Tea Plan: Earth Matter Peru, 2026–2027

Version 1, 15 October 2026. Six blends from the farm and Junín, in tea bags, pitcher bags and small loose packs, with the tools to brew them.

🍵 The short answer

Tea bags, yes, but premium and local, not mass. Supermarket herbal bags in Peru cost S/ 0.07–0.15 a bag, about what one of our empty drawstring bags costs (S/ 0.11). We win on whole flowers and leaves, Junín ingredients (cacao husk, coffee cherry, ginger, muña) and the farm's lavender and calendula, at about S/ 0.67 a bag.
Your drawstring bags work for single-cup boxes and, better still, for 1-liter pitcher bags: Peruvian families brew mates in a jarra, and there the S/ 0.11 bag is spread over four cups.
Double-chamber bags with string, tag and staple are not practical to make by hand: the paper is sold by the ton and folding is slow. The realistic route is a Peruvian contract packer (maquila) that already has the machine, the paper and the sanitary registration. Heat-seal bags with string and tag are a middle step.
Accessories sell and teach: infuser balls, spoons and cloth bags sewn from tocuyo, plus a sign reminding people that the colador in their kitchen works too.

👥 Who drinks tea in Peru

Almost everyone, a little. Infusions are in 96% of Peruvian households (Kantar), but consumption is about 35.8 cups per person a year. The market is worth about S/ 350–374 million and grows around 4–5% a year.
The core buyer: 59% are over 45 and only 20% under 35; 55% are women; mostly middle-income (NSE B and C).
Lima buys bags, the provinces buy loose. 65% of boxed and bagged sales are in Lima; in the provinces, loose herbs dominate. In Chupaca, fresh herbs for mates cost a few céntimos at the market, so our bags are for convenience, gifts and visitors.
When: mostly May to August, the cold months, and tied to medicinal use; anti-flu blends rise before winter. Iced tea is a new summer push by the big brands.
What: anise, chamomile, black tea and cinnamon-and-clove sell most; chamomile is the second filter infusion after black tea. Junín's Tarma is Peru's main chamomile area.

Our buyers

Huancayo and Bioferia shoppers, especially women over 45 who already drink mates daily: blends and pitcher bags.
Hotels, hostales, cafés and restaurants: after-lunch muña is a tradition, and room trays need bags: 50-bag wholesale packs.
Tourists and gift buyers: Junín cacao and coffee, farm lavender, boxed with soap or a candle.
Chupaca Saturday: a hot thermos to taste on cold mornings, cheap pitcher bags and loose blends.

📊 Competition

Brand	Product	Price	Per unit
Del Valle	Chamomile and other herbs, 25 bags	S/ 1.70	S/ 0.07 a bag
McColin's	Chamomile, 25 bags (29% market share)	S/ 3.70	S/ 0.15 a bag
El Tayta	Muña, cedrón, hierba luisa: bags or whole leaves	S/ 7.00 / S/ 9.50	Count and weight not listed
Naturandes	Muña and mint, loose, 50 g	S/ 9.90	S/ 19.80 per 100 g
Chayikava	Hierba luisa, loose or 2.7 g bags	From S/ 15	—
Nuwa	Ginger infusion, 100 g	S/ 36.50	S/ 36.50 per 100 g
Ours	15 single-cup bags / 10 pitcher bags / 40 g loose	S/ 10 / S/ 10 / S/ 8	S/ 0.67 a bag; S/ 0.25 a cup in a pitcher; S/ 20 per 100 g

Wawasana, Hornimans and Herbi also sell widely; Wawasana leans on “functional” anti-flu blends. Nobody we found sells Junín cacao-husk or coffee-cherry blends, or farm-grown lavender, at the Mantaro fairs.

