Marketing and Tea Packaging

I recently had a class on marketing and packaging tea. We looked at a number of different tea brands: described the packaging, tasted the teas, and presented our findings.

It was fun and interesting as this was our first time presenting what we thought about a certain tea. We split into different groups and my group looked at Sencha teas from different companies. Of course we had some differences in opinion on packaging but overall we agreed which one had the best marketing and packaging. It was descriptive, told a story of how the tea company had developed and promoted fair trade which is becoming popular these days. However, we didn't want to let that skew our option on the taste so we did a blind taste test with one member brewing the tea.

We ensured the water temperature was not too hot and the steep time was only 45-60 secs for all three. However, the product with the best marketing and packaging did not yield the best taste, it was actually quite bitter (despite doing 2 different steepings) and in the end we gave it a 2/5. I guess it just goes to show you that you can't rely on the marketing or packaging to determine the quality of the leaf. You must always cup the tea!

However, I must admit I do enjoy looking at nicely packaged tea and here are a few teas I thought had eye-catching packaging...

photo from the Kusmi Tea website.Kusmi Tea (Note: I have not tried this tea brand...yet...but thought the packaging was quite pretty.) What I liked about the packaging is that it looks very fancy, the pattern on the tin itself is very striking and I like the colour combination. The packaging also shows reference to Russia, where the beginnings of this tea company started which I thought gives it a bit of a vintage feel. I didn't see on their website if they sell refill bags as someone who buys the tin may want to buy again but use the same tin.

On to the next packaging...

photos from thedesignfirm.ca and from the tealish website

Tealish
The general packaging looks very clean and light and provides enough info. The clean look is different from the Kusmi Tea but it still has a prettiness to it with the light colours. What actually caught my attention was the samplers. I really liked the packaging of the samplers as it was very feminine and definitely directed at females.

Now the below picture is from a company I do not know. I believe it is from the company called "My Cup of Tea" as the canister says but unfortunately I'm not sure as my camera phone did not take a clear picture of the company info.
I found this at Homesense. The white and round canister caught my eye. It had a very clean look and I've been looking for tea canisters in this shape. I also liked the lone green elephant as it gave a spot of colour to it. I did a web search and found a website for My Cup of Tea. It had to be the cutest tea website with the cutest tea packaging! Here is the link to their newest products, I especially like the Sakura White packaging. Correction The My Cup of Tea tin pictured above is from a company in the UK that is also called My Cup of Tea and here is their website. It's actually a really nice website with a very clean design. Love it!

(I must stress though, this post is on packaging and not the tea itself.)

I'm sure there are other tea companies with great packaging to suit all different types of personalities and preferences. And, maybe my choices are not "your cup of tea" but that is okay. There are many brands now in the marketplace (many I haven't come across) and Homesense now carries a variety of different specialty teas too. I took a snapshot of some of the packaging that you'd find now (see below). Many are loose leaf teas packaged in tea bags which is quite popular amongst new tea companies.

$1/lb to $200/lb!!*@!

While doing some reading on some of my favourite blogs, I came across an interview on TravelandTea. Nigel Melican from Teacraft was interviewed by Deborah Huff and she wrote in her blog the following quote "Ten years ago, as a tea scientist, I would never have believed that I could take fresh green leaf off a tea bush bred to produce commodity black tea selling at US$1 per lb and with some clever techniques process that same leaf into specialty white tea selling at US$200 per lb – that still amazes me." Hence, the title of this entry...this is amazing!!

Would this be considered "tea science"? My first thought of what the term "tea science" is really about was the effect of tea on health. However, after attending my tea garden management class and reading this interview, I really was missing a large area that I think could be included in what I would consider tea science - the production side. So, what is tea science? Well, I'm not sure if there is a formal definition and haven't found one yet as it is pretty vague, so I'll just start with my own opinion first. Tea science to me is the study of tea on health, the technical and chemical processes involved in tea production, and the development of new techniques to yield greater or improved product.

However, I don't want to make tea production sound so technical. I think when China was developing their tea techiques over hundreds of years (and even now among tea producers), it can be considered "tea science" but at the same time an ART; crafting the technique and style, observation, trial and error and some creativity mixed in.