How to Package Matcha Powder: A Complete Guide for New Brands and Suppliers

If you’re starting a matcha business or looking to upgrade your matcha packaging, this guide is tailored for you. With over 10 years of experience in the packaging industry and serving hundreds of matcha brands worldwide, we understand the challenges you’re facing—from preserving matcha quality to standing out in a competitive market.

 

Introduction

Matcha has gained growing popularity among consumers globally, leading to an influx of new matcha brands entering the market. However, many new brands struggle with a critical challenge: how to package matcha powder properly. Matcha powder is highly sensitive to oxidation, light, and moisture. Without proper and effective protection, substandard packaging can cause matcha to fade in color, lose its nutritional value, and result in customer complaints. Choosing the right packaging methods and containers is therefore essential to maintaining matcha’s premium quality and extending its shelf life—key factors for building customer trust and growing your brand.

What to use to pack matcha powder?

Due to matcha’s light sensitivity, glass containers are not a viable option—nor are transparent bags or plastic jars, as they fail to block harmful light and moisture. For optimal preservation, composite foil pouches and tin cans are the most ideal packaging solutions for matcha powder. These options effectively block light, oxygen, and moisture, ensuring matcha retains its freshness, flavor, and nutritional value for longer.

Composite Pouches for Matcha

When it comes to matcha powder packaging, choosing the right structure and materials is crucial for preserving its freshness, flavor and quality. Composite pouch is composed of four layers: a PET outer layer OR a kraft paper outer layer + an aluminum foil middle layer + a nylon layer + a food-grade PE inner sealing layer. The outermost PET or kraft paper supports custom design and printing for branding purposes. The aluminum foil layer helps extend the shelf life of matcha powder, the nylon layer enhances the overall sturdiness and durability of the pouch, and the inner PE layer enables easy hot sealing while ensuring food safety.

If you choose a plastic-style pouch, the outer layer will be PET; if you prefer a paper-textured pouch, the outer layer will be kraft paper. The internal layers remain the same across both options. Additionally, a zipper can be added for multiple uses, making the pouch more convenient for repeated opening and closing.

These pouches are cost-effective and easy to customize in size: small pouches are suitable for single servings of 30g-50g matcha, while large pouches are ideal for bulk matcha used in baking and other scenarios.

Matcha Pouches Filling Instruction

For brand starters, manual filling and heat-sealing of the pouches is feasible. For large-volume production, filling machines and heat-sealing machines can be used to improve efficiency. One crucial point is the packaging environment: it is recommended to operate in a clean, cool, and dry room (maintaining a temperature of 20-25℃ and a humidity of 40-50%), as matcha powder is highly moisture-absorbent and can easily clump or deteriorate when exposed to humidity.

Since matcha powder may contaminate or damage the zipper, adding an extra inner foil bag is a great option to keep the zipper pouch clean and tidy. Simply fill the matcha powder into the foil bag, seal it tightly, place the sealed foil bag inside the zipper pouch, and then seal the pouch for double protection.

 

Matcha Tin Cans – Premium Packaging Choice

In addition to composite pouches, tin cans are another popular choice for premium matcha packaging. Tin cans are made of tinplate sheets, which are iron plates with an electrolytic tin coating on the surface. This tin coating protects matcha from moisture and oxygen, maintaining its freshness and stability while effectively extending its shelf life. In addition, tin cans are crush-resistant and sturdy, which is crucial for safe transportation, and solves the problem of matcha oxidation during long-distance shipping. They also have strong decorative properties—either with label wraps or direct custom printing—allowing branded matcha cans to stand out on store shelves. Also, tin cans are 100% recyclable, eco-friendly, and align with the global trend of sustainable packaging . However, compared to pouches, tin cans are more expensive. Standard matcha cans come in sizes ranging from 30g, 50g, 80g to 100g, and they are mostly used for packaging ceremonial-grade matcha powder.

Matcha Tin Can Filling Instructions

Top-open cans: Even without a pull tab, our tin cans are airtight and leak-proof. Matcha powder can be filled directly into the can, followed by heat-shrinking the can in a POF (Polyolefin) heat-shrink bag. For those concerned about the cans’ airtightness, an alternative is to fill the matcha into an aluminum foil bag, heat-seal the bag, and then place the sealed bag inside the can. With the double protection of the aluminum foil bag and the tin can, matcha powder can be perfectly stored for a long time. Consumers will always receive high-quality, well-preserved matcha, and it is convenient for daily use—if they prefer, they can simply pour the matcha powder from the foil bag into the tin can for regular storage. Bulk powder filling into cans can be done manually or by machine, and the working environment requirements are the same as those for pouch filling.

Top-sealed cans: The tops are sealed with an EOE (easy open end) (pull tab) or peel-off foil and covered with screw-on lids. Matcha powder is filled into the can through the open bottom, either manually or by machine, and then the bottom piece is sealed onto the can body using a can sealer. It is recommended to fill the can to about 90% capacity to prevent overflow during sealing. If the can is too full, the lid will not close properly, resulting in poor airtightness. For triple protection of matcha quality, some brands choose to pack the matcha into an aluminum foil bag first, place the sealed foil bag inside the EOE can, and then seal the can bottom. While this may be considered over-packaging, such multi-layer protection provides strong safety and reassurance for both brands and consumers.

 

Conclusion

Packaging matcha powder is not rocket science, but attention to detail matters more than you think. For bulk quantities—such as 100g or 200g—zippered foil pouches are the most practical choice. For smaller batches and premium, high‑quality matcha, however, tin cans are the preferred packaging.

At Tinwonder, we continuously refine our matcha tins to cover every requirement: food‑grade safety, reliable airtightness, and full customizability. Whether you are looking for small retail‑ready tins or large‑volume wholesale tins, we are here to support you every step of the way.

If you are ready to take your matcha packaging to the next level, contact us today for an instant quote and free samples.

 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. Are tin cans food safe and odorless for matcha packaging?

Yes, Tinwonder is a professional custom matcha tin can supplier in China. We use top-quality tinplate sheets with a 2.8/2.8 g/㎡ double-sided tin coating, which have better corrosion resistance than ordinary tin cans. Both the tinplate and the internal clear lacquer are food-safe; and all our matcha tins are compliant with FDA, LFGB, EN71 and EU 1935/2004 standards

2. Do you wholesale matcha tin cans?

Yes. Tinwonder has regular stock of plain silver, matte white, and matte black matcha tin cans. The available sizes are 60x60mm (suitable for 30g matcha) and 60x68mm (suitable for 50g matcha). The minimum wholesale quantity is 1 carton (200 pieces). Additionally, Tinwonder supports door-to-door shipping to Japan, the USA, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Saudi Arabia, and many other regions and countries.

3. Do you offer custom print matcha cans?

Yes, Tinwonder provides custom matcha tins with direct design printing. We also support logo embossing on the lid and body of the cans. The minimum order quantity (MOQ) is 1000 pieces.

4. Where can I get the sealing machine?

Tinwonder offers can bottom sealers, which are fully pre-set for direct and easy use. All sealers come with a quality warranty of at least one year.

5. Are you offering matcha tins for EU?

Yes, we offer EU compliant matcha packaging, and we also offer matcha packaging cans to Japan and USA and other more countries.