Tea and coffee packaging, where the aroma is the entire product.
Tea has a problem no other food category has — it loses its own aroma outward and absorbs foreign odour inward, through the same weak barrier. Coffee and beverage premix each bring their own failure, and none of them are solved by film thickness. G T Pack Industries manufactures kraft pouches, foil laminates and high-barrier sachets specified for exactly those problems.
Tea is a barrier problem that runs in both directions.
Almost every food pack is designed to keep things out. Tea is the exception — it has to keep something in and something else out simultaneously, and the second half is the one most specifications get wrong.
Dry tea leaf is highly adsorbent. That property is well known outside packaging — dry tea is used domestically to absorb odours from refrigerators and shoe cupboards, and it works because the leaf structure readily takes up airborne compounds. The same property does not switch off when the leaf is packed. A tea pouch stored beside a carton of detergent, or transported in a container that previously carried something aromatic, will take on that odour through any film weak enough to let it pass.
So a tea laminate is doing two jobs. It has to hold volatile aromatic compounds inside, and it has to prevent foreign compounds entering. Both are permeation problems, and both are solved by the same barrier layer — which is why the cost of an inadequate barrier in tea shows up not as staleness but as a batch that smells wrong and gets rejected without anyone being able to explain why.
Coffee is a different problem. Roasted coffee carries oils that oxidise rapidly on contact with air, and the compounds those oils release are the entire reason the product commands a premium over instant. The oxygen barrier here is not a specification line — it is the product. Coffee is also bulky and low in density, which means the pack has to be dimensioned around volume rather than weight, a calculation that catches out more first-time specifications than any barrier decision does.
Beverage premix — instant tea, instant coffee, milk premix, vending powders — is the third problem: sugar and dairy solids make the powder aggressively hygroscopic, and a caked premix jams a vending machine rather than merely disappointing a consumer.
Three products, three different failures. What follows is how we specify material for each.
Six ways tea and coffee packaging goes wrong.
Each of these reaches you as a complaint months after dispatch, which is what makes them expensive to discover.
Odour pickup from storage or transit
The failure unique to tea, and the one nobody specifies for. The product does not spoil and does not go stale — it simply tastes of something else. Because the cause sits in the warehouse rather than the pack, it usually gets blamed on the tea rather than the barrier that let the odour in.
Aroma loss through an oxygen path
Volatile aromatics escape through a marginal barrier, and the oils in the leaf oxidise. The tea still brews and still has colour, but the nose is gone. On a premium product where the buyer is paying for origin and character, this is the whole proposition leaving the pack.
Seal contamination from dust and fines
Tea dust and coffee fines become airborne during filling, settle in the seal area and contaminate the heat seal — producing a pack that looks sealed and is not. It surfaces as a leaker rate rather than a packaging complaint, so it is usually blamed on the machine. Sealant selection and seal profile both change how tolerant a pack is to contamination.
Premix caking into a solid block
Instant premixes carry sugar and dairy solids, both aggressively hygroscopic. Moisture ingress turns a free-flowing powder into a set block. In vending applications this is worse than a quality complaint — a caked premix bridges in the hopper and stops the machine, which turns a packaging failure into a service call.
Light degradation in green and herbal tea
Green tea retains chlorophyll and the delicate compounds that distinguish it from black tea, and both degrade under light. Clear-window pouches sell green tea beautifully on a shelf and shorten its useful life at the same time. It is a genuine trade-off, not a mistake, but it should be made knowingly.
Volume miscalculation on whole leaf and bean
Tea leaf and whole coffee bean are low-density and bulky. A pouch sized from weight alone rather than from bulk density comes out too small, and the pack either overfills at the seal — producing leakers — or looks underfilled on a shelf. This is a dimensioning error, and it is caught cheaply at sample stage and expensively after tooling.
Seven product types, seven specifications.
Each structure below is a starting point, adjusted to your fill weight, bulk density, shelf-life target and filling line.
