Fresh Cup Magazine, providing specialty coffee and tea professionals with unique insight into the trends, ideas, products and people that shape their world.
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6 terling Coffee Roasters has a knack for standing out. The Portland, Ore.-based shop's handcrafted brews, skilled (and often tweed-clad) baristas, and distinctive 50-square- foot space have all helped Sterling become a destination café in a town full of coffee options. But the company's yearning for uniqueness is particularly evi- dent in the way Sterling packages its roasted product. In its first year in existence, Sterling grabbed the attention of neighborhood consumers by selling coffee in glass jars that customers could hold onto as keepsakes or get refilled the next time they wanted some whole bean. Last month, Sterling rolled out its latest packaging foray: the "parcel," an elegant black cardboard box filled with premium coffee and adorned with a striped ribbon. Cut the ribbon, fold open the box, and you encounter a white envelope hold- ing a note that tells the story behind the coffee in the box. It's safe to say that opening a pack- age of Arabica has never felt so much like opening a gift—and that's exactly the point. "The idea is that you're not just buying the coffee," says Sterling co-owner Adam McGovern. "You're buy- ing this brand and the experience of opening it. We wanted to have something very, very nice that would act as a present or souvenir of the shop." The parcel, which holds 300 grams of cof- fee and retails at $17, may not be a suitable design for all independent coffee brands. But Sterling's idea of packaging whole bean in containers other than bags is one that's gaining traction in specialty coffee. A number of small roasters have found that using jars, boxes and even milk bottles to hold roasted beans can help them grab the attention of consumers (especially those looking for bean-based gifts) as well as promote sustainability. And in an industry where thousands of cafés and roasters are strategy has become a central component of his company's image: "It separates us from everyone else selling coffee." *(77,1* 7+( *22'6 There's a reason, of course, why the vast majority of coffee com- panies continue to use only tall, slender bags for packing whole bean: That packaging is recognized by customers and is widely available from a number of distributors. So if you are interested in moving into alternative vessels, get ready to put in some legwork hunting down a product that suits your need. At Springfield, Mo.-based Heroes Coffee Company, for instance, COFFEE, NOT COWS: Missouri-based Heroes Coffee Company uses glass milk bottles to hold its Heroes Blend, which benefits two local nonprofits. owner Tim Ferguson two years ago began pursuing the idea of packaging one of his blends in glass milk bot- tles. The idea behind the company's Milk Bottle Project was that the dis- tinctive packaging would draw attention to prod- ucts that benefit two local charities (proceeds from sales are donated to the groups), and Ferguson wanted to be able to print the missions of the non- profits on the bottles. He soon found out that the closest manufacturer of suitable containers was based in Canada. "It was tricky," Ferguson says. "We even talked to a local dairy to find out where they got their bottles, and it was the same source we had found. Getting them locally was just some- thing we couldn't do." The sourcing problem was even more complex trying to carve their own niche, any innovative technique to express a brand should be given its due deference. Just ask Elias Ruhl, whose North Carolina-based Merry Oaks Coffee Roasters sells beans in one-quart Mason jars. He says the packaging for Sterling's McGovern and his business partner, Aric Miller. Do-it-yourselfers to the extreme, they designed the parcel con- cept themselves and then contracted with a company in China to manufacture the boxes. They then ran into the interesting chal- lenge of trying to import the product. "We got it over the water and into the U.S. and then couldn't get it out of customs without going through loads of paperwork and requirements," McGovern explains. Eventually they had to hire FedEx, a recognized importer, to handle the customs logistics. "That added an extra month to the whole thing," says McGovern. It's also worth noting that even when a roaster gets through all the headaches of finding and receiving novel packaging products, continued on page 34 freshcup.com October 2011 33