It's easy to say coffee

Two billion cups of coffee are drunk worldwide every day: between the bean and the cup is a world full of variables. The coffee market is experiencing great turmoil, and each way of consuming the beverage comes with its own design trends and specific needs in terms of materials and printing. We talked about this with Gruppo Goglio, Artefice Group, the Garage Coffee Bros roastery and two ADs with projects competing in the Coffee Design Awards.            

By Roberta Ragona  | On PRINTlovers #94      
                                              
From traditional Italian-style espresso to filtered coffees, cold brew and capsule coffees: a world of different preparations lies behind a coffee cup. Two billion cups every day is the estimate of the British Coffee Association: an expanding market spurred by societal changes and a broadening consumer base. Innovation in the product pairs with evolving communication methods to reach different audiences. We took advantage of the Coffee Design Awards within World Of Coffee 2022 to talk with packaging experts, roasteries, designers and communication agencies about what has changed in the way coffee is produced, drunk and communicated.

The first revolution concerns consumption patterns and, with it, packaging formats. In domestic consumption in Italy, Moka coffee still dominates, followed by capsules, which have quickly become a habit in offices and homes alike. This is the mode defined as functional: a beverage that punctuates a quick, practical break to recover clarity and energy. In recent years, however, a new audience has emerged; diversified coffee consumption includes preparations common to other countries. This revolution began with the appreciation for American-style filter coffee, which reintroduced time among the key ingredients of the experience. It was no longer a quick interlude but a drink with a longer time frame: from there, the road opened to the French press, the Swedish fika ritual, through the Turkish cezve to the cold brew. This audience is an assortment of audiences, which we could divide into two main age-related segments: on the one hand, younger people, players in Starbucks-model out-of-home consumption, interested in imaginative and flavoured processing; on the other, an adult audience to whom the speciality coffee market is aimed. The latter sector has many affinities with food and wine: high-quality products, often single-origin, with articulated preparation methods and tasting experiences. It is a more conscious consumption in which rituality is an integral part of pleasure.


Coffee-friendly materials, from vacuum packs to capsules
While the target audiences could not be more different, the needs that producers have in common are the same: packaging that keeps the product's characteristics intact, with an eye on safety and an eye on sustainability, as Davide Jarach, Strategic Development Manager of the Goglio Group and President of Goglio Tianjin Packaging, points out: "There is still a demand focused on materials that we could call 'traditional,' such as triple laminated with barrier-effect aluminium, but as in other sectors there is a growing demand for materials with simpler end-of-life. In the case of vacuum grinds, this means single-polymer materials, which maintain the barrier properties by eliminating aluminium. The systems approach is key, allowing new materials to be integrated into processing without changing machinery and the production chain, with an advantage in terms of energy efficiency and logistics."

The issue of shelf-life is the terrain on which the battle of materials is being played out, as Adriano Rosso, Art Director and Graphic Designer whose design for Bazzara Bioarabica competed for the Coffee Design Awards, notes: "Even the Bioarabica bag, for now, is in classic triple laminate, but I think the future is single-material polyethylene packs or those composed of polyolefin laminate, obtained by laminating a polypropylene and a polyethylene structure. Brands invest a lot in quality consistency, which is also reflected in materials, mainly regarding the product's shelf-life: coffee has a shelf life of two years."
In the speciality sector, whose volumes are lower, there is the possibility of experimenting with different materials, as Elisabetta Daffara, Graphic Designer and Art Director, also competing at the Coffee Design Awards with Garage Coffee Bros. coffee packaging, clarifies: "There is a lot of research on polymers to develop lighter solutions with the same seal, therefore with less energy footprint. In parallel, there is an increase in materials with a major paper component, such that they can be disposed of with paper and cardboard collection and paper and plastic laminates that are easy to separate during disposal. Especially for a product such as a speciality, not losing quality over time is essential. Paper at this time lends itself more to short-term uses, such as buying bulk in roasting to be transferred into home containers. In this area, there is a fairly interesting sign of a return to reusable containers - for example, aluminium - that can be filled at the point of sale or via returnable vacuum."