Loose Leaf Tea — Retail
The kraft-outer-web structure has become the default for retail tea because it communicates provenance while hiding the barrier inside the laminate. The foil ply sits between the paper and the sealant, so the pack feels like paper and performs like foil. Bulk density matters as much as fill weight here — leaf tea occupies far more volume per gram than powder.
Tea Bag Envelopes & Sachets
The individual envelope around a tea bag is a small pack doing a disproportionate job — it is the only barrier between the bag and months of ambient storage, and it is opened by hand without scissors. Paper-foil-PE is the classic construction: paper takes the print and the tear, foil holds the barrier, and a thin sealant keeps the envelope openable rather than stubborn.
Green, Herbal & Organic Tea
Green tea is more fragile than black — it retains compounds that black tea has already lost to oxidation during processing, and those compounds degrade under light and oxygen. Herbal and wellness infusions add a second requirement: the botanical aroma is often the entire product claim. This segment also carries the strongest expectation of paper-forward, recyclable-looking packaging, which makes structure selection a positioning decision.
Whole Bean Coffee
Whole bean keeps its character longer than ground because far less surface area is exposed to oxygen — but once the barrier is marginal, the oils oxidise and the roast flattens regardless. The harder problem here is dimensional: beans are bulky and low-density, so a pouch sized from fill weight alone comes out too small. Side gusset is the standard format because it holds volume in a narrow shelf footprint.
Ground & Instant Coffee
Grinding multiplies surface area, which accelerates staling sharply — ground coffee loses aroma far faster than whole bean, so the barrier requirement is absolute and the time between grinding and packing matters. Instant and freeze-dried coffee is a different product again: processing has removed the volatile activity, leaving a hygroscopic powder that cakes if the moisture barrier is marginal.
Beverage & Vending Premix
Instant tea, coffee and milk premixes carry sugar and dairy solids that make the powder far more hygroscopic than the base ingredient alone. Free flow is the entire functional requirement — in vending the powder is dosed volumetrically, so caking does not merely look bad, it stops the machine. Single-serve sachets and one-kilogram vending packs are the two dominant formats.
Bulk & Trade Packs
Bulk tea and green coffee move in large packs that sit in storage far longer than any retail unit ever does, which makes barrier more important rather than less. The additional demand is mechanical — stacking load, forklift handling, and abrasion from a large fill. Heavy sealant and high interlayer bond strength are the two parameters that decide whether a bulk pack survives the chain.
Which industries use tea and coffee packaging material?
Six buyer types, each with a different constraint dominating the specification. The material family is shared; what changes is which parameter cannot be compromised.
Tea Estates & Bulk Packers
Large-format packs and long storage cycles. The dominant constraint is barrier over time rather than shelf appeal, and mechanical robustness under stacking. Print requirements are functional — grade, lot and garden identification rather than retail branding.
Branded Tea Companies
Shelf presence and shade consistency across repeat runs, alongside high-speed line performance. A blend brand reordering the same artwork quarterly needs the fourth run to match the first, which is a print consistency requirement before it is a barrier one.
Coffee Roasters & Blenders
An absolute oxygen barrier and correct volumetric sizing. Bean bulk density drives pouch dimensions rather than fill weight, and shelf presence matters because specialty coffee sells on origin storytelling. Smaller batch flexibility across more SKUs is common in this segment.
Instant & Premix Manufacturers
Moisture barrier is the whole specification, because caking is the failure that defines the category. High-speed sachet lines add a second requirement — dusting tolerance at the seal, since fine premix powder contaminates seals and produces leakers.
Vending & HoReCa Suppliers
Free flow above everything, because a caked premix stops a machine rather than disappointing a drinker. Formats run to single-serve sachets and one-kilogram vending packs, and pack opening behaviour matters because it is done quickly in a service environment.
