Pillow style tea bags are approximately 2.5 x 2.5 inches in size and do not include a string or a tag. Minimum tea bag run for pillow style tea bags = 100 pounds of tea. This will make approximately 22 thousand (2 gram) tea bags. The charge for making the tea bags is $14.00 per 1000 tea bags. This charge does not include any further packaging that might be required by your particular project. This also does not include the tea. The tea can either be purchased from Monterey Bay Spice Company or the tea can be supplied by the customer.

The minimum size run for producing tea bags with string and tag is 100 pounds of tea or around 22,000 tea bags. The tag is blank. If you would like custom colors or logos on your tags this is possible. See more about this under our Tea Tag heading. The tags are not attached to the tea bag with staples. The charge for producing these tea bags is $16.00 per 1,000 tea bags.

Tea bags with an individual overwrap will add appeal and value to your tea line. These tea bags include both a string and tag. No staples are used.  Individual overwrap tea bags are more expensive to produce than the simple “pillow style” tea bag. We offer two finished sizes of the overwrap tea bag (70mm x 75mm OR 70mm x 80mm). The minimum run size for individual overwrap tea bags is 100 pounds of tea. This will produce approximately 22 thousand 2 gram tea bags. The charge to produce this style of tea bags is $38.00 per 1,000 tea bags. This does not include tea material or the overwrap material (also called film). It will be the customer’s responsibility to provide Monterey Bay Spice Co. with the film that is needed for the overwrap. If you do not have a source to acquire film we can direct you can contact Label Technology. The film will be expensive. Expect to pay $3,000 - $5,000 for a small run of film. A small run of film will be enough to produce 100- 200 thousand tea bags.  We have not found any company who will make less than 100 thousand individual overwraps. We can however provide a clear transparent overwrap as a much cheaper alternative. This is a great option if you require an overwrapped tea bag but do not want to invest in purchasing your own material. The charge for clear overwrap tea bags is $40.00 1,000 tea bags

We also manufacture large style tea bags. These tea bags are approximately 4 inches by 5 inches in size. They can hold 1- 3 ounces of tea and sometimes more depending on the density of the tea being used. These tea bags can be filled with herbs as well as teas. Some of the items we have packed into these tea bags in the past include black teas, green teas, lavender buds, chamomile flowers, various bath herbs, mulling spices, and bath salts.  Our minimum run size for these tea bags is 4,000. The charge is $0.16 each. Volume discounts apply at runs above 50 thousand.

Empty tea bags are great for the “do it yourselfer”. These are offered on our website in two sizes, including a small size (2.5” x 2.5”) or a large size (4” x 5”). They are sold in either packs of 50 or 5,000. If one of these sizes does not suit your needs we can run a custom size. The minimum run size for a custom order is 100,000 tea bags. The price will depend on the actual size.

The size of the tea provided must be a tea bags cut size. A tea bag cut size is 1-3 millimeters. If the tea size is smaller than this it will result in very dusty tea bags. If the tea is much larger than this the tea will not run properly in our tea machines resulting in non-uniform weights. Our large style tea bags can accept tea up to ½ inch in size.

If the tea is not the correct size Monterey Bay Spice Company can mill and size the tea for you. The minimum run size for milling is 150 pounds. The charge to mill 150 pounds is $0.50/pound. Keep in mind that when 150 pounds of tea is milled to a desired size that there will be waste as well as non-usable material. As an estimate when we mill 150 pounds of a standard tea we will be left with only 120 pounds that is usable. The remaining 30 pounds will be lost material as well as powder that is not suitable for making tea bags. In most cases it is best to try and acquire the correct size of tea for your job. Monterey Bay Spice Company offers many herbs, teas and spices that are already in tea bag cut size.

If your tea requires blending of various herbs, spices or oil flavorings we can do this too. The charge for blending is $0.45/pound with a minimum blend size of 150 pounds.

Often times a tea company will require that their tea be boxed into a retail style carton. If this is the case the customer will need to supply this before we begin the packing job. Monterey Bay Spice Company does not make tea cartons.  If you are just starting and you need references for carton manufactures we can give you the names of some good carton manufacturers.  The companies making the tea cartons will likely have a minimum production run of 25 thousand cartons. The cost is around $0.30 per carton depending on how many colors are used. Also expect an additional one time set up fee for making the cartons to cost $500 - $1000. So expect to pay around 4 – 5 thousand dollars just for your new boxes. Please visit  Rose City Printing to find out more about making boxes. The Box Co-op is an alternate box source that can do very small runs (1,250). You can visit their website here: Box Co-op

If you are using our stock tea tags they will be white and blank. If however you would like custom colors and logos this can be done. Monterey Bay Spice Co does not manufacture tea tags but we can direct you to a manufacturing company if you need to make custom tags. The minimum purchase for custom tea tags will be around one million tags. The cost for the tags will be approximately $2.00 - $3.00 per thousand tags depending on how many colors you use. Expect your first order of custom tea tags to cost around $2,000 - $3,000.

Monterey Bay Spice Company is a certified organic processing facility.  If your tea line is certified organic there will be a process that we need to follow before we can begin production. We will require you to provide us with an organic certification paper for each tea that you want us to package. If you are buying your tea from another company they will be able to provide you with these documents. We will also need copies of your organic labeling. These items will need to be submitted to our certifying body for review and approval. This process can take 2-3 weeks. We will charge you $200 for the first certified organic item (label) and $20.00 for each one after that provided they are submitted as a group and we can do the process as one package. For example if you have five different teas the charge will be 1 X $200 + 4 X $20 for a total charge of $280.00. This is a one time setup fee and will not be charged on future orders. If however six months later you decide to add an new tea you will be charged the $200 for this addition and not the $20. So plan ahead and certify all of your teas at the same time if possible.

In addition to tea packaging we also do private label packaging for spices and herbs. We can pack your spices or spice blend in just about any sort of container you provide us with. Some of our past jobs have included packing in a simple transparent 3 mil bag. Other jobs have included packing into 4 ounce spice bottles, tea tins and large institutional packs. For most jobs you will need to supply us with everything we will need to do the job. We do not stock or source the many different packaging supplies that you might require. We do stock standard clear bags, basic white labels, a four ounce and eight ounce spice jar with lid, as well as some steel tins. If you need help locating a packaging supplier we can provide you with a some packaging vendor contacts. You can either supply us with your herbs and spices or you can purchase them from another vendor. You will not be required to purchase your ingredients from Monterey Bay Spice Company.  In general a minimum run size will be 100 units of a particular item. As an example if you want to pack 5 different spices we would require that 100 units of each for a total of 500 units be packed. Unfortunately it is difficult to provide accurate pricing here as there are so many variations on how something can be packed. Some projects are much more involved than others.  As a real rough estimate expect to pay between $0.25 to $0.60 per each unit for the packaging labor only (does not include any of the materials).