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2022/9/12

Long-selling Japanese tea brand introduces new paper packaging box and individually sealed sachets

Easily recognizable package designs for long-selling products are brand assets. Therefore, while renewing them requires something new, original traits must also be maintained. The end-result is often a far more sophisticated package than the original. One such example is Mitsui Norin Co., Ltd.’s long-selling Nittoh Tea Daily Club brand. Its traditional plastic packaging, used since 1968, has now been replaced with paper, while the trademark red teapot- on-yellow-background design lives on. This renewal is expected to reduce plastic use by fifty tons per year. In addition, thanks to new individually sealed sachets, the best-before date has also been extended from two years to three.

Over 50 Years of Plastic Packaging
The Nittoh Tea Daily Club brand, originally named “Nittoh Tea Bag,” was launched in 1968. A pack of twenty- five tea bags containing a blend of tea leaves were sold with an affordable price tag. They were put in clear plastic containers, which was unusual at the time.
“Tea wasn’t as widespread in Japan as it is today. Back then, tea leaves were mainstream and packaged mostly in cans. The same went for tea bags. That’s when we came out with this product, which led to tea bags becoming commonplace at home,” says Fumiyo Saito of the Business Planning Unit Product Planning and Marketing Department.
Sales increased steadily, and in 1991, the product was rebranded as “Nittoh Tea Daily Club” with the concept of a drink to be enjoyed every day. The red teapot-on-yellow-background design emerged in 1998 and has been a trademark ever since. Now, after celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2018, and its 30th anniversary since rebranding this year, the Nittoh Tea Daily Club brand has established itself as a long-selling favorite.

Contributing to SDGs through Packaging
Last year, the Nittoh Tea Daily Club’s packaging underwent a significant renewal from plastic to paper. Minor changes have been made several times in the past; but abandoning the distinctive plastic container of Mitsui Norin’s flagship product proved to be an arduous task.
Kazuya Takeda, Manager of the Business Planning Unit Product Planning and Marketing Department, described the reasoning behind the change.
“Nittoh Tea Daily Club used plastic containers for over fifty years. Many of our customers told us they could tell it apart from other products solely by
looking at the packaging. That was a vital asset for us. On the other hand, it
left the storage of the tea bags, which are sensitive to light and humidity, up to the customer, as these containers were not resealable. About once every five years, we would discuss whether to change the original plastic packages, but being our main brand produced in large quantities, the investment costs a package renewal would incur and the effects it could have on our customers constantly made us hesitant. But we were starting to find that supply of parts needed for maintenance of the manufacturing equipment we had been using over such a long time, was limited. And so, this year (as of interview date), marking thirty years from the rebranding to Nittoh Tea Daily Club, we decided to offer new added product value through packaging that contributes to the achievement of SDGs. With this renewal we hope to live on for a further fifty years and become a century-old brand.”

Renewal to Paper Packaging and Foil- Lined Paper Sachets
While the new packages are now made of paper, they primarily maintain their original form. The trademark red teapot- on-yellow-background design is still present. In addition, it includes a “NEW” mark and a message to customers informing them of the renewal. This makes it easy for regular customers to find the product in shops.
However, issues of maintaining aroma and taste arise when paper packaging is combined with paper “envelopes,” the individual wrappers used for tea bags. Mitsui Norin solved this problem by using sachets which are lined with an aluminum coating and have barrier properties. They have dropped the traditional paper wrappers, and tea bags are now in an individually sealed sachet. As a result, the best-before date has been extended significantly from two years to three.
Furthermore, customers no longer need to repack the tea bags into a separate container to keep them fresh.

“Thanks to the individual sealing, customers don’t have to worry about tea bag quality even after the outer packaging has been opened,” Saito says.
The individual foil-lined paper sachets are varnish-coated and glossy. Takeda says, “They are glossy, but this is from the varnish used to prevent slipping.” Slippery wrappers are not suited to use with high-speed tea bag manufacturing machines.
Other than the twenty-five pack, the smaller and larger bundle products have also switched to paper packaging and individual foil-lined paper sachets.
The price and number of tea bags has also been adjusted; the twenty-five pack now is a twenty pack.
For the smaller and larger bundle products, a transparent film had been used to wrap every ten bags. Then an additional layer of tamper-resistant shrink film was applied on top of that.
The films have become unnecessary thanks to individual wrappers and their barrier properties. So, in addition to saving fifty tons of plastic a year through the twenty-five-pack package renewal, the Nittoh Tea Daily Club series will also contribute to achievement of SDGs with the disuse of these films.

Replacing Metal Staple with Tape 

Mitsui Norin also replaced the tea bags’ metal staples with thermally
conductive adhesive tape.
“With this renewal, first of all we extensively looked into what our customers wanted from our Daily Club product, and then did our best to respond to all of their needs. The metal staples were one feature that came up,” Saito says.
Formerly two metal staples were used: one connecting a string to the tea bag itself and another attaching a small paper tea tag to the string. These have been replaced with pieces of tiny thermally conductive adhesive tape.
The metal-less tea bags now look neater and are microwavable, significantly improving convenience. For example, it is no effort at all to heat up a mug of water and a tea bag in the microwave for your cup of tea, or to use it when making cakes or deserts.
Along with the introduction of this tape, the closure of the tea bags has also been modified. Instead of folding the tea bag and securing it and the
string with a metal staple like before, the tea bag, string, and tape are all
sealed together as one.
Mitsui Norin had actually already been using individually sealed sachets
for its Nittoh Tea brand. The Nittoh Tea Daily Club and Nittoh Tea Day & Day one-hundred pack were the only products still using paper envelopes and metal staples.
“There tend to be some teething problems with newly installed manufacturing machines during the first year until things settle down. Nittoh Tea Daily Club and Nittoh Tea Day & Day are our leading products. We produce them in large quantities and cannot risk their supply being disrupted because of a machine malfunction. That is why we first used the machinery for other products to accumulate knowledge and make the necessary adjustments in production beforehand. Finally,
it was decided that we had reached a point where production was reliable
enough for our top products, and we could proceed with the package renewal.”

Biodegradable Tea Bag

The reduction of plastic use was one of the main points of this paper package renewal. However, it should also be noted that the use of environmentally friendly plastics, such as recyclable plastic, biodegradable plastic, and mono-material packaging, has been rising in recent years.
Takeda says, “We, of course, have interest in such materials and hope to gradually adopt them based on cost and production suitability factors. In fact, this fall (as of interview date), we introduced our first biodegradable tea bag product: the Nittoh Tea Milk-In Tea Bag series. Tea leaves and creaming powder are contained in a triangular pyramid-shaped tea bag, so you can enjoy good sugar-free milk tea just by pouring on hot water. The outer packaging on the other hand is normal plastic and will not have a strong positive impact on the environment. We also think that many people will want to continue to use the tea bags they have traditionally had in the past, and that some may even think there is no point in using biodegradable material. Still, we want to do what we can to move forward, even if it is just partially, step by step.”

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