Custom Tea Boxes
Custom tea boxes built to the format you pack — tagged bags, envelope sachets, pyramids or loose leaf — from 100 units. A carton that keeps light and scent out, a count that fills without rattling, and a lid that opens the way a tea drinker expects.
Tea is light-sensitive, scent-sensitive and sold by the count
- Board
- 16–20 pt SBS or kraft, matte coated; rigid chipboard for the chest
- Formats
- Loose bags, envelope sachets, pyramid sachets, loose leaf with liner or tin
- Counts
- 12–50 bags; 2–4 oz loose leaf
Get a price for Tea Boxes
Send the size and quantity — we reply the same working day with a price, a dieline and a date. Artwork optional at this stage.
- Free dielineThe flat drawing comes with the quote, before you commit.
- Proof before pressNothing is printed until you have seen it laid on the dieline.
- Die kept for reordersTooling is paid once. Every reorder skips straight to press.
- Quoted in four marketsUS, UK, Canada and Australia, in the delivery currency.
Four formats, four different boxes
The mistake is to buy a generic tea carton and hope the format fits. A loose-bag box sized for fifty bags holds twenty envelopes with a rattle; a pyramid tray needs its own height. Send us the format and the count and we build to them.
| Tagged bags, loose in box | Tuck-end carton with an inner foil or glassine bag; 20–50 count |
|---|---|
| Envelope sachets | Carton sized to the envelope stack, often a flip-top; 15–25 count |
| Pyramid sachets | Shallow tray with a lid, sachets standing in rows; 12–20 count |
| Loose leaf | Carton around a lined inner bag or a tin; 2–4 oz by weight |
Keeping the light and the scent out
The carton is a light barrier if it is opaque — most are — and a scent barrier only with an inner liner. A foil-laminate inner bag or a glassine liner keeps the tea's own aroma in and the shelf's aromas out; without it, mint in the box next door ends up in the chamomile. For a premium loose leaf, a tin inside the carton does the same job and is reused. The same inner-bag logic applies to coffee bags built around a degassing valve, though coffee needs the valve and tea does not.
Print the ingredient panel and the steeping time on a side panel, not the base. Tea boxes stand upright in a cupboard and the base is never seen.
The lid that tea drinkers expect
The flip-top is the one to get right. A tab that is too shallow pops open in the cupboard; too deep and it tears the front panel after a month. We set the tab depth for a box that is opened every day for six weeks.
- A flip-top with a tuck tab, so the box opens and closes daily without tearing.
- A hinged lid with a thumb notch on a display carton, the envelope-sachet standard.
- A tear-strip that opens the top cleanly on a sealed carton, then a tuck for after.
- A drawer or a two-piece rigid box for a gift chest, with a tray of compartments.
Print, and the gift chest
Tea cartons carry a lot of small type — the blend, the origin, the steeping panel, the ingredient list — and they carry it on a coated board with a matte finish so the shelf does not glare. Foil on the blend name is the category signal, and an emboss on a solid ground reads as premium at very low cost. For the gift chest — a rigid box with a compartment tray holding six or twelve blends — the construction is the same wrapped build as our premium rigid boxes for presentation, with the tray cut to the sachet or the tin.
Tea Boxes — specification
The rows that are specific to this build first, then what applies to every job we run. Anything not listed is a question, not a limit — send the brief.
This build
- Board
- 16–20 pt SBS or kraft, matte coated; rigid chipboard for the chest
- Formats
- Loose bags, envelope sachets, pyramid sachets, loose leaf with liner or tin
- Counts
- 12–50 bags; 2–4 oz loose leaf
- Liner
- Foil-laminate inner bag, glassine, or tin
- Lids
- Flip-top tuck tab, hinged with thumb notch, tear-strip, drawer or two-piece chest
- Finishes
- Foil on the blend name, emboss, soft-touch
- Minimum
- 100 boxes
On every job
- Print process
- Flexo in one to six colors, printed on the outer face only and before any lining goes on.
