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A`gZS De AaPe`O\QS continued from page 51 Designing effective tea packaging can indeed be a tricky task, as the look of a box or bag must address sometimes competing needs. It should have the visual flash to catch the eye of a cus- tomer new to the product, but also offer depth and substance that have the potential to convert a competitor's customer. It should appear attractive enough to be selected as a gift, but not so "pretty" that it's seen as impractical for regular use. There may be a desire to create a new look with fresh color palettes and forms, but there also must be a connection to existing product lines, sending a unified message from the company. Packaging should also provide enough information to educate customers, but not so much that it overwhelms. In short, effective packaging must find the sweet spot of attrac- tiveness and authenticity, turning customers' heads and gen- erating increased sales and brand loyalty. Jenny Kim, art director of Milwaukee-based Rishi Tea, sums it up thusly: "When designing a suc- cessful package, we always have to balance the needs for the product to be attractive, informative and practical to the end consumer while also keeping in mind that any pack- age we design must have the proper function to store and preserve the high quality of our tea." TELLING A STORY A tea container's look can com- municate many things: the com- pany's style, priorities and values, and even the tea's origin. Some tea packaging employs graphics and colors to evoke the essence of the tea's flavor. The packaging of Rishi's Masala Chai product fea- tures illustrations of the herbs, spices and tea plants used to make up the blend. "The turmeric-saffron and deep color scheme reflects the richness and uniqueness of chai's South Asian origin," explains Kim. As consumers have become more educated about tea, there has VERSATILI-TEA: Tea Forte has several types of packaging depending on what the customer is looking for, including tins and a pyramid infuser (top right). been more emphasis on where it comes from; effective packaging can capitalize on that interest by including information such as origins, flavor profiles, brewing styles and instructions. But it can be difficult to strike the right balance when it comes to providing info: Adding too much can overwhelm and confuse consumers, but providing too little information will often leave customers wondering if the product is worth their money. "The beverage of tea is subtle and nuanced with very complex flavors," says Peter Hewitt, CEO of wholesaler Tea Forte. "Telling stories about the flavors or where it's from, explaining the quality and what you might connect with it—especially with a hundred other things on the shelf—is a pretty challenging task." Tay Tea has addressed the information-overload problem by # TEA ALMANAC 2012 type of tea-delivery systems and tailor the message to the tech- nique in question. The company offers pyramid infusers filled with blends of whole-leaf tea as well as single-steep packages of loose leaf and canisters of loose tea. "For different occasions, there are different appropriate styles of packaging," says Hewitt. "I can make parallels with clothing. We may wear shorts or jeans, or get dressed up. It's not that dresses are good and jeans are bad, they are just different for different occasions." IDENTITY AND PRETTINESS Oftentimes tea packaging will be designed with the gift market in mind. Tea pros say it's often easier to gain notice in that space through the use of packaging that itself looks like a present or that could stand alone on a kitchen counter beside decorative dishes. However, when a product is considered to be very "pretty," there are some risks. First, there's the danger that the product will be perceived as a gift item exclusively, locking the company out of the more providing just enough descrip- tion on its packaging to make it easy for consumers to find out more on their own. "It really isn't necessary to write a whole syn- opsis on how to make a cup of tea on the tin," says Ordoubadi. "You can send them to a blog or Web site. You whet their appetite to investigate; it's an exploration." Tea Forte's solution to the issue of trying to cram as much info as possible onto the packag- ing is to offer several different