Long before the first tea bags, capsules, cartridges or k cups appeared, there were tea bags (also called tea infusions). Although the dispute about who was the original creator of this bag still exists, one thing is certain, the public immediately responded to this convenient and neat format.

Beginning in 1908, several companies have tested various materials to find out which material can produce the best infusion solution. Silk gave way to popular but expensive hand-filled cheesecloth, gauze and muslin. Then, in 1930, William Hermanson developed his heat-sealed paper tea bag and sold it to Salada. Strings and labels enhance practicality, but the design is very practical, and it still dominates even now. Over the years, this form has continued to develop. In 1952, Thomas Lipton applied for a patent for the flo-thru bag, and in 1992, Tetley introduced a round tea bag. Recently used an aluminum foil cylinder and a stirring rod filled with tea

Brooke Bond/PG Tips launched a silk tetrahedron (pyramid) that provides more space for tea in 1996. Since then, innovation has involved a series of compostable and biodegradable paper and polylactic acid.

Mainly focusing on bagging (cutting, tea, curling) CTC tea, once the format is determined, the company will seek machines to maximize output at the lowest cost. The largest factory can produce billions of tea bags every year.

“One of the current challenges facing teabag packaging machine manufacturers is to meet demand and market requirements,” said Guillermo Mai, President of IMA Mai SA in Buenos Aires, Argentina. As a leading supplier of single-chamber teabag machines, Mai SA is responding to market demand for equipment that uses faster, automated, and higher-performance machines to increase productivity. Their latest innovation, EC24, does exactly that. The machine is equipped with an automatic cartoon device, which can fill, mark, seal and pack up to 240 tea bags per minute. "The future of tea equipment is to obtain faster and highly automated machines that provide extremely high-volume production and have a design concept that allows them to flexibly implement tea bags with final packaging without the need for machine changes," Mai Say.

Photo courtesy of IMA Mai SA

This IMA MAISA EC24 carton manufacturer is an example of advanced packaging automation. The machine can fill, mark, seal and pack up to 240 tea bags per minute.

Advances in research and development have enabled manufacturers to develop tea bag machinery with more functions. An example of this is Teepack's Compacta HS module, which can be connected to the basic machine and packaged in heat-sealed foil to protect the integrity of the tea. The knotting device has also been improved to provide a stable tight knot without the need for expensive needle upgrades. "With the new knotting unit, customers need fewer machine spare parts, which can reduce maintenance time and thus reduce costs," explains Roland Delapille, sales director of Teepack teabag machines in Cologne, Germany.

In order to maintain freshness and consumers who want hygiene and high-quality design, individual tea bags are becoming more and more common. Manufacturers began to look for machines that could not only form bags but also package products. FUSO's FT-II meets this demand by packaging up to 3,000 pyramid-shaped tea bags per hour. The outer packaging machine can be used as a stand-alone machine or interlocked with the bag-making machine system.

As interest in hot tea increased, American consumers became more sophisticated and switched their consumption to loose leaf tea. In black tea, Euromonitor's January 2017 American Coffee Report pointed out that non-trade volume in bulk (standard and specialty combined) increased by 5%, while bagged (standard and specialty combined) fell by 3%.

Buying tea is no longer for convenience, but for quality. Consumers are actively looking for products with larger leaves, visible spices and flowers.

The double-chamber and single-chamber formats traditionally use CTC tea because the leaves are of the same size, ensuring effective and consistent infusion. However; the limited space and smaller openings of these bags affect the injection of larger leaf products.

In order to attract this growing industry, teabag manufacturers need to provide a bag that reflects this quality experience. The solution is the pyramid pouch. These sachets were first introduced to the tea drinking crowd in the early 1990s, providing these busy consumers with elegant and simple choices. Tomomi Yajima, NASA’s Sales Management Department, said: “Whole leaf tea, herbal tea, scented tea and fruit tea can be packed in triangular tea bags without any damage.” “Although the mesh filter helps in better extraction.” Triangular bags are an investment that manufacturers should not take lightly. Consumers view these sachets as quality products, and manufacturers need to ensure that their products provide this experience. "Many imitators are using cheap machines to enter this field," Yajima said. "However; manufacturers also need to pay attention to production efficiency and product quality. If they have been repairing the machine, then the investment is wasted."

Andrea Testi-Effedueotto.com

Spreafico Automation's capsule machine

Another challenge facing manufacturers is to increase the production time of the sachets. FUSO series pyramid tea bag machinery ranges from 50 bags per minute to 120 bags per minute, triangular bags, and single-chamber and double-chamber products exceed 200 bags per minute. The right machine can ensure that the product provides a premium experience and a higher price tag associated with these types of products.

Innovations in sachet materials also help expand the pyramidal market, and biodegradable options respond to environmentally conscious consumers. The weaving type of the fabric will affect the overall extraction. One of the latest methods is knitting, which is produced by forming PLA fibers into a mesh layer. "Compared with monofilament, knitted fabric is made of multifilament," said Yajima. "This design naturally provides better extraction."

For those companies that still want a higher production level of rectangular tea bags, IMA’s CT30 provides manufacturers with a completely transparent tea bag that can be filled at a production rate of 300 bags per minute. Single-chamber tea bags can be produced with woven or non-woven filter materials and then sealed using ultrasonic technology.

Pyramids are usually sold in nitrogen-filled envelopes, producing 50-60 bags per minute. The equipment comes from Tecpacking, a global manufacturer located in Tianjin, China.

For those consumers who want to brew multiple cups, there are now handbags and long tea bags to choose from. This is also ideal for manufacturers who want to provide customers with iced tea options. However; one of the latest trends is tea bags for coffee. FUSO’s drip bag filter is an example, which can flush nitrogen directly into a single service product to maintain the freshness of the grinding. "In Japan, about 2 billion cups are consumed each year, which is a very large market," Yajima said. "And this trend is spreading throughout Asia."

Consumers’ desire for convenient and innovative packaging will continue to drive interest in tea packaging. Although the purchase of tea bags in the United States has declined slightly, the largest market segment still prefers tea bags. Continuous research and development ensure that the humble but versatile tea bags will continue to develop. 

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