D2C & Specialty Brands
Kraft outer webs, matt and soft-touch finishes, and smaller order quantities across more SKUs. Recyclability claims are frequently part of the brand promise, which puts mono-material structures on the table alongside the barrier conversation rather than after it.
Material performance comparison.
Five structures used across tea, coffee and premix, with the barrier figures that determine how long the aroma stays in and foreign odour stays out. Values shown are typical industry ranges, not batch-certified figures.
| Structure | WVTR g/m²/24hr |
OTR cc/m²/24hr |
Odour Barrier | Typical Application |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PET 12µ/Alu 9µ/PE 80µ | < 0.1 | < 0.5 | Total | Whole bean and ground coffee, instant coffee, premium premix |
| Kraft 60 GSM/PE 15µ/Alu 7µ/LLDPE 80µ | 0.1 – 0.3 | < 1 | Total | Retail loose leaf tea, green and organic tea, specialty coffee |
| Paper 40 GSM/Alu 7µ/PE 25µ | 0.2 – 0.5 | < 1 | Total | Tea bag envelopes, single-serve sachets, service packs |
| PET 12µ/Met-PET 12µ/LLDPE 80µ | 0.3 – 0.8 | 0.5 – 1.5 | High | Value retail tea, fast-turn blends, secondary premix |
| BOPP 20µ/Met-BOPP 20µ/LLDPE 40µ | 0.3 – 0.6 | 15 – 25 | Moderate | Short shelf-life economy tea; not suitable for coffee |
Test conditions: WVTR at 38°C / 90% RH (ASTM E96). OTR at 23°C / 0% RH (ASTM D3985). Values are typical industry ranges and vary with film supplier, lamination bond quality and conversion process. Odour barrier is qualitative and reflects resistance to both aroma loss and external odour ingress. Our QC lab can validate WVTR, OTR and seal strength for your specific structure on request.
Why the odour column exists on this table
On most food barrier tables you will only see WVTR and OTR. For tea that is an incomplete picture, because the failure that gets batches rejected is odour ingress, not moisture or oxygen. Aluminium foil is a total barrier in both directions; metallised films are high but not absolute; and the last row on this table will let a warehouse smell reach the leaf given enough time.
The last row is not a coffee option
Metallised BOPP at an OTR of 15 to 25 is a reasonable structure for economy tea on a fast turn. For coffee it is not a candidate at any price. Roasted coffee oxidises rapidly, and at that oxygen transmission rate a pack will taste flat long before the printed date. It is on the table because it gets proposed, not because it belongs.
Why a tea or coffee pouch sized from weight comes out wrong.
This is the error we correct most often at sample stage, and the one that costs the most when it reaches tooling. It has nothing to do with barrier and everything to do with the fact that tea leaf and coffee bean are mostly air.
Weight is the wrong input
A brief that reads "250 gram pouch" tells a converter almost nothing. Two hundred and fifty grams of instant coffee powder occupies roughly a third of the volume of two hundred and fifty grams of whole bean, and orthodox leaf tea takes up more space again. The same number produces three completely different pouches.
The input that actually determines pouch dimensions is bulk density — grams per litre — together with how the product settles after filling.
What goes wrong when it is missed
Undersize the pouch and the product fills into the seal area. The jaws close on tea dust or bean fragments, the seal is compromised, and the result is a leaker rate that appears only after the line has been running for an hour.
Oversize it and the pack looks half empty on a shelf. On a premium tea or specialty coffee, that reads as short measure regardless of what the declared weight says, and it is the single fastest way to undermine a price position.
Settling changes the answer again
Powders and fines settle in transit; whole leaf and bean settle far less. A premix pouch dimensioned to look full at the filling head can arrive at retail visibly slack, while a leaf tea pouch stays much as it was packed.
Where a pack has to look full on a shelf rather than merely hold its weight, the settling behaviour has to be part of the calculation before the pouch is dimensioned — not discovered from the first retail consignment.