- Color
- Food-safe inks throughout. Kraft mutes color; a white board or liner is needed for anything photographic.
- Tolerance
- Cutting plus or minus 1 mm, and fit confirmed by filling a plain sample from your own kitchen or line.
- Tooling
- A cutting die per size, kept. Molded pulp needs a tool per shape, which is a longer lead and a larger one-off.
- Food contact
- Every board food-contact grade, with grease resistance built into the sheet and never a PFAS treatment.
- Sustainability
- Aqueous linings and unlined boards repulp with ordinary paper. PE-lined cups need cup collection, and we say which you have.
- Artwork
- Vector PDF or AI, 3 mm bleed, 4 mm safe area, fonts outlined. We check every file and send a proof before press.
- Dieline
- Supplied free with the quote, before you commit. Yours whether or not you order.
- Sample
- A plain unprinted sample at the finished size on request, for fit and construction.
- Reorders
- Skip the tooling and go straight to press at a lower unit price.
- Lead time
- Quoted with the price against your fill date rather than promised before we have seen the spec.
- Markets
- United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia — priced in the delivery currency, freight included.
Boards and films we build tea boxes on
Food packaging is chosen for what the food does to it: grease, steam, heat and time. Every board here is food-contact grade, and none of them uses a PFAS treatment for grease resistance.
Food-grade virgin board
Bleached board made for direct food contact. Clean, bright, no recycled fiber and no mineral-oil risk from recovered paper.
14–24ptGrease-resistant board
Resistance built into the sheet rather than sprayed on. Holds fries, pastry and butter without darkening. PFAS-free.
16–24ptPE-lined cupstock
Board with a polyethylene film for hot and cold liquid. Microwave-safe for reheating; recycled only where cup collection exists.
260–350gsmAqueous-lined cupstock
A water-based lining instead of PE. Repulpable in ordinary paper recycling in more places, and compostable; a slightly shorter hold time.
260–320gsmGreaseproof and glassine
Dense, calendered paper that resists fat through the fiber. Wraps, liners and interleaves; breathable, so pastry stays crisp.
30–55gsmFood-grade corrugated
E and B flute with a food-contact liner, vented where steam has to leave. Pizza, catering and anything hot and heavy.
E and B fluteMolded pulp and bagasse
Fiber pressed into a shape. Holds heat, resists grease with no lining, composts, and takes only an embossed or one-color mark.
Molded to shapeRecycled board
Post-consumer fiber. Used for outers, sleeves and anything that does not touch food directly — not for direct contact.
Non-contact onlyNot sure which? Say what goes in it and where it is sold — the material follows from that. Our notes on recycled, recyclable and compostable cover which claims each stock can honestly carry.
- 01
Send what you have
A dimension, a photograph beside a ruler, or the product itself. No technical drawing needed — that part is ours.
- 02
We quote and draw
A price, a dieline and a date come back together. If a different build would suit the product better, that is in the reply too.
- 03
Approve the dieline
The flat drawing is yours to check: which panel is the front, where the folds fall, how deep the cavity really is.
- 04
Artwork on the dieline
You place your design on the flat we sent, or we place it for you, and you see a proof before anything goes to press.
- 05
A sample if you want one
A plain unprinted sample at the finished size shows fit and construction — the things a drawing cannot.
- 06
Cut, printed, shipped
The die is cut once and kept, so every reorder skips the tooling and goes straight to press at a lower unit price.
Format
Vector PDF or AI where possible. Raster artwork at 300dpi at final size, in CMYK.
Bleed
3 mm past every trim line, so a fraction of drift on the cutter never leaves a white edge.
Safe area
Keep type and anything important 4 mm inside the cut and away from every fold.
Color
Convert to CMYK before sending. Uncoated stock prints lighter; a spot color is the only exact match.
Fonts
Outline them or supply the files. A missing font substitutes silently and the proof will not match.
Barcodes
On a light, matte, unvarnished patch with the quiet zone clear — a code on gloss fails the scanner.