🌿 Six blends

Blend	Recipe (by weight)	Why	Herbs, S/ per kg
Sobremesa	muña 50%, spearmint 30%, anise seed 20%	Muña, spearmint and anise: the after-lunch mate, made with whole leaves	S/ 29
Lavender Night	chamomile 60%, lemon verbena 25%, lavender 15%	Chamomile and lemon verbena with the farm lavender	S/ 56 (farm: S/ 34)
Citrus Valley	lemongrass 50%, dried ginger 20%, dried orange peel 20%, lemon verbena 10%	Lemongrass, Junín ginger and sun-dried orange peel; good iced in summer	S/ 29
Junín Cacao	cacao husk 75%, cinnamon 15%, dried orange peel 10%	Cacao husk from Selva Central with cinnamon; chocolate aroma, no milk needed	S/ 21
Cafetal	coffee cherry husk (cáscara) 70%, dried orange peel 20%, cinnamon 10%	Coffee-cherry husk from Junín coffee farms; fruity, with a little caffeine (label it)	S/ 29
Toccha Garden	lemon balm 40%, spearmint 30%, calendula petals 20%, lavender 10%	Lemon balm and mint with the farm calendula and lavender	S/ 52 (farm: S/ 25)

Start with three for the December fairs: Sobremesa, Junín Cacao and Citrus Valley, which use only bought or local-market ingredients. Add Lavender Night and Toccha Garden as the farm lavender and calendula come in.
Dose: about 2 g per cup, 5 g per 1-liter pitcher. Brew 5–7 minutes in water just off the boil.
Leave out: coca leaf (a controlled crop traded through ENACO), borage and comfrey (pyrrolizidine alkaloids), Rudbeckia (not a food plant), and eucalyptus leaf.
Herb prices are estimates (S/ 15–60 per kg; lavender S/ 150 bought). Price them at the Huancayo markets: Tarma chamomile, muña from collectors, cacao husk and coffee cherry from Selva Central processors.

🫖 Ways to make the bags

Method	Source	Cost per bag	How it works	Verdict
Drawstring paper bags (yours)	4,000 bags, 9 × 7 cm, S/ 447.51 with duty	S/ 0.11	Fill, pull the string, done. Big enough for a 5 g pitcher dose. No tag: print the blend on the box and add a paper tag on the string if wanted.	Use now
Heat-seal bags with string and tag	Special Tea Company: 1,000 (60 × 80 mm) for US$ 93.75; in Peru, bolsitasfiltrantes.pe sells 5 × 6 and 6 × 8 cm paper bags with string and offers custom tags	≈ S/ 0.32 + shipping	Fill 2–3.5 g, seal the top with a household iron or an impulse sealer. Looks like a classic tea bag. Three times the cost of the drawstring bag, so for gift boxes.	Quote locally
Double-chamber, string, tag, staple, by hand	Non-heat-seal filter paper (about 12.5 g/m²) comes from China at US$ 3.50–5 per kg but with a 1,000 kg minimum (millions of bags)	≈ S/ 0.03 in materials	Materials are almost free, but the paper cannot be bought in small amounts and hand folding runs about one bag a minute. Not worth it.	No
Contract packer (maquila)	Peruvian packers (for example envasadodeinfusiones.pe, packing tea bags since 2003) fill your blend on their machines	Ask	The real way to get double-chamber bags with string, tag and staple, often with their registration. Ask about minimum runs, price per bag, whole-flower blends and custom tags.	When volume grows

Is the drawstring bag economical? Yes, at our prices. In a box of 15 single-cup bags the bags are about S/ 1.68 of S/ 3.50–4.50 in costs, and the box sells at S/ 10. In a pitcher bag the S/ 0.11 serves four cups. It is not economical for competing with supermarket bags, and we shouldn't try.

💰 Formats, costs and prices

Format	Materials (cheapest to dearest blend)	Retail	× cost
Single-cup bags, box of 15	S/ 3.47–4.52	S/ 10	2.2–2.9×
Pitcher bags for 1 L, box of 10	S/ 3.33–5.09	S/ 10	2.0–3.0×
Loose blend, 40 g	S/ 1.75–3.16	S/ 8	2.5–4.6×
Hotel and café pack, 50 single-cup bags (wholesale)	S/ 8.47–11.99	S/ 25	2.1–3.0×
String-and-tag bags, box of 15 (heat-seal)	S/ 6.93–7.98	S/ 16	2.0–2.3×

Materials include herbs, bags, a kraft box with a glassine inner bag (about S/ 1.00), and a label. Glassine is a plastic-free paper that keeps moisture and aroma in.
Blends with bought lavender (Lavender Night, Toccha Garden) are the dearest; with farm lavender and calendula their herb cost falls by about half.
The hotel pack is the wholesale format: 50 bags in a plain kraft bag at S/ 25 (S/ 0.50 a bag).