The real difference in format preferences is not between big brands and specialities, Davide Jarach notes: "The divide on format and media choice is between products destined for the Italian or foreign market. In our country, the vacuum pack has a great grip, while the flexible format with a valve is more common abroad. The decision of market leaders not to abandon the classic "tile" has led other players to align themselves to compete in large-scale distribution. On the other is logistics: it is easy to manage in terms of storage. It also influences the mode of purchase: in Italy, ground coffee is still predominant, while obviously, for coffee beans, the vacuum pack would not be suitable because the irregular shapes of the beans could affect the integrity of the pack putting the freshness of the product at risk."
The choice of format and how it is presented on the shelf is also affected by a lack of information from the consumer about how roasting takes place. Davide Cobelli explains further, "In industrial production, coffee is roasted, and then left to degas so that it disperses the gases produced during roasting. However, some of the gas remains inside the beans, so they are broken up in successive stages to let it escape completely. This is because the consumer is accustomed to thinking that any food from a swollen package is a sign that something is wrong, which is true for other food products but absolutely not for roasted coffee. This is an information problem. We use a vacuum with nitrogen for our ground coffees to improve freshness retention, but we are targeting a clientele to whom we propose a much shorter product shelf life, allowing them to appreciate the aromatic characteristics of the blends more."

Alongside the classic vacuum-packed ground coffee, capsules, the real stars of communication in the coffee world in recent years, have carved out a relevant space. Davide Jarach again, "Aluminium capsules, for now, have a great advantage for the mass market, a very long shelf life. We believe that capsules are one of the products where the work on packaging compostability is fundamental. The fact that it is not necessary to separate the product from the container simplifies disposal and greatly reduces the percentage of waste produced."
It is a market in which the choices of the main player in the capsule system are the driving force, comments Tiziano Saitta, Creative Director of Artefice Group: "Compatibility with the most popular system is the driver: even brands that have their own capsule system always have a range of compatible capsules. On the materials aspect, one of the areas where there is more room for design research is the problem of overpackaging: the years that have just passed have changed the perception of packaging, so the consumer - especially concerning food products - is looking for reassurance on safety. On the other hand, there is room to work on efficient use of space, with fewer voids, reduction of secondary packaging, and the choice of lighter materials, which means more efficient logistics."

One printing for all print runs
On the printing technology front, the most obvious signal concerns print runs.
Adriano Rosso notes how the interests of the mass market and speciality tend to converge in this area: "Although gravure printing remains high quality and ideal for long runs, digital printing increasingly meets the needs of both. Just-in-time printing reduces the need for large inventories, and for a micro roastery, the ability to start with short runs - sometimes as few as a few dozen pieces - with very fast turnaround and delivery times is critical. Mainstream players are going down a similar path, namely versioning: more references, smaller runs, ready to react quickly to changes in demand and generate impulse purchases."
Davide Cobelli explains how these micro-runs for specialities have to do with the small quantities of a very high-end raw material: "In the case of the most valuable qualities, the supply may be as little as one or two bags, which processed may become no more than 400 packets: this is why the runs must be commensurate with the actual quantity of the product and its seasonality cycles. This is also true for the other communication materials that accompany them, such as the postcards - also made of recycled paper - that describe and elaborate on the characteristics of the different coffee qualities."

As far as printing technology is concerned, we are seeing a flanking of the two technologies rather than a replacement by digital printing. Comments Elisabetta Daffara, "For speciality, digital printing is the medium of choice. It becomes exciting when working with enhancements: varnishing, hot or cold lamination can now be done digitally, opening up a range of material effects that convey quality even with short runs."


