Talking about the packaging of tea

The definition contained in GB 4122-83 "Packaging General Terms" is the overall name of the container, material, and auxiliary material used to protect the product during circulation, facilitate storage and transportation, promote sales, and use certain technical methods. In order to achieve the above-mentioned purpose, the container, material, and auxiliary materials used in the process are subjected to operational activities such as certain technical methods." Tea packaging actually refers to a system with specific functions that tea leaves use to ensure the smooth implementation of the value and value of their products during circulation. Tea as a beverage store is the end product into the hands of consumers, its packaging is the most basic requirement is to seal dense, dark, shelter from air, avoid moisture, so the fine tea packaging, to ensure the original taste, easy to carry and use is Directly stimulate the motivation of consumers to purchase desire. At present, tea packaging is more symbolic of the characteristics of the times and the progress of society. From the past, bulk paper bags, plastic bags, and cans have been developed into popular high-end gift paper boxes (cans) and aluminum foils. Colorful, colorful tea packaging has become an important part of the tea culture, but also constitute a city business landscape. This article only briefly describes the progress and performance of tea packaging. 1 Prior to the reform and opening up of tea packaging, tea was in the era of national purchase and distribution. Tea packaging mainly included wooden boxes, iron tins, paper bags, bamboo cans, porcelain cans, and tin cans. 1.1 Wooden box wooden box is one of the oldest and most commonly used packaging containers for tea packaging. The wooden box has good rigidity and cushioning properties and can resist bending and cracking. There are wooden tea boxes and plywood tea boxes, and wooden tea boxes are the export tea boxes used in China in the 1950s and 1960s. Plywood tea box lined with kraft paper and aluminum foil, mainly used for exporting tea. Tea box specifications are: 350 × 350 × 350 mm, 460 × 460 × 460 mm, 400 × 400 × 600 mm, 400 × 500 × 600 mm, etc. The latter two are international standard boxes. Due to the reduction in timber resources and the increase in costs, wooden boxes have been gradually replaced by cartons. 1.2 Tie Tie Ting is a traditional tea packaging that uses tinplate to make a variety of tea. Tea pots are available in shapes such as round, square, rectangular, flat, and hexagonal. Iron can be reused. This kind of packaging is very good for protecting the color, smell, taste and shape of tea. The iron listening capacity size is 50g, 100g, 250g, 500g, 1000g, and so on. The exterior decoration is dominated by geometric patterns and landscape images, with font size and advertising text. 1.3 Paper bag Paper bag is mainly made of kraft paper and aluminum foil. It is made of kraft paper with inner lining. It is characterized by its flexibility, strong and elasticity, strong bursting resistance and good water resistance. Aluminum foil has light blocking and waterproof properties, the surface is smooth, and the printing effect is good. Paper bags are lightweight and can be folded and bundled. They are convenient to transport and carry. They are cheaper and more commonly used. Specifications 200g, 250g, 500g and so on. The disadvantage is that the seal is not strong, easy to break, and inconvenient to reuse. 1.4 Porcelain cans Porcelain cans have occupied a certain proportion in tea packaging, and their tea leaves have not only lost the color, aroma, and taste of tea, but also are not susceptible to mildew. Their unique shapes are also very good artwork. Porcelain jars include: Jingdezhen Porcelain Cans with "White Ruyu, Thin as Paper, Bright as a Mirror, and Sound as Sound". There are also simple and elegant Yue Ceramics and porcelain cans. There are Ding-type porcelain jars, Po Hulu and Lao Xing Xing. The porcelain pots, etc., have a wide variety of products and are beautifully and elegantly produced. However, the use of ceramic as a container has the disadvantages of being fragile and losing weight, and is now used less frequently. 1.5 Tin cans Tin cans are traditional high-end tea packaging containers, and there are not many varieties. The common ones are gourd-shaped and cylindrical. Tin cans are excellent for the preservation of the quality of the tea, because tin has a strong resistance to various natural corrosion, and particularly strong aroma protection. In 1745, the Gothenburg ship of the Swedish East India Company sank after being sunk, and after more than 230 years in 1984, the sea was salvaged. In the ship, 370 tons of tea were immersed in the seabed, and there were more than 1,000 kilograms of tea because the tin cans were tightly sealed without deterioration by water. However, because tin cans are too bulky, the strength is not high, and the cost is high, a two-and-two tin cans are worth several tens of dollars. Therefore, such packaging is difficult to develop. 2 After the reform and opening up of tea packaging, especially since the 1990s, with the rapid development of science and technology, the scientific and technological content of tea packaging has been continuously increasing, and packaging has been developing in the direction of exquisite, practical, innovative and unique. At present, the tea packaging in the market has broken through the traditional model, and there are cardboard boxes, paper cans, metal cans, and liner bags.
