There is nothing more enjoyable than a delicious cup of tea after a long day. Although the tea business and culture is totally booming, the traditional design of the tea bag has not changed for many years, and it is time to take a more creative approach to ordinary tea packaging. Here is where the Japanese company, Ocean Teabag, comes into the picture with their adorable tea bags that will make you crave for a cup of tea.
The brand Ocean Teabag has teamed up with an oddity shop and a bookstore, Village Vanguard, to create a series of animal-themed teabags.
Those first tea bags include octopus, jellyfish, isopods, and even some land animals such as tanuki.
Once added to the cup, the tea bags make it look like a creature is swimming in your tea. This is something worth capturing for your Instagram page.
The 2019 feature quoted 1,820 yen, then approximately $16, without clearly specifying the pack size. This is a historical quotation, not a current unit price. In a 2019 profile, the creators said the company had started three years earlier, and their first design was a dolphin tea bag that later grew into more unique designs. The same profile described a ten-person team; that figure has not been updated as a current staffing count.
The squid-shaped tea bag is filled with black Pu’er tea, which was inspired by squid ink while it also has a sweet persimmon flavor added. Meanwhile, the octopus tea bag is filled with Keemun tea.
Although the octopus and squid-shaped tea are the most popular amongst buyers, there are also other cute options such as a penguin-shaped tea bag filled with Chamomile tea.
The team also discussed possible moving or glowing designs as future plans at the time of that 2019 profile. The 2019 feature reported more than 50 designs in the historical range shown through their online shop.
The 2019 feature attached a sweeping history of Japanese tea to this product gallery. Its claim of a definitive first serving in 729 was not supported with an identifiable historical record here.
The 2019 claims that the tea ceremony was simply “invented” at the end of the sixteenth century and that tea became an everyday drink in one specific year, 1859, compressed a much longer history into unsupported milestones. They should not be used as a reliable chronology of Japanese tea culture.
The feature did not provide production data establishing an all-time low, or evidence that drinking Japanese tea requires traveling to Japan. The focus here is the featured packaging design, not a current production forecast or a health claim.
More info: Ocean Teabag
The cup completes the design
A flat animal-shaped tea bag changes character when it enters the cup. Water becomes its setting, the string controls its position, and the surrounding liquid makes the outline seem less like packaging and more like a creature in a miniature scene. That is the clever part of the idea: the design anticipates an action rather than ending at the unopened package.
The original collection pairs different silhouettes with different contents. Its squid example was described as a dark Pu’er blend with persimmon flavor, while the octopus was associated with Keemun and the penguin with chamomile. Those descriptions belong to the featured products; they are not a current inventory or a promise that similarly shaped products always contain the same ingredients.
Shape, contents, and packaging are separate choices
If you enjoy the concept, notice which feature creates the effect. A recognizable outline may matter more than detailed printing. The distance between the bag and the side of the cup can affect how easily the form is seen. A clear vessel and an opaque mug also provide different views of the same object.
The animal on the package does not identify the tea inside it. Nor does a cute design establish caffeine content, ingredients, brewing instructions, or suitability for a particular person. Those questions belong to the label of the actual product. The historical price quoted in this article should not be treated as the cost of a single bag today.
A small lesson in product storytelling
The design gives an everyday pause a tiny surprise without requiring an elaborate ceremony. It also offers a useful creative exercise: choose an ordinary action, then imagine a shape that changes meaning during that action. A wrapper that unfolds into a scene or a label that reveals an unexpected detail can use the same principle. The result works best when the ordinary job remains clear and the visual surprise adds to it.
For another creative use of an everyday material, explore Carlito Romanillos Turns Wire Into Detailed Model Vehicles.
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