How we resolve it before tooling
Send us the product, or its bulk density if you already have it, along with the fill weight and the filling machine. We calculate the pouch from volume, allow for settling and seal clearance, and supply sample pouches for a line trial before anything is committed to bulk.
A sizing error caught at sample stage costs a few days. The same error caught after cylinders are engraved and pouch tooling is set costs considerably more.
Formats and fill sizes.
Format follows bulk density and filling machine, not weight alone. Tea leaf and whole bean occupy far more volume per gram than powder, and that changes the pouch before anything else does.
| Format | Typical Fill | Why This Format | Baseline Structure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tea bag envelope | 2 g – 4 g | Hand-openable single sachet; paper face for print and clean tear | Paper 40 GSM/Alu 7µ/PE 25µ |
| Three-side seal sachet | 10 g – 25 g | Single-serve premix for vending, hotel and travel service | PET 12µ/Alu 7µ/PE 40µ |
| Centre seal pouch | 100 g – 500 g | Fastest on vertical form-fill-seal; standard for volume retail tea | PET 12µ/Met-PET 12µ/LLDPE 70µ |
| Kraft stand-up pouch | 100 g – 500 g | Premium retail tea and specialty coffee; zipper reclose, paper feel | Kraft 60 GSM/PE 15µ/Alu 7µ/LLDPE 80µ |
| Side gusset pouch | 250 g – 1 kg | Whole bean coffee; holds bean volume in a narrow shelf footprint | PET 12µ/Alu 9µ/PE 80µ |
| Flat bottom pouch | 250 g – 1 kg | Specialty coffee and premium tea; five print panels, strongest shelf stance | PET 12µ/Alu 9µ/LLDPE 100µ |
| Vending pack | 500 g – 1 kg | Premix supply; wide mouth for hopper decanting, heavy sealant | PET 12µ/Alu 9µ/LLDPE 100µ |
| Bulk liner | 5 kg – 25 kg | Estate, blender and trade supply; built for stacking and long dwell | PET 12µ/Alu 9µ/LLDPE 120µ |
Zippers, tear notches, hang holes, euro slots, bottom gussets and window panels are fitted to specification. Sample pouches are supplied for line trials before bulk commitment.
The kraft aesthetic, and what sits behind it.
Tea and coffee are the two categories where packaging appearance carries a claim about the product's origin and craft. That claim has to be built without giving up the barrier.
Paper outside, foil inside
The kraft-look pouch has become the visual shorthand for provenance in tea and specialty coffee. What makes it work commercially is that the paper is only the outer web — the barrier sits underneath, invisible. The buyer gets an uncoated paper surface and a matt, tactile finish; the product gets a foil-grade barrier.
Kraft weights from 50 to 80 GSM cover most retail applications. Heavier paper feels more substantial and prints with more texture; lighter paper runs faster and costs less.
Why rotogravure for repeat blends
Rotogravure is cylinder-based — a one-time cylinder cost per design, then excellent shade consistency across every subsequent run. For a tea brand reordering the same blend four times a year, that consistency is the whole argument, because a shade drift puts two versions of the same pack side by side on a shelf.
We run up to 8 colours in-house on food-grade ink systems, with pre-press checking and colour proofing before the cylinder is cut.
Finish as a price signal
Gloss reads mainstream, matt reads premium, and soft-touch matt has become near-standard in specialty coffee and D2C tea. Registered matt-gloss — matt background with gloss confined to the logo or a botanical illustration — is the most effective single upgrade for a mid-market tea brand moving up a shelf tier without changing structure or cost base.
The window question
A window sells whole bean coffee and premium leaf tea by showing grade and consistency. On green tea it accelerates light degradation, and on coffee it is a barrier gap in a product that tolerates none. If the brand requires it, keep it small, place it away from the primary display face, and treat the shorter useful life as a known cost rather than a surprise.
Every parameter is open at the inquiry stage.