The language (also smart) of coffee
If on food safety and printing the needs are similar, it is on design that different audiences lead to radically different communication styles and inspirations. Tiziano Saitta points out how coffee communication is often based on storytelling that follows consumers in their habits: "Coffee is a product that is communicated, sold, and purchased based on a strong component of emotionality. In the mass market, it is seen primarily as a commodity, with a narrative based less on organoleptic characteristics and more on consumer loyalty to the brand. Where before the emphasis was on the smoothness or creaminess of the beverage, now it is on bringing one's own habits, perhaps inherited from family consumption, into the new system with capsules. This is also reflected in the design choices, which tend to echo a very established language."
Changing habits not only reverberate in packaging but also in other aspects of printed communication in which a brand's image is declined. In the case of coffee, this means one medium in particular: cups. "For years, the coffee cup has identified brand communication - think of Illy, which on the recognizability of its cups has built a brand image and a narrative system, linking also to the world of art and design; or of Borbone and the small glass cup that linked to the idea of Neapolitan tradition - creating a parallelism between the experience at home and at the bar."

The discourse changes when we look instead at the speciality market, as Elisabetta Daffara confirms: "Due in part to the relative youth of the market, communication is a blank canvas on which to experiment with a visual language that is less tied to custom and closer to that of art graphic design, colourful, expressive, with strong use of strong shapes, unusual typographic fonts and a fresh, ironic language. There is great sensitivity to the visual image, which is going in the direction in which wine communication has worked for so many years: to convey through design choices, materials and media the excellence of raw materials. In our work with Garage Coffee Bros, the inspiration came from the fabrics typical of the different production areas of different qualities, from which we derived graphic patterns to represent the country of origin. We used colour to identify flavour profiles using associations between flavours and colours, working in contrast for a resultant strong and vibrant colour. Around these design elements, clearly communicating the commitment to sustainability was important. We took advantage of the possibility of using labels to characterize different product references with a basic pack that was always the same, with the added benefit of being easy to separate at recycling. The flexible packaging is made of polypropylene while the labels are made of FSC-certified paper."
To encourage the habit of separating packaging, Garage Coffee Bros designed an ad hoc communication activity, as Davide Cobelli tells us. "We took advantage of the possibility of using labels to characterize different product references, with a basic pack that was always the same. The added advantage is that they are easy to separate at recycling time. To encourage the habit of peeling off the labels, we created a collector's album upon completion of which, the consumer receives the gift of adopting a coffee tree in Ecuador."

According to Adriano Rosso, some macro-trends are destined to last: "The choice of minimalist graphic proposals corresponds to well-established market needs, combined with another well-established trend in food communication: retro style. Food lends itself well to pairing with the playful dimension, which is why - also in response to the difficulties of recent years - I think illustrations full of bright colours, funny characters and irreverent patterns will continue to be very much to the fore.
In the case of the design of the Bioarabiche line, the need was to intercept a customer accustomed to ethical and conscious consumption. The design recalls traditional aspects of coffee with a modern twist, such as the stencil characters used on the jute sacks used to transport the beans or the oak barrels containing Jamaica Blue Mountain. Using text, icons and graphics, an attempt has been made to take a deeper understanding of the varietal accessible."
This customer education work will also be increasingly crucial for big brands to respond to increasingly specific tastes: "The data on the growth of online purchases has meant that even established brands have begun to revise their image to stand out on the various marketplaces. This change has resulted in the multiplication of products in 200 - or 250 -gramme formats, in stand-up pouches that used to be seen more in the United States than in Europe. On average, while considering coffee indispensable, Italian consumers lack specific knowledge of the drink: there has been a static uniformity of language, with little information about the product and its organoleptic characteristics. Packages will be enriched with icons with information about aroma, taste and the ideal transformation process of the blend. There will be an increased focus on communicating useful and comprehensive information through the packaging."

And as with other renowned products in the agri-food market, it will be increasingly common for coffee to see anti-counterfeiting technologies and smart tools in use; as Davide Jarach notes, "We have noted the introduction of QR-codes, used in a wide variety of ways, whether to tell the story of the product in more detail, to enhance the characteristics of single-origin coffees, or to give greater emphasis to sustainable production practices in terms of the environment and workers. In the cases of high-end products, the inclusion of anti-counterfeiting systems is beginning to be in demand, a phenomenon similar to what has affected the wine market or other Italian gastronomic excellence."

In short, when you are about to drink your first coffee of the day tomorrow, you will no longer look at it with the same eyes.