Equipment, composite film bags, bamboo (wood) boxes, glass jars, etc. 2.1 The carton carton is made of corrugated paperboard as raw material. It has the advantages of low cost, light weight, easy processing, easy storage, and recyclability. It is generally used to add inner liner bags for large packages, and it is also commonly used as outer packaging for cans and boxes. box. The surface of the box can also be printed in accordance with different requirements, printing patterns, text, logos, etc. Corrugated cartons have gradually replaced wooden boxes and metal boxes. Currently, most of them are used to transport tea packaging materials, which are mainly used in tea processing plants. Its carton specifications are designed by the manufacturers according to their needs. The general ones are: 400×400×600 mm, 400×500×600 mm, 460×460×460 mm, 435×435×435 mm, and 470×380×470 mm. 410×380×450 mm. Lined with a kraft paper bag and aluminum foil bag, or a polyethylene plastic bag. 2.2 Metal cans Metal cans are made of tin-plated steel sheet or galvanized steel sheet. The shapes of the cans are octagonal, cylindrical and flat. There are two kinds of single-layer lids and double-layer lids. From the seal up, there are two kinds of general cans and sealed cans. The general tank adopts the method of packing deoxidizer to remove the oxygen in the package, and the sealed tank can be used for vacuum packaging. Metal cans are superior to composite films in the protection of tea and are beautiful and noble. 2.3 Lining box (tank) The packing box is paper composite. The top and bottom lids of the cans are paper lids or metal (iron or aluminum) lids. The can body is made of composite paper/paper plate aluminum foil/polyethylene. In addition, there is also a can-drink tea cup, the top lid of the can is an easy-to-open lid (aluminum), the teabags are filled one by one from the bottom, and then the hard plastic lid is tightly nested from the bottom of the bottom. Open the top cover. These packagings not only have the function of composite film bag packaging, but also have the protective and rigid functions of carton packaging, have a strong effect of preservation, and can be comparable to tin cans, and the price is 10-30% lower than that of tin cans. The moisture-proof, rust-proof, fragrant and heat-insulating properties are superior to the traditional iron cans, and the combination of paper, plastic and metal is longer than one. It has the advantages of beautiful appearance, strong and lightweight, easy to use, and economical and environmental protection. If it is not a small bubble bag tea, it is better to put a plastic bag inside the box to increase the protective effect. Its shapes include round cans, square cans, hexagonal cans, octagonal cans, and flat paper cans. Specifications are 50g, 100g, 200g, 250g, 500g and so on. The outer packaging is a gift box that can be used as a gift. There are two cans, four cans, and six cans in the gift box, plus a box and a bag. 2.4 Bamboo (wood) boxes are mostly used as gift wraps. This type of container is usually made with fine workmanship. The surface is printed with beautiful patterns and has a good decorative effect. At present, wood packaging is widely used, wooden packaging is antique and unique in shape, and various artistic methods such as carving, inlaying, and calligraphy are applied. There is no lack of masterpieces among them. It is rich in traditional Chinese culture and has a strong market. Infectious power has a certain collection value. In addition, there is a picture arts electronic music gift box with an independent art picture frame and key electronic music lighting effects. The main disadvantage of bamboo (wood) boxes is that the sealing effect is poor and is not conducive to the long-term preservation of tea. Therefore, aluminum foil laminating bags are often used as inner packagings, or tin foils are used on the inner packaging of wooden boxes, or the tea is first loaded into cans. Inside, use a bamboo (wooden) box as a jacket to ensure the tightness of the tea as much as possible. The relatively expensive price of bamboo (wood) boxes is also one of the reasons for its promotion. 