. But I wouldn't bother with even that unless you have an out of the ordinary suggestion for a particular tea. No need for boilerplate brewing directions for every tea.

As for packaging materials and methods, it's a balance between cost and whatever's required for the specific tea in question. Nitrogen flushing is appreciated for sencha but wasted on aged liubao. Vacuum packaging is suitable for ball rolled oolongs, and oxygen scavenger sachets are good for a lot of teas (especially anything on the green side). I personally appreciate the highest spec'd (in terms of functionality) bag material that budget allows for: max moisture/gas/odor barrier properties, puncture resistance, etc. This means nice, paper-backed (for puncture/wear resistance), aluminzed mylar with as much aluminum as possible. Stand-up pouches and zip locks are nice touches but unnecessary. Environmental impact from excessive material is another possible consideration.

I really like Tea Hong's packaging. Seems like good bag material (like what I described), and they're stand-up pouches. I'm undecided about the air exchange insert though. Seems to defeat the purpose?

2088taiwan/Chen HY's packaging is very good and also aesthetically pleasing. Nice bag material, and it's handwritten/stamped. Maybe my overall favorite.

Lazycattea has the most aesthetically pleasing packaging I've seen. It doesn't have the highest spec'd bag material, but since he sells mostly yancha, that's probably fine.

My least favorite packaging is anything that's not at least impulse sealed. That super thin, chintzy feeling foil bag stuff isn't good either.

A long time ago, I had something from a company called arborteas. It was in some weird supposedly compostable packaging. I appreciate the thought, but it did not seem like good material for the job. Consideration for the tea has to come first. Aptly, the tea inside wasn't mind-blowing.

[Bok]

as a serious tea drinker, I do mistrust any nice looking packaging – unless the seller has impeccable taste and can make nice looking things work on the cheap(most tea sellers and farmers do not, which is fine, I much prefer they focus on the tea itself), it is being taken off from either the quality of the tea or added up on top, neither way is an option for me.

As a designer I am partial to nice looking things of course, but as far as tea is concerned, experience has told me that the best tea like the best wine often comes in the standard mass produced packs everyone is using. No matter how much I sometimes would like to buy certain tea packagings, when I do the math, I just go back to buy from my usual plainclothes sources…

As far as practicality, the standard vaccum packs work best, some have a certain softness to it that is best for resealing, I am sure you have come across them in Taiwan, usually those come in some sort of mat gold7metallic green or silver with generic prints on them. Others become a bit less well to reseal after repeated use.

[Victoria]

I would generally agree with above comments; keep packaging simple and keep air out. Pedant; I don't know Lazycattea or Tea Hong can you illustrate? Even though a ziplock is nice, as tea leaves are reduced I prefer using clips moving closer each time to the leaves to eliminate air pockets. Stand-up pouch I haven't found useful either because I tend to place open teapacking inside double lidded canisters, and the ridgid base takes up more room. I do enjoy reading from the farmer or vendor details about the tea (that can be online though); sourcing, elevation, cultivar, season, anecdotes, if special water or brewing vessel is recommended, and steeping parameters prefer by vendor. When exploring new teas each year it is nice to have a steeping baseline recommendation to go off of.

My favorite Taiwan packaging is also 2088taiwan, Chen Hau Ying's visually wabi-sabi simple; exterior craft paper is nice to touch and can be written on, inside aluminum. When shipping no extra stuffing is required either because his rolled oolongs are vacuum-packed into rectangular shapes making packaging compact.

L1000080.JPG (619.41 KiB) Viewed 7631 times

Japanese packaging is an art form, and when the graphics are done tastefully it is an aesthetic experience I really enjoy. Nitrogen flushing, linen texture cloth exterior, with aluminum interior. O-Cha does a very nice good job with their packaging, and how they ship the teas in simple special rectangular boxes that don't require stuffing and can be reused.

Here is Tsuen packing via O-Cha, although the image doesn't really express how nice it is to feel the linen like exterior.

O-Cha Tsuen Sencha Otsuusan.jpg (798.79 KiB) Viewed 7631 times

And here is O-Cha packing, very efficient.

O-Cha-2013-Sincha-Order.jpg (98.04 KiB) Viewed 7631 times

[chofmann]

I love Chen's packaging, but my one issue is that it isn't resealable.

[Victoria]

I love Chen's packaging, but my one issue is that it isn't resealable.

Which packing system do you most like?

[Bok]

I love Chen's packaging, but my one issue is that it isn't resealable.

With the proper technique you can roll and fold the empty part tight to minimise air inside it. Add a simple office fold back clip on top and it is as airtight as it gets. Better than any reasealable pack in how you can keep the empty space to a minimum!

Resealable is only a viable option for me for open leave teas, never for rolled oolong. Maybe ok for small amounts as those will be finished quickly, but my smallest packs tend to be 150g so it needs to deliver at least a week or so.

[chofmann]

I love Chen's packaging, but my one issue is that it isn't resealable.

Which packing system do you most like?

Our own of course!

But seriously - I haven't come across a perfect system yet. Part of the issue is because different teas and different sizes require different packaging, but having many times of packaging on hand can become expensive

In my opinion, packaging should accomplish four different things (in no particular order):
1. Look appealing and be convenient
2. Convey necessary information
3. Protect the contents.
4. Add a minimal amount of cost to the product - consumers should be paying for product, not packaging (unless they are shopping at a packaging company )

The first is obviously subjective, so I won't spend much time on it.