There is no fixed SKU shelf. Tea and coffee packaging is specified against your product, its bulk density, your machine and your shelf-life target.
| Outer web | Kraft paper 50–80 GSM · Maplitho 40–80 GSM · PET 12µ · BOPP 18–25µ |
| Barrier layer | Aluminium foil 7µ / 9µ / 12µ · Metallised PET 12µ · Metallised BOPP 18–20µ |
| Sealant layer | LDPE · LLDPE · Cast PP · 25–120µ by fill weight and format |
| Total thickness | Typically 60–190µ, calculated from the structure rather than fixed |
| Printing | Up to 8-colour rotogravure, in-house · food-grade ink systems |
| Finish | Gloss · matt · soft-touch matt · spot gloss · registered matt-gloss |
| Reel width | 200 mm – 1600 mm |
| Core size | 3-inch standard · 6-inch on request |
| Formats | Envelope · sachet · centre seal · stand-up · side gusset · flat bottom · vending pack · bulk liner |
| Add-on features | Zipper · tear notch · hang hole · euro slot · window panel · bottom gusset |
| Supply form | Printed laminated roll for automatic lines, or finished pouches for manual and semi-auto filling |
One facility. The whole conversion chain.
Tea and coffee brands buying print from one vendor, lamination from another and pouching from a third inherit three handover risks: shade drift between runs, bond failures nobody owns, and a QC trail that stops at each gate. Our entire process runs under one roof in Greater Noida.
8-Colour Rotogravure
Cylinder-based printing with consistent registration across long runs — what lets a tea brand reorder quarterly and get the same shade every time.
Extrusion Coating & Lamination
Paper-to-foil and paper-to-PE structures produced in-house, which is what makes kraft-look laminates viable without a third-party paper converter in the chain.
Slitting & Web Inspection
Precision slitting with inspection for pinholes, edge alignment and reel consistency — pinhole detection matters more on foil structures than any other laminate.
In-House Pouch Conversion
All tea, coffee and premix formats converted internally, with sample pouches supplied for line trials before you commit to a bulk run.
QC Laboratory
GSM, bond strength, seal strength, thickness and dimensional verification, with batch-level traceability on every production run.
250+ Tonnes Monthly
Capacity to hold a repeat tea or coffee schedule through peak season without your reorder queueing behind someone else's launch.
Manufactured under a certified food safety management system.
Tea and coffee packaging is food-contact material and your buyer's QA team will treat it that way. Here is what we run and what we can document.
- ISO 22000:2018 — Food Safety ManagementHazard analysis and control points applied across production, not only at final inspection.
- ISO 9001:2015 — Quality ManagementDocumented process control with traceability from raw film to dispatched reel.
- Food-grade ink and adhesive systemsInk and adhesive selection made for food-contact end use, with material information available on request.
- Batch-level traceabilityEvery reel traceable to its production batch, print run and QC record.
- Pre-dispatch testingBond strength, seal strength, GSM, thickness and dimensional checks recorded per batch.
- Client audits welcomeOn-site process and documentation audits by prior arrangement.
A note on regulatory language
In India, food packaging material is governed by the Food Safety and Standards (Packaging) Regulations, which set out the material and migration requirements a food-contact pack must satisfy. Those requirements apply to the material specification — a packaging converter is not "FSSAI certified" in the way a tea packer or coffee roaster is licensed, and any supplier claiming otherwise is describing something that does not exist.
What we can do is manufacture to the structure and material class your product requires, under ISO 22000:2018, and supply the material information your QA team needs for its own compliance file. If your specification calls for a particular test or declaration, raise it at the inquiry stage and we will confirm in writing what we can provide.
Common questions from tea and coffee buyers.
The questions we are asked most often at the specification stage, answered directly.
Which packaging material is best for tea?