2.5 Composite film bag packaging There are many types of composite films for tea, such as stretched polypropylene/polyethylene, moisture-proof cellophane/polyethylene/paper/aluminum foil/polyethylene, biaxially oriented polypropylene/aluminum foil/polyethylene, etc. The film has excellent gas barrier properties, moisture resistance, fragrance protection, anti-odor, and the like. The current market is better to use polyester/aluminum foil/polyethylene compound, followed by stretched polypropylene/aluminum foil/polyethylene composite materials. These commonly known aluminum foil composite films are moisture-proof, oxygen-barrier, and fragrance-preserving in daily tea packaging. One of the best properties for light and shade. Composite film bags are available in a variety of forms, including three-side seals, self-supporting bags, and folding and twisting buttons. In addition, the composite film bag printing coloring performance, good heat sealing, used to do sales packaging design, has a more unique effect. Therefore, many tea packaging uses composite film bags. 3 Unique oolong tea packaging In recent years, Oolong tea packaging has been unique and unique, and it is the best packaging with the fastest improvement, highest artistic quality and best deputy value. Generally used aseptic packaging, nitrogen or vacuum packaging. Taiwan Oolong tea and Oolong Oolong tea are spherical and tightly packed. They can maintain their original shape after shrink packaging, and are not easily broken. Most of them are vacuum-packed with composite aluminum foil bags, which is advantageous for long-term preservation of quality. At present, the universal vacuum packaging machine has 1.5kg, 2.5kg, and 5kg models according to the maximum packaging capacity. Each model can be individually packaged with a bubble pack (7g, 10g) and 50g, 100g, respectively. 250g, 500g and 3kg, 5kg bags of tea. Oubei Oolong Tea (such as Wuyi Rock Tea Cinnamon and Narcissus) and Guangdong Oolong Tea are twisted and long strips due to appearance. If vacuum (negative pressure) packing is used, tea leaves are easily broken and most of them are made of composite aluminum foil bags and polyethylene bags. Press packaging. At present, Minnan Oolong tea and tabletop oolong tea are generally used in small and medium-sized tea packaging (composite aluminum foil bag vacuum), and a bubble-packed narrow bag (can be filled with tea 7g-8g) is the most common, but also a bubble width Bags (can contain tea 8g-10g), the composite aluminum foil bag has 1 or 2 small gaps, easy to open when the bubble bag is opened; some packaging to show the tea's noble "identity", but also use The plastic blister packs are first loaded with tea, and then put into a composite aluminum foil bag blister pack for vacuum. This packaging method has several advantages. One is that it is convenient for brewing, and one blister bag (wide bag or narrow bag) is the amount of tea used at a time, and no need to weigh; second, it is convenient to carry, go out or meet with friends, and carry it with you. It is convenient and fashionable to carry it out. Thirdly, it is easy to store. This kind of independent structure of packaging will not affect other teas in the process of use. Fourth, it will increase the value of tea products. After such a small bag, it will obviously improve. The grade and taste give a noble and elegant feeling, and it is also one of the necessary inner packaging forms of gift tea (Oolong Tea). Practice has proved that the vesicles bags have been recognized by consumers of oolong tea and have also generated strong centripetal force. It is one of the important reasons for the unprecedented expansion of the domestic oolong tea sales market in recent years. Undoubtedly, it will influence and drive the progress of other tea packaging.

Liu Wei Du Qihong

Reprinted from: Tea Science and Technology