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Tea: Wellness in a Cup
Tea is the most consumed beverage worldwide after water. However, the ways to prepare it, its packaging and rituals vary widely from country to country - and are often even typical of each culture. A whole cosmos has emerged around tea and its natural effects, also increasingly reflecting the western "Health" and "Wellness" mega trends.
Tea is not just simply drunk. Drinking tea is quite simply celebrated depending on the nationality. For instance, the Chinese have been drinking tea for more than 5,000 years: any time of the day and at each meal green tea - pure and without any additions - is drunk. According to Chinese tradition the tea leaves are brewed up a total of three times to become the "Tea of Pleasant Smell", the "Tea of Pleasant Taste" and finally the "Tea of Long Friendship".
With a daily consumption of 171 million cups the British could be dubbed the world’s tea-drinking champions: Brits have tea from their "early morning cuppa" and "breakfast tea" to "afternoon tea" between lunch and dinner not forgetting "high tea" in the evening. Here tea is consumed with plenty of cold milk, lots of sugar and accompanied by traditional sandwiches or cakes. Afternoon tea is especially sacred to the British and the ceremony looks back on a long tradition going back to the 17th century.
In India every meal turns into a feast for the senses: the colours of Indian spices reflect the colours of the rainbow, their taste is meant to not only season dishes but also lend wings to the senses. The country boasts over 80 different languages and cultures but two common denominators: curry and tea (chai).
The Japanese have turned tea drinking into an art form. A Japanese tea ceremony is not performed to quench the thirst but pave the way to spiritual purity and complete harmony. The complicated rituals centre on 24 different utensils as well as the pulverised green "matcha" tea.
Or in Morocco: here people meet three times a day for their traditional tea ceremony. Moroccan tea is extremely sweet: half a sugarloaf per pot. Sugar provides the energy that oasis inhabitants so urgenty need to withstand the desert heat.
Back to the Roots
Even in western countries tea is becoming more and more of a trend. Even in many countries doubtlessly considered coffee drinking nations - like Germany, Italy or Scandinavia - tea consumption is rising constantly. After all, western nations are increasingly discovering the beneficial effects of tea. And this ties in perfectly with the new awareness of our generation. Health and wellness are the omnipresent megatrends in the LOHAS age (Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability). This longing for fitness and well-being has an impact on people’s habits and even their diets have changed accordingly. Over the past few years the food industry has responded to this with innumerable products that target this added health value. Foodstuffs are enriched with additives that exclusively focus on this "added value" consumer trend. Slowly but surely a reverse trend is now being felt and simplicity and naturalness are sought after with a desire for people to get "back to their roots".
Tranquility in Everyday Life
Tea ties in perfectly with this idea: its positive effect on body and soul has been known for millenia. Properly applied, the herbs have a soothing effect strengthening the body’s defences or stimulating the senses. A “quality cup of tea” is increasingly synonymous with a brief pause in the daily routine, a moment of calm in the stressful everyday life of this day and age. Tea, herbs and spices stand for naturalness and come in a compelling diversity of fragrances – from anisette to yunnan.
Concentrated Nature in a Bag
Herbal extracts must not be mistaken for artificial aromas. There are a number of different processes involved in obtaining concentrated extracts that are all based on the use of natural raw materials. The plant components are cleaned, shredded and - as a rule - mixed with water - this corresponds to a classic herbal infusion.
An ingenous and simple way of storing and preparing tea is the tea bag. Legend has it that tea bags were invented in 1904 when an American tea dealer sent some samples in small silk bags to his customers. Thinking it was meant that way, these clients then dipped the little bags straight into the hot water. In the 1910s tea bags fell into disrepute; copycats blended additives to cut costs. To overcome this problem the tea bags then consisting of paper, later of cotton, were sealed with an adhesive, which negatively impacted the taste.
Stapled tea bags as they are known around Europe today were invented by Adolf Rambold, an employee of the German company Teekanne. 1929 saw the first infusion bag in taste-free special parchment being launched – almost simultaneously with the custom-developed tea bag packaging machine. In 1949 the "Constantia" tea packaging machine was introduced as was, at the end of that same year, the double-chamber bag with staple closure patented by Teekanne that is still in use today. Back then Rambold folded a rectangular paper strip into a tube which was bent in the middle and filled with tea from both sides. The longer end was folded over the shorter one and closed with a staple. As a result water was able to flow around the tea from every side. The only problem being proper packaging for a long time because it had to be both tear and heat-resistant and neutral to taste. Today, the little bags are made of a special filter paper and without any adhesives for reasons of food purity. Tea bag paper is manufactured predominantly from abaca fibres but there are also alternatives available in organic man-made fibre (PLA).
Modern packaging machines fill some 450 tea bags per minute. In addition to these sachet-shaped tea bags with strings there are also many other shapes available internationally. And the market is not standing still here either. Ever new, innovative and extraordinary shapes are introduced onto the market. These for instance include the "tea pyramids" in use for some time now as they have a greater volume and can therefore take a coarser cut. The aroma is said to develop even better while brewing and, last but not least, the new shape also looks more modern and "chic".
2008 saw Sigpack Systems, a company of the Bosch Packaging Technology group, launch the new "Stick Pack in a Pull Pack" concept. Based on the packaging style of bistro sugar the idea was to turn the traditional tea bag into a modern lifestyle product boasting more ease and higher convenience. In cooperation with Alcan Packaging et al. a combination of a perforated stick pack with a pull-pack design was created. Primary packaging of the tea is performed using an FDA-approved composite springback foil by Alcan Packaging. The Pull-Pack concept serves as a secondary packaging thereby making for an especially fast and precise opening to remove the tea stick. Sigpack developed the machinery both for producing the Stick Pack and for filling and secondary packaging.
The factories operated by the multi-national family business Laurens Spethmann Holding (LSH) in Seevetal near Hamburg will produce the entire annual output of 13 billion tea bags without aluminium staples from autumn 2010. An investment project that absorbed EUR 80 million over a period of ten years. For this product a new generation of machines was developed and existing manufacturing equipment refitted with sewing machines. The innovation: a smart fusion of tea bag and label with a sophisticated knot technique.
