I love tea - especially Chai Black

Several years ago I significantly reduced my coffee intake because my Dr. said I'm allergic to it. So, I found tea, and eventually found a favorite flavor. So for years I have been drinking the Black Chai made by Stash. I love the flavor, but I was also partial to their packaging design. They used to have a half round hole cut in the box. Once I unwrapped the plastic wrapping and stored the box in my cupboard, I could very easily pull a tea bag out of the box while the box remained on the shelf in my cupboard.

I'm not sure if people complained, or if the company decided to pinch a penny, or maybe just desired a new look, but they did away with my favorite design in favor of a similar box that required me to tear out a perforated  area to reveal my favorite access portal. Not happy, but maybe some Yahoos were slicing the plastic in the stores and stealing tea through my convenient access portal. Okay, I dealt with it.

That design only lasted for about six months, maybe a full year. Then Stash decided to completely reinvent its packaging with these photos as a result. As far as the imagery and text layout, I see it as cleaner, sleeker, and perhaps a bit more elegant than my older favorite packaging design. The trendy, fashionable, sleek, new, contemporary, look has always been what I see in their packaging. This is possibly why I'm attracted to it, thinking that this isn't the same old "Celestial Seasonings" tea that Mom always bought.

So, this newest design is kind of neat, but I'm still adjusting to it. You push in on the little thumbtab, and pull the whole lid up while tearing the perforated corner seam. It isn't very intuitive or obvious what to expect when you do this, but the lid is designed for future closure and reopening pretty well once you get past the initial step.

One day, the store shelf was out of my favorite tea. What's a guy supposed to do? Well, I wasn't about to go chasing from store to store to find it, but I was completely out at home. I'm adventurous,   and I'll try anything once. So, I noticed the Twinings brand version of their Black Chai Tea and bought that thinking it would hold me till I could find my favorite Stash on a shelf again.

Twinings is another old school brand that Mom had on her shelves. But, this packaging design isn't "Classic" looking. It appears fresh, clean, contemporary, delicious, and new. I am particularly fond of the font choice used for the word "Chai".  It has an Asian feel to it, giving it an even more convincing authentic impression. My absolute favorite part of this new design though is the box mechanical design. It is hands down the most innovative and impressive package for tea that I have ever seen. I can't even imagine that it could ever be improved upon. It has a flip top. As you open it, you feel a slight resistance as if it is being held shut with something as strong as velcro. Then it instantly releases its light grasp and your box is open. When I examined the closure design, I found two tabs that swing or fold up or down with the opening and closing of the lid. These tabs fit snugly into a little pocket in the lid when it is closed. This is the simplest and most effective design I've ever seen. Maybe I've been hiding under a rock, but this is new to me and I have a new favorite package. Sorry Stash, I'm a Twinings drinker now. I love the packaging but the flavor of the tea is actually a bit richer with the Twinings too.