MOQ follows the depth of customization
There is no single tea MOQ; there is a ladder, and the rung depends on how much of the program is yours. Selling the desk's standard bulk lot asks the least. Printing your brand on the pack asks for more. Filling your tea into pyramid bags asks for a line slot. Wrapping it in a custom gift box asks for tooling. The table shows the standing reference ranges; each is an industry-habit band, confirmed in writing per program, and within a band the exact figure follows the line, the grade and the season.
| Depth of customization | Typical program | MOQ reference range |
|---|---|---|
| Bulk, standard spec | Blending, foodservice, repacking | 50-100 kg per line |
| Private label, packed | Own-brand pouches, tins | About 100-300 kg or 5,000-20,000 bags per item |
| Pyramid bag filling | Hotel, cafe and DTC bag programs | 100,000-bag scale |
| Custom gift boxes | Corporate and seasonal gifting | 500-1,000 boxes |
| Tea sets | Bundled gift and retail programs | 300-500 sets |
| Empty pyramid bags | Buyers with their own filling line | 100,000+ bags |
Lead times: samples, stock and custom work
Lead time divides into three clocks that buyers often merge into one. The sample clock is shortest: in-stock teas ship as samples in 3-7 working days, while custom blend samples need 7-15 because they are built and cupped before they travel. The stock clock covers standard-spec bulk of teas already in the pipeline: 10-15 working days from confirmed order to packed goods. The custom clock covers everything with your name on it - private label packing runs 20-35 days, and new blend development or new packaging molds run 35-60. When a deadline is tight, the honest question is which clock the program is really on. A launch that must ship in three weeks is a stock-clock launch with private label added later, or it slips; the desk would rather have that conversation at the brief than at the deposit.
The spring harvest calendar
Most tea is picked between spring and autumn, but the calendar bites hardest in green tea. Pre-Ming (pre-Qingming) Longjing is picked before early April, and the lots that define the grade are sold within weeks of the fires cooling. White teas concentrate in spring too. Oolongs run a spring and an autumn season, with rock oolongs reaching market after summer roasting. Pu-erh and herbal lines move year-round. For a buyer this sets a hard planning rule: spring-harvest programs are decided backwards from the harvest window, not forwards from the purchase order. The sequence looks like this - brief and sample plan in late winter, samples cupped as new-season lots land, bulk decision within the window, shipment booked while the stock is fresh. Miss the window and the program waits a year or buys held-over stock at a different quality level. Spring harvest timing covers the buyer-side mechanics, and the broader tea seasonality calendar maps every category's window.
Why ranges, not numbers
A fixed MOQ published on a website goes stale for the same reason a fixed price does: harvest outturn moves, film and tin orders have their own minimums, and a line in short supply carries a different minimum than the same line in a heavy season. So the desk quotes ranges, then binds them in writing per program - the range sets expectations, the written offer sets the deal. The same discipline covers lead times: the 20-35 day private label reference assumes artwork approved on schedule and certificates in place, and the offer states what happens to the clock if either slips. Buyers coming from other categories sometimes read ranges as softness; in tea they are the honest form, and the private label MOQ note explains what actually moves a figure inside its band.
Reading the written offer
An offer from the desk is a short document and every line in it matters. It names the line and grade with the lot reference, states the MOQ as a binding figure, quotes validity against the current market, lists the packing format and its lead time, and attaches or references the sample result the offer is based on. Deposits, balance terms and shipping terms ride on the same page. Read it against your brief and challenge it - an offer you do not fully understand is a spec problem surfacing early, which is exactly when it is cheap to fix. The offer sits at step seven of the program spine described under procurement process, and it inherits every decision made before it.
Planning backwards from your launch date
Put the three clocks and the harvest calendar together and planning becomes arithmetic. Work backwards: the shelf date minus sea transit gives the sail date, the sail date minus production gives the order date, and if the tea is spring-harvest, the order date minus sampling gives the brief date. A European retail launch for pre-Ming green tea is a winter conversation; a foodservice pyramid bag program in a sturdy black tea can start any month. The desk's most useful early reply is often just this calendar, in writing, before any talk of quantities. If you have a date in mind, send it with the brief through the quote form and the desk will return the working-back schedule with the ranges filled in.