Tea is unusual among dry goods: it is highly aromatic, it picks up odours from whatever is near it, and the qualities people pay for are the volatile ones. That makes the packaging brief different from coffee, which has its own pressure problem covered on the degassing valve page. Tea does not degas. It just needs to be kept away from air, light, moisture and smells. To order, go to tea boxes.
Decide the inner first
| Format | Usual inner | What the carton is then doing |
|---|---|---|
| Loose leaf, retail | Foil-lined pouch or a tin | Presentation, shelf stability of shape, and the information panel |
| Individually wrapped bags or sachets | Each envelope is its own barrier | Holding the count together and merchandising it |
| Unwrapped bags in a carton | An inner bag or liner inside the carton | Carrying the barrier, so the liner spec matters more than the board |
| Pyramid sachets, premium | Often individually wrapped, sometimes bulk in a lined caddy | Protecting the sachet shape, which is part of the product's appeal |
Get this right and the carton question becomes easy. Get it wrong and no amount of print fixes a tea that tastes of cardboard.
Sizing from the inner
- Fill an inner pouch or stack the sachet count you actually sell.
- Let a filled pouch settle the way it will on a shelf, then measure it. A pouch measured while it is standing proud gives a carton that is too large once the contents settle.
- For sachets, stack the count in the orientation the filling line will use and measure the block.
- Add clearance so the inner drops in rather than being forced.
- State it as internal length x width x depth and ask for written confirmation that it is internal.
Since the die is included, a carton cut to your exact pouch or sachet stack costs no more to tool than a standard-looking size, and a tea box that is visibly too big for its contents is a common complaint.
Construction choices
- Straight tuck end carton. The retail default, clean front panel, cheap, fast.
- Tea chest or caddy style with a hinged lid. Recloses properly, gets kept in the kitchen, and keeps your brand in the house.
- Rigid box with a fitted tray. Sampler and gift sets, where several varieties are shown at once.
- Sleeve over a tray. Lets you version the graphics per blend without re-tooling the tray, which is useful when you have many varieties and modest volumes per variety.
Print, finish and the odour question
Two practical notes specific to tea. First, if the carton is the last layer before the tea itself, the ink and coating choice matters, so raise it explicitly on the quote rather than assuming. Second, the shelf reality: tea ranges live as families of variants, so design a system where one layout carries a changing colour and blend name rather than designing each box separately. That makes versioning cheap, and digital printing handles versioned runs well, as set out on digital versus offset printing.
Minimums, price and lead time
The minimum is 100 boxes and pricing starts from about $0.48 per unit at bulk volumes, confirmed on your written quote. The die, the plates, design support, US shipping and a digital proof before anything prints are included. We make in two plants, West Chicago in the US and Guangzhou in China, and turnaround is quoted per product in three lanes: rush (expedited production plus air freight), standard (air) and cost saver (sea), from about 7 business days plus 2 to 5 for delivery. Specialty imported constructions such as lined caddies can run up to about 12 weeks.
Order at tea boxes.
Send your format, your inner, your count and how many varieties you run through the quote form. We will come back with a construction, an internal dimension and a written price, and if you are undecided between a lined carton and a pouch-in-carton we will price both.