The 2nd can be difficult based on the size and shape of the package. If it is too small, you can only fit so much information on the container. If it is 'wrinkly' from being vacuum sealed, then any information will also be wrinkly, making things harder to read.

The 3rd is arguably the most important, especially for tea. It needs to be an opaque package that is preferably lined in some way. Resealability helps protect the tea after it is opened. Vacuum packed helps protect it before it is opened.

The 4th is generally self-explanatory. I know some people often prefer to pay for a more appealing product, particularly for gifting, but I personally think that if people realized it was the exact same product on the inside, they would probably go for the cheaper one. I know many websites which will sell tea in either a resealable bag or a fancy tin - I'd love to see what their sales look like over time... do people actually buy the tin knowing that the extra expense is 100% for the tin, not the tea?

So, based on these four rules... what is the perfect packaging? Chen's is great, but it fails rule 3 to a certain extent. It also fails rule 2 in my opinion, since the only information is the brand and type of tea.

Our packaging, as an example, does a decent job at #2 and #4, but we can't vacuum seal it without messing up the information (we use little oxygen absorber things instead to help, but not quite as good).

Packaging in tins do great with #1-#3, but fail at #4.

The O-cha packaging looks very pretty, but perhaps a bit pricier (not sure), and it doesn't look resealable.

Separately, to MountainStreamTeas original point, there is also the box packaging. Rule #3 and Rule #4 are the most important here... you need an inexpensive box, but you also want something that is thick and sturdy to protect everything in shipment. These are of course offsetting principles, so you have to balance it out a bit to reach an ideal situation. Decorative things like tissue paper can help as well, since it is practically free.

[chofmann]

I love Chen's packaging, but my one issue is that it isn't resealable.

With the proper technique you can roll and fold the empty part tight to minimise air inside it. Add a simple office fold back clip on top and it is as airtight as it gets. Better than any reasealable pack in how you can keep the empty space to a minimum!

Resealable is only a viable option for me for open leave teas, never for rolled oolong. Maybe ok for small amounts as those will be finished quickly, but my smallest packs tend to be 150g so it needs to deliver at least a week or so.

Yea, we have tons of little clips and other such things to help out, but any packaging that requires a separate item is going to be less than ideal by definition.

[pedant]

I would generally agree with above comments; keep packaging simple and keep air out. Even though a ziplock is nice, as tea leaves are reduced I prefer using clips moving closer each time to the leaves to eliminate air pockets. Stand-up pouch I haven't found useful either because I tend to place open teapacking inside double lidded canisters, and the ridgid base takes up more room.

sometimes, i fold the bag over and use mini binder clips. other times, i reseal with impulse sealer.

I love Chen's packaging, but my one issue is that it isn't resealable.

every serious tea drinker should have an impulse sealer
not saying everyone does, but it's a nice thing to have.

Pedant; I don't know Lazycattea or Tea Hong can you illustrate?

yes!
https://www.teahong.com/optimal-packaging/


http://www.lazycattea.com/product/small-tasting-box/

[chofmann]

I love Chen's packaging, but my one issue is that it isn't resealable.

every serious tea drinker should have an impulse sealer
not saying everyone does, but it's a nice thing to have.

Haha, we actually do have one. Never even thought to use it to re-seal a half empty bag. We just have clips everywhere. Tons of them. And nowhere to put them when they aren't in use.

[Bok]

I love Chen's packaging, but my one issue is that it isn't resealable.

With the proper technique you can roll and fold the empty part tight to minimise air inside it. Add a simple office fold back clip on top and it is as airtight as it gets. Better than any reasealable pack in how you can keep the empty space to a minimum!

Resealable is only a viable option for me for open leave teas, never for rolled oolong. Maybe ok for small amounts as those will be finished quickly, but my smallest packs tend to be 150g so it needs to deliver at least a week or so.

Yea, we have tons of little clips and other such things to help out, but any packaging that requires a separate item is going to be less than ideal by definition.

Generally yes, but in this case what is most important is too keep air out as much as possible and as far as I know no resealable pack can deliver that better than wrapping plus clip rubber band.

[pedant]

Our packaging, as an example, does a decent job at #2 and #4, but we can't vacuum seal it without messing up the information (we use little oxygen absorber things instead to help, but not quite as good).

and unfortunately, vac sealing isn't suitable for teas that are easily crushed. this leaves out basically everything except ball-rolled teas.
also, why do you think oxygen absorbers are worse than vac sealing? i think it's the other way around.

[chofmann]

Our packaging, as an example, does a decent job at #2 and #4, but we can't vacuum seal it without messing up the information (we use little oxygen absorber things instead to help, but not quite as good).

and unfortunately, vac sealing isn't suitable for teas that are easily crushed. this leaves out basically everything except ball-rolled teas.
also, why do you think oxygen absorbers are worse than vac sealing? i think it's the other way around.

I certainly haven't seen any studies on it, but I've always been under the impression that an oxygen absorber will help, but not 100%. This could be psychological since there is still 'space' around the leaves. A good vacuum seal 'seems' to do a better job. If you've seen any studies comparing the two, I'd definitely be interested. We went with the oxygen absorbers purely because many of our teas can't be vacuum sealed as they are too fragile.