For retail loose leaf tea, a kraft-faced foil laminate — typically Kraft 60 GSM / PE 15µ / Alu 7µ / LLDPE 80µ. Tea needs a barrier that works in both directions: it must hold volatile aromatics in and keep external odour out, and aluminium foil is the only commercial layer that does both absolutely. The kraft outer web carries the print and the tactile finish that the category expects, while the foil sits hidden inside the structure. For value and fast-turn tea, a metallised structure such as PET 12µ / Met-PET 12µ / LLDPE 70µ is a reasonable compromise on a shorter shelf life.
Why does tea absorb smells during storage?
Dry tea leaf is highly adsorbent — it readily takes up airborne compounds, which is why dry tea is used domestically to absorb odours from refrigerators and cupboards. That property does not stop once the tea is packed. Any film weak enough to allow permeation will allow foreign odour through, and the leaf will take it up. This is why a tea pouch stored beside detergent, or shipped in a container that previously carried something aromatic, can arrive smelling wrong even though nothing has spoiled. It is the failure most often blamed on the tea rather than on the barrier, and it is the reason foil-based structures dominate quality tea packaging.
What packaging is used for tea bag envelopes?
The classic tea bag envelope is a paper-foil-polyethylene construction, typically Paper 40 GSM / Alu 7µ / PE 25µ. Each layer has a specific job: the paper takes the print and gives a clean hand tear, the aluminium foil provides a total barrier for a small pack that may sit in storage for months, and a thin polyethylene sealant keeps the envelope openable rather than stubborn. The sealant is deliberately thin — a heavy sealant on a 2 gram envelope produces a pack a consumer struggles to open. Note that this is the outer envelope; the filter paper of the bag itself is a separate material.
How do I calculate the right pouch size for tea or coffee?
From bulk density, not from fill weight. Tea leaf and whole coffee bean are low-density and bulky — 250 grams of whole bean occupies roughly three times the volume of 250 grams of instant coffee powder, and orthodox leaf tea takes more space again. A pouch dimensioned from weight alone will be undersized, and the product then fills into the seal area, compromising the seal and producing leakers once the line has been running a while. Oversize it and the pack looks half empty on shelf, which reads as short measure on a premium product. Send us the product or its bulk density along with the fill weight and filling machine, and we calculate from volume, allow for settling and seal clearance, and supply sample pouches for a line trial before bulk.
What is the best laminate for coffee packaging?
PET 12µ / Alu 9µ / PE 80µ, in a side gusset or flat bottom format. Roasted coffee oxidises rapidly — the oils that carry the aroma react with oxygen and go flat — so the oxygen barrier has to be absolute rather than merely good. Metallised structures at an oxygen transmission rate of 15 to 25 are used for economy tea but are not appropriate for coffee at any price point. Format matters as much as structure, because whole bean is bulky and the pack has to be dimensioned for volume rather than weight rather than from the declared fill alone.
How long does packaged coffee stay fresh?
As working guidance, whole bean in a high-barrier foil pack holds meaningful character for six to twelve months; ground coffee in the same structure for three to six months, because grinding multiplies the surface area exposed to oxygen; instant and freeze-dried coffee for twelve months or more, since processing has already removed the volatile activity. These are planning figures rather than guarantees — roast level, time between roast and pack, whether the pack was nitrogen flushed, and storage temperature all move them. An accelerated shelf-life study on your own product in the actual structure is the reliable way to confirm a date.
What packaging is used for instant coffee and beverage premix?
Instant coffee, tea premix and milk premix are packed in high-barrier foil structures such as PET 12µ / Alu 9µ / LLDPE 100µ for bulk and vending packs, or PET 12µ / Alu 7µ / PE 40µ for single-serve sachets. The dominant requirement is the moisture barrier rather than oxygen, because these powders carry sugar and dairy solids that make them strongly hygroscopic. Instant coffee has already been through processing that removes the volatile activity of fresh roasted coffee, so the specification is driven entirely by moisture protection and free flow.
Why does instant premix cake or clump inside the pouch?