Not set up that way? Send it anyway — fixing a file is a short conversation, and we check every one before press. Our guide to preparing print files covers each point.
Food finishes are limited by what may touch food, and that is the point.
Food-safe inks
Printed on the outer face only. Every food pack we make uses them, laminated or not.
Uncoated kraft
No coating at all. Breathable, so pastry stays crisp, and it takes one or two colors.
Aqueous varnish
Scuff resistance without a plastic film, so the pack still repulps.
Molded emboss
A logo pressed into pulp or bagasse. No ink, nothing to rub off, and it survives grease.
Grease-resistant face
Not a finish you can see. It is in the sheet, it is PFAS-free, and it is why the print stays clean.
Matte lamination
Available on outers and sleeves that never touch food — a cake box lid, a carrier, a gift sleeve.
Not sure which suits the shelf it sells from? Say where the product is sold and we suggest one — our notes on specialty finishes show them on real boxes.
Sizing food packaging around a portion, hot: tea boxes
Food is sized by serving, not by dimensions, and it is served hot, heaped and in a hurry. Send us the portion — or better, the box you use now with the food in it — and we size to how it is actually filled.
- Portion, heaped
- Fries, popcorn and salad are served above the rim. A box sized to a level fill looks mean and spills in a bag.
- Lid clearance
- Enough that a loaded burger or a topped cake does not touch the lid. This is the single most common complaint about a food box.
- Venting
- Hot food steams. Vents in the lid keep pastry and fries crisp; a sealed box is right only for cold food.
- Grease path
- Where the fat sits decides the board. Say if the food is fried, buttered or sauced, and whether it is held for minutes or an hour.
- Stacking in a bag
- Delivery boxes are stacked five high on a bike. The lid has to hold the box above it off the food below.
- Sample fill
- A plain box filled from your kitchen settles the size in one try, and we send one before the run.
Not sure your numbers are right? Send the product dimensions rather than the box dimensions and we work the box out — the full method is in our guide to measuring for a box.
Interactive · five steps · no sign-up
Build your Tea Boxes in 3D
Pick a shape, type a size, choose a board and a finish. The preview on the left redraws as you go, and the spec lands with us exactly as you set it.
Frequently asked questions
Got a question about tea boxes? The answers below cover what we get asked most. If yours is not here, send it with a brief, message us on WhatsApp, or call +1 503-461-4788 — we reply the same working day.
What size box for 20 tea bags?
It depends on the format. Twenty tagged bags in an inner bag is a different carton from twenty envelope sachets or twenty pyramids. Tell us which and we size to it.
Does the box keep the tea fresh?
The carton keeps light out; a foil or glassine liner keeps scent in and out. Without a liner, tea picks up the aroma of whatever is next to it.
Can the box hold loose leaf?
Yes, around a lined inner bag or a tin. The carton is sized to the bag at 2–4 oz, and the tin version is reusable.
Which lid should I choose?
A flip-top with a tuck tab for a box opened daily; a hinged lid with a thumb notch for envelope sachets on display; a tear-strip if the carton is sealed.
Will the flip-top wear out?
Not over a box's life. We set the tab depth for six weeks of daily opening, which is longer than most boxes last.
Can I have a gift box for several blends?
Yes, a rigid chest with a compartment tray for six or twelve blends, cut to the sachet or the tin.
Is foil worth it on a tea box?
On the blend name, yes — it is the category signal and the block is small. Full-panel foil is not necessary.
Can the board be recyclable?
The carton is. A foil liner is not; a glassine liner is, with a slightly shorter scent barrier. We will tell you the trade-off.
Where do the steeping instructions go?
A side panel, never the base. Tea boxes stand upright in cupboards and the base is never read.
What is the minimum order?
100 boxes per size. Cartons run many-up on a sheet, so short runs are practical.
How long does production take?
It depends on the finish and the quantity. We give a date with the quote rather than a number before we have seen the spec.
Will you send a sample?
A white carton in your size with the liner, so you can fill it with your count and check the lid before print.
Same range
