How Tea Bag Contract Manufacturing Works, End to End

Ordering your first run of branded tea bags feels like a single purchase, but it is really a chain of hand-offs that starts long before a machine is switched on. A contract manufacturer, or co-packer, supplies the line, the operators and the food-safety system; the buyer supplies the product idea and the brand. Here is the whole flow, from the first brief to the pallet leaving the dock.

What a tea bag co-packer does, and what it leaves to you

A tea bag co-packer turns loose blend into finished, packed bags on its own equipment: receiving and storing the blend, setting the machine to the agreed grammage, running string-and-tag bags, wrapping each bag in an envelope, boxing and preparing the goods for dispatch. What it does not do, as a rule, is invent your product. The buyer brings three things: a blend or a written specification of one, the artwork for tag and envelope (or a brief for it), and a clear target market, because the market decides labelling language, unit count and permitted claims. Some co-packers, TeraVella among them, will also quote a blend from their own range, such as herbal teas like sage, chamomile, linden, peppermint, thyme and fennel, fruit teas, or black and green tea, but what reaches the shelf is your decision.

The brief: blend, grammage and target market

A usable brief fits on one page. Name the tea type and whether you are supplying the blend or asking the co-packer to source one. State the grammage per bag; 1.5 to 3 g is a common range for herbal and black tea bags, for example, and string-and-tag machines are typically adjustable within a band like that. Add the bag count per retail box, then describe the target market: country, retail channel (supermarket, e-commerce, food service) and language requirements. The same herb can carry a different permitted declaration in different countries, so check labelling with a regulatory adviser or the competent authority for your market; a co-packer will flag questions but does not take over the brand owner's legal responsibility.

Tag, string and envelope artwork

Three printed surfaces carry your brand: the paper tag on the string, the individual envelope around each bag, and the outer retail box. Tags are small and print in limited colours, so keep them to logo and variety name. The envelope does the heavy lifting: it protects the bag from moisture and aroma loss and carries product name, ingredient list, net weight and origin. Ask the co-packer for die-lines and print specifications before you brief a designer, and settle who supplies the printed materials. Under a private label arrangement the co-packer delivers the packed product in your artwork; whether design support is included is confirmed at quotation.

Sampling before the production run

Never skip the sample. A pre-production sample proves three things at once: that the blend behaves on the machine (cut herbs and fruit pieces feed differently from fine black tea), that the grammage lands consistently on target, and that tag and envelope look right at real size. Brew it as your customer would and check colour, strength and steep time. If you supply your own blend, confirm particle size here, since oversized pieces can bridge in the hopper and fine dust can escape through the filter paper. Sign the sample off in writing; it becomes the reference the production run is judged against.

Inside a string-and-tag production run

On the line, blend is loaded into the dosing hopper, portioned into filter paper, sealed, fitted with string and paper tag, then folded and enclosed in its envelope. TeraVella's own string-and-tag machine in Antalya produces roughly 1,000 bags per hour with every bag envelope-wrapped, a useful yardstick for how run length translates into machine time. During the run, operators check grammage at intervals, inspect seals and confirm tag placement, while batch identification, allergen segregation and hygiene records run alongside. At TeraVella this sits within an ISO 9001 and ISO 22000 management system, with HACCP principles applied throughout.

Boxing, cartons and outbound shipping

Enveloped bags are counted into retail boxes, boxes into shipping cartons, cartons onto pallets. Decide early whether the retail box is printed with your brand or left plain, and whether cartons need barcodes, batch codes and best-before marking. Moisture is the enemy of tea: dried herbs and fruit pieces reabsorb humidity, so cartons should be sealed and stored dry, and long sea freight benefits from a moisture barrier. The same discipline applies to dried fruit; TeraVella packs Anatolian-sourced dried fruits as well, with the specific fruits and formats confirmed per product.

Where the quotation decisions actually happen

Every commercial number is a function of the choices above. Blend source, grammage, bag count, printed materials, box format and destination each move the price and the schedule, which is why a serious co-packer quotes after the brief rather than from a rate card. Expect minimum order quantity, lead time and unit cost to be confirmed at quotation for the specific product, with the sample sign-off as the point where those numbers become firm. Taken in this order, contract tea bag production is a predictable process, and it is how TeraVella quotes herbal, fruit, black and green teas and customer-supplied blends.