Moisture. Sugar and milk solids in a premix are far more hygroscopic than the base tea or coffee alone, so a premix picks up water vapour faster than an unsweetened powder would. Once moisture content passes a threshold the particles bind and the powder sets into a block. In retail this is a quality complaint; in vending it is worse, because the powder is dosed volumetrically and a caked premix bridges in the hopper and stops the machine. A foil structure with a WVTR below 0.1 effectively removes the packaging side of the problem, though moisture present at fill remains a process issue upstream.
What is the difference between whole bean and ground coffee packaging?
Two differences, both driven by surface area. Ground coffee has vastly more exposed surface than whole bean, so it stales considerably faster — the barrier requirement is at least as high but the useful shelf life is shorter, and the time between grinding and packing becomes a real variable. Whole bean, being bulky and low-density, needs a pack dimensioned for volume rather than weight; a pouch sized from fill weight alone will be too small and the beans will foul the seal area. Ground coffee is denser and easier to dimension, but far less forgiving of a marginal barrier.
Which packaging is used for green tea and herbal tea?
Green tea retains compounds that black tea has already lost during oxidation in processing, and those compounds degrade under light and oxygen — so a total light barrier matters more for green tea than for black. A kraft-faced foil structure such as Kraft 70 GSM / PE 15µ / Alu 7µ / LLDPE 80µ handles both, while giving the paper-forward appearance the segment expects. Herbal and wellness infusions have the same requirement with an added emphasis on aroma retention, since the botanical character is frequently the entire product claim. Clear windows sell this category well on shelf but shorten its useful life, so the trade-off should be made deliberately.
Can tea and coffee pouches be made from kraft paper?
Yes, and it is the dominant format in premium retail tea and specialty coffee. The important point is that the kraft is the outer web only — it carries the print, the texture and the provenance signal, while a foil or metallised ply underneath carries the barrier. A kraft pouch with no barrier layer would fail within weeks. Kraft weights from 50 to 80 GSM cover most retail applications: heavier paper feels more substantial and prints with more texture, lighter paper runs faster and costs less. The finished pouch looks and feels like paper and performs like foil.
What pouch size is used for tea and coffee retail packs?
Tea bag envelopes hold 2 to 4 grams; single-serve premix sachets 10 to 25 grams; retail tea centre seal pouches 100 to 500 grams; kraft stand-up pouches 100 to 500 grams; coffee side gusset and flat bottom packs 250 grams to 1 kilogram; vending premix packs 500 grams to 1 kilogram; and bulk liners 5 to 25 kilograms. The critical point is that pouch dimensions are calculated from bulk density rather than weight — leaf tea and whole bean occupy far more volume per gram than powder, and a pouch sized from weight alone will overfill at the seal and produce leakers.
Is tea and coffee packaging recyclable?
Conventional structures combine paper or polyester with aluminium and polyethylene, and those layers cannot be economically separated, so they generally go to energy recovery rather than material recycling. Mono-material structures are the route where recyclability is a brand commitment — an all-polyethylene laminate is recyclable through PE streams, with barrier recovered through metallisation or coating rather than by mixing material families. Mono-material PE structures are available on request. The honest trade-off is a lower barrier than foil, which matters more in this category than most: for coffee in particular, the oxygen barrier is the product, and shelf-life targets need re-checking before any switch.
What is the minimum order quantity for custom printed tea and coffee pouches?
Minimum order quantity depends on the structure, whether the job is printed or unprinted, and how many designs are involved, because cylinder cost is amortised across the run. Unprinted laminate carries a lower minimum than custom-printed material, and repeat orders against an existing cylinder set are lower again than a first run. Rather than publish a number that will not match your job, we confirm MOQ against your specific structure and artwork at the inquiry stage. Sample material for line trials is available before any bulk commitment.
Tell us the blend, the roast and the shelf life you need.
Send the product, the fill weight, the bulk density, the target shelf life and the filling machine. You'll get back a recommended structure with the reasoning behind it — not a price list with a laminate attached.
