Real Projects
Every tea tin case in the library — 188 production runs in total, 24 to a page, each one carrying the mould it was made from. Loose leaf and tea bag formats divide the pool, so the shape on each card is a faster way in than scrolling by capacity.
Built Around the Leaf
As tea tin manufacturers, a tea build is specified against moisture and light before it is specified against the artwork — leaf goes stale from humidity long before it goes stale from time. Four things get settled before one goes back on the line.
Leaf takes on a metallic note from contact with bare steel, and stale tea is usually a moisture problem rather than a time problem. The internal lacquer or PET liner on these tea tin moulds is what separates loose leaf tea tins that still taste right in a year from a decorative metal tea tin that does not.
Flat panel areas on a square tea tin or rectangular tea tin take CMYK offset litho cleanly, in up to 8 colours. A round tea tin and a figure-shaped tea tin need the print split differently, so the artwork is proofed on the real substrate within 48 hours rather than on paper.
empty tea tins for loose tea want an open body and a scoop recess; tea bags in a tin want a divider so the strings do not tangle; a caddy format wants a corrugated tray cut to the footprint. All three run on the same outer geometry, which is why the mould exists in the first place.
The closure travels with the mould — a plain tea tin with lid, a double lid tea tin, a hinged or window lid, or a latch for a vintage look. A tea tin container only earns its name if the lid still seats after six months of daily opening.
Airtight by Construction
Whether a tea tins wholesale run actually holds its seal is decided by three things — and on every case above, all three were fixed before printing started.
Applications
Tea tin packaging is bought in four recognisable patterns. Each one changes the spec — whether it starts from a round tea tin, a square tea tin, a tea canister or a figure-shaped tea tin — and shape, capacity, lid and print method all follow from it.
Single-origin and blended leaf sold by weight, where a loose leaf tea canister with a dependable seal and consistent print across repeat orders matters more than novelty shape.
Seasonal gift tea tin builds for Lunar New Year, Christmas and mid-autumn — usually a square tea tin or double lid tea tin with an insert tray, scoop and sleeve.
Supermarket and tea-shop own-brand private label tea tins where print accuracy, barcode placement and case-pack configuration matter more than novelty shape.
Low-volume, high-finish custom tea tins with company embossing or debossing, and the usual home for a figure-shaped tea tin or a gold tea tin — the tin gets kept on a desk long after the tea is gone.
Mould Register
Every size below comes from a live mould record rather than a typical figure. Any of them can be sampled before you commit to a bespoke die.
| Mould Ref. | Shape | Capacity | Cases | View case |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TIN-SZCS-00037 | Book Box | 2416.8ml | 1 | View case |
| 3CFF4616 | Round Tin | — | — | View case |
| 0EB805B3 | Round Tin | — | — | View case |
| 325492DF | Round Tin | — | — | View case |
| F27652E7 | Round Tin | — | — | View case |
| BC8D3167 | Round Tin | — | — | View case |
| 7B0DACDC | Round Tin | — | — | View case |
| B4B4835C | Round Tin | — | — | View case |
Material: food-grade tinplate, internal lacquer where the fill needs one. tea tin MOQ 1,000 pcs per design, pre-production sample 7 days, new mould tooling adds 20–25 days. FOB Ningbo / Shanghai / Shenzhen.
Design Reference
Tea artwork sits on a tin that is doing a preservation job, so the print and the barrier are designed together rather than in sequence.
An airtight tea tin keeps its seal at the rim, and a full-wrap design has to stop short of that band. We mark the seal zone on the artwork guide so nothing critical is lost where the lid seats.
A gift tea tin is often bought as much for the container as for the leaf, which is why a double lid tea tin and a printed inner lid earn their cost. A loose leaf tea canister that still seals after the tea is finished keeps your brand on a shelf.
Buying Guide
Four decisions turn one of the cases on this page into your order. On tea, the first one is whether you are packing leaf or bags.
A loose leaf tea canister and tins for tea bags are the same body with different insides — one wants an open cavity and a scoop recess, the other wants a divider so the strings do not tangle. Which it is decides the tray before it decides the print.
An airtight tea tin without an internal lacquer is not automatically food grade. Ask what the liner is, and ask to see it on the sample rather than on a spec sheet — stale tea is a moisture failure, not a time failure.
A 1,000ml tin holds very different quantities of a light green tea and a dense rolled oolong. small tea tins suit a sampler and large tea tins suit a caddy; send us the pack weight and the fill pattern rather than a litre figure.
A gift tea tin invests in the finish and a double lid tea tin; one sold as storage invests in the seal and the stack height. tea bag storage tins are usually the second, which is why they get a gasket rather than foil.
Related Ranges
Tea tins share a production line with the rest of the tinplate range. The categories below all have live case galleries, so the same construction and the same mould register carry across.
FAQs
The questions that come up most often when buyers spec a tea tin.
Send your artwork or just a rough sketch and we will come back with shape options, an indicative price and a lead time — usually within one working day. WhatsApp and email both work.
