Order within 1h 13m 36s for delivery tomorrow
Tea bags come in three formats that matter in a commercial setting: tagged bags with a string and paper tag, enveloped bags sealed individually in paper sachets, and pyramid bags holding larger leaf. The format changes how the tea brews, how it is served and how much it costs per cup. Everything else, including the blend and the bag material, sits on top of that decision.
Below is what each format suits, what the bags are actually made from, and how to work out how many boxes you need before you order.
The short answer
Tagged tea bags are flat, round or square bags with a string and tag, sold loose in a box. They are the standard for cafes and busy staff rooms where speed matters and the bag goes straight into a mug or pot.
Enveloped tea bags are the same bag sealed in an individual paper sachet. The sachet keeps the tea fresh, keeps the bag clean and lets you offer a visible choice of flavours on a tray or buffet.
Pyramid bags are three-dimensional mesh bags with room for whole leaf and larger pieces of herb or fruit. They brew a better cup, they look like a premium product on the table, and they cost more per serving.
What actually goes into a tea bag
Most people assume a tea bag is just paper. Standard filter paper is made from wood pulp and abaca fibre, and until recently it was heat-sealed using a small amount of polypropylene, typically a few per cent of the bag’s weight. That plastic is what stops the seams opening in hot water.
It is also why older tea bags never fully break down in a compost heap. The leaf rots, the tea-coloured skeleton of the bag stays.
Plant-based bags replace that polypropylene with PLA, a polymer made from plant starch, or use a paper stock that can be sealed without plastic at all. Pyramid bags are a separate case again: some are woven from nylon mesh, others from cornstarch-based material. The two look nearly identical in the box, so the packaging is the only reliable guide.
Why the material matters commercially
- Waste streams. If your site separates food waste, plastic-free bags can go in with it. Bags with polypropylene seams cannot, and enforcement is tightening.
- Customer questions. Cafes get asked. Having an answer, and a bag you can point to, is worth more than a vague claim.
- Taste. Cheap thick paper can carry a papery note, particularly in delicate green teas. Better paper and mesh do not.
Our full tea range covers all three formats, so you can match the bag to the site rather than the other way round.
Tagged, enveloped and pyramid bags compared
The right format usually comes down to who hands the tea over. If a member of staff makes the drink, tagged is faster and cheaper. If the customer or guest makes it themselves, enveloped wins on hygiene and presentation.
| Format | Best for | Cost per cup | Presentation | Shelf life once opened |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tagged | Cafes, staff rooms, table service, teapots | Lowest | Basic but tidy, tag hangs outside the cup | Weeks, if the box is kept sealed and dry |
| Enveloped | Hotel rooms, meeting rooms, buffets, self-service points | Middle | Branded sachet, obvious flavour choice | Months, each bag protected individually |
| Pyramid | Speciality cafes, restaurants, afternoon tea | Highest | Strongest, especially served in glass or a clear pot | Varies, usually individually wrapped or foil-lined box |
Tagged bags
A tag is more useful than it looks. It keeps fingers out of hot water, it lets the drinker judge strength, and it means the bag can be lifted cleanly rather than fished out with a spoon.
PG Tips Tagged Tea Bags (100 Bags) at 5.25 pounds ex VAT is the workhorse, and it is what most British customers expect by default. If you want something with a bit more body in the cup, Birchall English Breakfast Tagged Tea Bags (100) at 6.45 pounds ex VAT holds up better against milk.
Enveloped bags
Enveloped tea earns its keep in rooms nobody is supervising. Hotel hospitality trays, meeting room refreshment stations, waiting areas, breakout kitchens. The sachet survives being knocked about, and a guest can see at a glance whether it is breakfast tea or peppermint.
The enveloped tea bags category is where to look if you are stocking that kind of space. For everyday brewing in bulk, a loose tagged range is more economical.
Pyramid bags
Pyramids exist because flat paper bags squash the leaf. Give whole leaf room to move and you extract more flavour in the same time, which is why the difference is most obvious in green teas and herbal infusions where big leaf and whole mint are involved.
