From Butter Paper to Psychedelic Art, Coffee Packaging in India Has Come a Long Way 

From Butter Paper to Psychedelic Art, Coffee Packaging in India Has Come a Long Way 

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From Butter Paper to Psychedelic Art, Coffee Packaging in India Has Come a Long Way 

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From Butter Paper to Psychedelic Art, Coffee Packaging in India Has Come a Long Way 

How to roast anaerobically fermented coffee

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Is the World Barista Championship too exclusive & expensive for competitors?

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From Butter Paper to Psychedelic Art, Coffee Packaging in India Has Come a Long Way 

From Butter Paper to Psychedelic Art, Coffee Packaging in India Has Come a Long Way 

minimum dose size?

Jan 31, 2024 |

I use the Hario switch to brew my coffee and am trying to reduce my caffeine consumption. Hence I would like to brew smaller cups of coffee. I am currently using 10g of coffee with 160g of water. (1:16 Ratio) I am wondering if there is a minimum amount of coffee...

From Butter Paper to Psychedelic Art, Coffee Packaging in India Has Come a Long Way 

In part one of our series on coffee packaging in India, we meet a roaster who embraces India’s art zeitgeist.

BY RESHIL CHARLES 
SPECIAL TO BARISTA MAGAZINE 

Cover photo courtesy of Devan’s Coffee

Mr. Keshav Dev of Devan’s Coffee in New Delhi smiles as he pulls down a pack of beans from the shelf in his roastery, which opened in 1965. The beans are packed in three-layered metalized poly bags with a freshness valve, the standard packaging used by coffee roasters across the country at present. The artwork on the bag uses wild animals to convey the subtle message of their importance in the whole ecosystem that supports the coffee crop. The theme was chosen by his artist daughter, Aishwarya Keshav.  

A fuchsia colored Robusta Kaapi Royale coffee bag by Devan's features a vulture in flight with its wings raised.
Devan’s Coffee in New Delhi is well-established but still seeks new customers with slick, eye-catching packaging. Photo courtesy of Devan’s Coffee.

These bags are mainly for the shelves at retail stores, where they compete with other brands that use different storylines, themes, and artists to stand out. At the roastery, customers still take freshly ground coffee powder in silver pouches with no valve and transfer it into an airtight container at home. “In the ’60s and ’70s, we used to pack coffee in butter paper. Then we moved to plastic bags, and now this. But there were also customers who preferred to bring their own steel jars and pack freshly ground powder in them. Some still do that,” says Keshav.   

A man with a mustache scoops roasted coffee beans out of a large metal bowl into a plain silver coffee bag.
For store customers, Devan’s Coffee uses silver bags, seen here being filled in-house.
Photo courtesy of Devan’s Coffee.

A Story to Tell

Devan’s Coffee doesn’t need to have a foot in new-age packaging—their loyalists will accept the consistent roasts that come out of their roastery in whatever bag they pack them in. But their innovation speaks volumes about how far coffee packaging has evolved in India.

Like other roasters across the globe, new specialty brands are choosing a look and feel that tell a parallel story about what they stand for, and on a lighter note, possibly make up for the odd badly roasted bean!  

Devan's filter coffee concentrate comes in a black pouch with a plastic spout and screw cap on the side. A blue seal on a light blue background decorates the package.
Each Devan’s Coffee package features a different animal—a way to draw attention to the interwoven biosystems that coffee is a part of. Photo courtesy of Devan’s Coffee.

Art and Design

This packaging renaissance has also led to plenty of opportunities for artists and graphic designers across the country, who can use the coffee bag as a canvas to bring out the diversity in Indian subculture and design. While brands like Black Baza incorporate the surrounding environment of a coffee farm onto their packs, Bloom Coffee Roasters and Dope Coffee have brought in leading designers like Pushkar Thakur and Harsh Raman Paul to add some funk. Brands like Third Wave Coffee, Bili Hu, and Nandan Coffee have chosen to draw attention with a clean look.  

Dope Coffee's Tribe-O Koraput yeast-fermented natural coffee is in a black poly bag with a white logo in all caps. The logo looks drippy as if spray painted. The image features two women in traditional Indian garb and jewelry, smiling and clasping hands together so they form a circle, which holds a blue coffee bean.
Like other Indian brands, Dope Coffee uses its packaging to tell a story.
Photo courtesy of Dope Coffee.

In the next parts of this series, we’ll look at a few Indian roasters that have used interesting themes and artists to convey their identity. These packaging designs will also make a fine collage of art on the wall well after the coffee is gone!  

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Reshil Charles (he/him) is based in New Delhi, India, and works across television, web, and print as a journalist and presenter. He has been tracking emerging Indian trends across a few sectors for the last 19 years, with a special eye on the evolving Indian coffee scene. He feels strongly about exposing the world to the variety of culture and subculture in India that meets at the crossroads of traditional and modern, and coffee fits right in. 

The post From Butter Paper to Psychedelic Art, Coffee Packaging in India Has Come a Long Way  appeared first on Barista Magazine Online.

From Butter Paper to Psychedelic Art, Coffee Packaging in India Has Come a Long Way 

Perfect Little Beans

Chinmey Hill Coffee uses specialty-grade beans with zero primary defects (such as black beans or sour beans) and less than five secondary defects (such as broken beans). This is important because primary defects will greatly affect the taste of the coffee. Having zero defects allows the coffee to be the most optimal flavor.

Window for Optimal Flavor

Chimney Hill Coffee ships our coffee the same day it was roasted, so you will receive it before it enters the window of optimal flavor.  This means you’ll never miss the opportunity to enjoy the coffee’s peak flavor.

Coffee Ratings

Coffee undergoes many scoring processes by professionals who achieved their Q Grader certification. Coffee is first graded when it’s green. If there are defects the coffee is determined to be “not-specialty grade”. For those coffees that pass green grading, they are sample roasted and cupped. (Cupping is the official term for critically tasting and scoring coffees. The official cupping form is standard worldwide, and where the 100-point scoring system comes from.) A coffee’s dry fragrance, wet aroma, flavor, aftertaste, body, acidity, balance, and overall impression are taken into consideration while uniformity issues and defects, will lower the overall score.

Specialty Coffee

Specialty coffee, coined by Erna Knutsen in 1974, refers to a coffee that receives a quality grading score of 80 percent or higher. While “premium” or “gourmet” seem like they’re synonymous with “specialty,” they simply are marketing terms with no defined standards. Specialty coffees are grown in specific and ideal micro-climates, and have distinctive and unique flavor profiles, with little to no defects.

Third-Wave Coffee

We’re currently in the third wave of coffee. The first wave of American coffee put pre-ground, vacuum-sealed cans in kitchens across America. The second wave started with the late ‘60s introduction of Peet’s coffee (by Alfred Peet) through the proliferation of Starbucks. The third wave of coffee focuses on origin transparency, nuanced flavors, and artisan roasting. The term “third wave” is synonymous with specialty coffee.

From Butter Paper to Psychedelic Art, Coffee Packaging in India Has Come a Long Way 

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