After using a co-packer for five years, the company brought blending in-house by purchasing a Munson Rotary Batch Mini Mixer for its ability to produce uniform blends without product degradation or cross contamination.
Ingredients for each batch are added to the mixer’s 3 cu ft (85 l) stainless steel drum, where proprietary mixing flights gently tumble, turn, cut and fold the tea blends, achieving uniform distribution in only 3 minutes with little or no breakage of the fragile ingredients.
When needed, natural oils and liquid flavors are metered from a pressure pot through an internal stainless steel line and sprayed onto a moving bed of material for rapid distribution with no wet spots or clumping.
The drum continues to rotate during discharge, causing the flights to direct the entire batch toward and through a plug gate valve, which prevents stratification associated with discharging of static batches, eliminates material waste, and reduces cleaning time.
With its newfound mixing capabilities, Biron Teas has expanded into co-packing and mixing for other tea purveyors.