Teapigs call theirs tea temples. Peppermint Leaves Tea Temples (50) at 13.75 pounds ex VAT use whole mint leaves rather than dust, and it shows in the cup. Mao Feng Green Tea Temples (50) at 15.75 pounds ex VAT is the one to serve if a customer asks for a proper green tea.
Plant-based and biodegradable options
Plastic-free tea has gone from a niche request to something buyers specify as standard, and January is when the questions arrive in volume. Birchall switched their range across to plant-based bags, so you are not paying a premium for the change.
Birchall Great Rift Breakfast Blend Plant-Based Tea Bags (80) at 4.95 pounds ex VAT is a single-origin Rwandan blend and one of the better-value everyday teas we stock. The enveloped plant-based range runs at 3.75 pounds ex VAT for 25 bags, across peppermint, green tea and lemongrass and ginger.
Worth noting for menu boards: tea itself is vegan, but some businesses want the whole hot drinks offer to line up. Our Veganuary range pulls together the plant-based options across tea, milk alternatives and syrups in one place.
Black, green, herbal and decaf blends
Format decided, the next question is how many blends to carry. Four covers most sites. Six starts to create dead stock.
- Black tea. Breakfast blends and everyday brews. This will be 70 to 80 per cent of what you serve in a UK setting.
- Earl Grey. Bergamot-scented black tea, and the most-requested named tea after breakfast. Teapigs Earl Grey Strong Tea Temples (50) at 13.75 pounds ex VAT is a properly assertive version rather than a perfumed one.
- Green tea. Steady demand, and a genuine quality gap between cheap and good. Brew it below boiling or it turns bitter.
- Herbal and fruit infusions. Peppermint first, then camomile, then lemongrass and ginger. Caffeine-free, so they sell late in the day.
- Decaf. Non-negotiable in offices and hotels. Birchall Decaffeinated Tagged Tea Bags (100) at 7.95 pounds ex VAT is the straightforward answer.
If you want to see the spread before committing, browse the tea flavours available and build the list from there.
How many tea bags per box: working out catering quantities
Box counts vary more than people expect. Tagged catering boxes commonly run 100, 240, 440 or 1,100 bags. Enveloped boxes are usually 25, 100 or 200. Pyramid boxes tend to be 15, 50 or 100.
PG Tips Enveloped Tea Bags (Box of 200) at 15.95 pounds ex VAT works out at just under 8p a bag, which gives you a useful benchmark for enveloped tea.
A quick way to estimate
Count the tea drinkers, not the total headcount. In a UK office, roughly half of hot drinks ordered are tea, and regular tea drinkers average two to three cups a day.
- Office of 30, around 15 tea drinkers: about 35 bags a day, so 175 a week. One 240-bag box roughly covers a fortnight.
- Cafe serving 40 teas a day, six days a week: 240 bags a week, plus 15 per cent for pots served with a second bag and the occasional remake.
- 20-room hotel at 70 per cent occupancy: two bags per room per night, so around 200 enveloped bags a week across breakfast and decaf.
Add a month of buffer stock on your top black tea and hold the speciality blends tighter. Herbal and green tea move slowly enough that a large box can go stale before it empties, and stale tea is a worse problem than running out.
Choosing and buying tea bags for your business
Work backwards from the moment of service. Staff-made drinks want tagged bags in the largest box you will get through in a month. Self-service points want enveloped. Anywhere the tea is part of the experience and priced accordingly wants pyramids.
Most sites end up running two formats: a tagged breakfast tea in bulk for volume, and a small enveloped or pyramid selection for everything else. That keeps cost per cup sensible without limiting the choice you can offer.
Orders over 69 pounds ex VAT get free next working day delivery to mainland UK, and anything placed before 4:30pm Monday to Friday is dispatched the same day with DPD. On tea, that threshold is easy to clear on a normal restock.
Not sure which format fits your site? Browse the full tea bag range or tell us your covers and staffing and we will suggest quantities that will not sit in the stockroom going stale. Send us an enquiry