🥄 Loose tea tools

Item	Source	Cost	Retail
Stainless infuser ball	Lima importers (Mesa Redonda, Malvinas) or online by the dozen; retail in Peru about S/ 16	S/ 3–4 (estimate)	S/ 10
Infuser spoon	Same sources	S/ 4 (estimate)	S/ 12
Cloth tea bags, tocuyo cotton	Sewn in Chupaca from unbleached tocuyo with a cotton drawstring	About S/ 1 (estimate)	S/ 4; 3 for S/ 10
Empty drawstring bags	Your 4,000	S/ 2.24 for 20	20 for S/ 5
Eucalyptus tea scoop	Chupaca woodshop, finished with the wood butter	About S/ 1 plus labor	S/ 8

Yes, they work, as in Brooklyn: more as reminders than as sales. Put a basket of tools beside the loose blends and a card: ¿Tiene un colador en casa? También sirve. Most Peruvian kitchens have a colador and a jarra already.
Cloth bags fit the farm best: reusable, plastic-free, sewn locally, and cheap enough for a S/ 10 set with a loose blend.
Loose blends stay small: 40 g packs and a jar on the table for tasting, not a big loose-tea shelf.

☀️ Drying, blending and storage

Dry farm flowers and leaves in shade or in the planned Chupaca solar dryer under cloth, at no more than about 40 °C, until crisp. Keep colors bright and aromas in.
Sieve out dust and stems, blend in small batches by weight, and store in closed glass jars away from light. Label each batch with lot and date; sell within 12 months.
Herbs carry microbes from the field; most big brands irradiate. Ours rely on clean drying and boiling water. Before registering, have a laboratory test a sample of each blend for microbes.

⚖️ Rules

Packaged, branded herbal tea is a processed food under DIGESA and needs a registro sanitario per product. A Lima consultancy lists the DIGESA fee at S/ 390 per product, valid five years, plus laboratory analysis; the workspace also needs a hygiene certification. Confirm current fees with DIGESA.
Practical path: start at the fairs with honest labels and lot numbers; register the two or three best sellers, or move them to a contract packer that holds the registration, before selling to shops and hotels.
No health claims: no “para la digestión”, “para dormir”, “antigripal” or “para los nervios”. Claims push a tea toward medicine rules. Name the herbs and the moment (after lunch, evening), nothing more.
Labels: blend name, ingredients by weight, net weight, lot, best-before date, maker and contact; “contiene cafeína” on Cafetal.

🗓️ Calendar

When	What
Oct–Nov 2026	Price herbs at the Huancayo markets; ask Selva Central for cacao husk and coffee cherry; taste-test blends; quote bolsitasfiltrantes.pe and a contract packer; sew 50 cloth bags; buy a dozen infuser balls.
Dec 2026	Christmas fairs: Sobremesa, Junín Cacao and Citrus Valley in cup and pitcher boxes and 40 g loose; tea + candle and tea + soap gift sets.
Jan–Apr 2027	Hotel and café packs; Citrus Valley as an iced tea in summer.
May–Aug 2027	Peak season: all six blends, with farm lavender and calendula; a hot thermos at every fair.
By mid-2027	Decide: register the best sellers, or move them to a contract packer for string-and-tag bags.

📚 Sources consulted

Gestión (30 January 2026) — Kantar: S/ 350 million market, 96% of homes, buyer profile, McColin's 29% share
BHTV, Calidad & Negocios (2024) — Euromonitor: S/ 374 million, 35.8 cups per person a year, best sellers
Aliaga & Acevedo (2018), Redalyc — chamomile in Peru's infusion industry; Tarma; irradiation
Vega, plazaVea — Del Valle and McColin's prices
El Tayta, Flora y Fauna, Chayikava — premium Peruvian infusion prices
Special Tea Company; bolsitasfiltrantes.pe — empty heat-seal bags with string and tag
Made-in-China (Amusen) — non-heat-seal filter paper, 12.5 g/m², US$ 3.50–5 per kg, 1,000 kg minimum
envasadodeinfusiones.pe — tea-bag contract packing in Peru since 2003
Bee.pe — stainless infuser ball, S/ 16
registrosanitarioperu.com — DIGESA fee S/ 390 per product, five-year validity (consultancy figures)

Tea Plan: Earth Matter Peru, 2026–2027