Herbal Tea OEM Equipment: Cutting, Sterilising and Packing Line Parameters That Matter
Herbal tea looks like the lightest format in the catalogue: flowers, fruit, leaves and roots blended into a filter bag. In practice the same recipe produces noticeably different liquor colour, aroma intensity and extraction speed at different plants, and the cause is usually equipment and settings rather than the blend. In herbal tea OEM, equipment choice and parameters decide three things: whether the active fraction actually infuses, whether the microbial load is controlled, and whether every bag weighs the same. Get those three right and the product stands up.
1. Set the route by raw material form
Configuration starts with the material. Flowers such as chrysanthemum and rose are brittle and shatter into fines that spoil appearance. Fruits such as goji, hawthorn and jujube carry high moisture and sugar and need drying before cutting. Roots and rhizomes - astragalus, kudzu, liquorice - are hard and must be sliced or granulated before they will release anything. Leaves such as mulberry and lotus are soft and are usually used whole or coarsely cut. A line is therefore not one flow but split treatment followed by common blending: different materials through different pre-treatment units, then into the main blender. When assessing a plant, look for that split capability - a factory with a single hammer mill that grinds everything cannot produce a tea with visual definition.
2. Cutting and sieving: two parameters govern particle size
Particle size drives both extraction and perception. Too coarse and three minutes of steeping gives a weak cup that customers call thin; too fine and fines pass through the bag, clouding the liquor and blocking the mesh so it drains slowly. Common practice sets ranges by material type: roots cut to around 2-4 mm, leaves coarsely broken to 4-8 mm, flowers kept as intact as possible. Sieving turns on mesh size and vibration frequency - mesh sets the upper and lower bounds, frequency sets throughput and residence time, and too high a frequency shatters particles that should have been retained. Once set, the parameters should be fixed, not quietly adjusted between batches.
3. Sterilisation: choosing a method and its limits
Herbal teas are low-moisture, but raw materials often arrive with a considerable microbial load, roots and flowers especially. Three methods are in common use. Steam treatment is effective but costs aroma and colour. Irradiation penetrates well with little flavour impact, but must be declared on the label and meets resistance from some channels and consumers. Microwave or far-infrared drying sits between the two, suits thin-layer material and is sensitive to bed depth. Whichever is chosen, the parameters - steam temperature and dwell, irradiation dose, microwave power and belt speed - must be validated for that material rather than copied from another product. Acceptance means total plate count, coliforms and mould within limits with acceptable change in aroma and liquor colour.
4. Drying: trading moisture against aroma
Drying has to bring moisture below the safe line, typically 8-12% for herbal teas and lower where candied fruit is present, while preserving volatiles. The trade-off is direct: higher temperature and shorter time give throughput but cost aroma; lower temperature and longer time protect aroma at the expense of capacity and energy. Flowery materials and those carrying essential oils do better with staged drying at 50-60°C, sealed promptly after cooling. Material must reach room temperature before packing - bagging while warm produces condensation inside the pouch, which is one of the commonest routes to mould.
5. Dosing and packing
Packing has two control points. The first is dosing accuracy: multi-component blends vary widely in bulk density, so volumetric filling drifts and gravimetric combination weighers hold better, at higher capital cost. Fill variation should be assessed on at least 20 consecutive bags against the declared weight. The second is filter material and sealing. Non-woven is cheap and seals readily; nylon pyramid bags show whole flowers and leaves attractively but cost more and are harder to seal; PLA corn-fibre material suits brands with a degradability story. Sealing parameters of temperature, pressure and dwell need seal-strength verification - under-sealed bags split and leak in the cup, over-sealed material stiffens and infuses poorly.
6. Capacity versus flexibility
Finally, balance capacity against flexibility. Herbal tea normally means many SKUs in small batches, so a line built for one product at volume carries long changeover and cleaning times and makes small orders disproportionately expensive. A workable configuration is parallel pre-treatment zones by material type, blending and packing units designed for quick strip-down and cleaning, and packing machines that change format rapidly. One question answers most of it during an audit: how long does an SKU changeover take and how much start-up waste does it generate. That figure says more about flexibility than any capacity claim.
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About Guangzhou Mesen Health Biotechnology Co., Ltd
Guangzhou Mesen Health Biotechnology Co., Ltd is located in the Huashan Science and Technology Park, Huadu District, Guangzhou. The company has focused on OEM and ODM services for the big health industry for nearly 20 years, operating dedicated research, production, sales and management centres, and maintaining long-term strategic partnerships with well-known Chinese medicine colleges and research institutions. Capabilities span pressed candy, gummies, capsules, solid beverages, herbal teas, plant beverages, protein powders, dietary supplements and enzyme jelly - from formulation development through contract manufacturing. For details on minimum order quantities, sampling lead times and quotations, see our manufacturing advantages and product range, or contact us for a tailored proposal.
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