Fine and Raw: Standing out on the health food shelf with color, texture and taste

06 Jul 2018 --- New York-based raw chocolate company Fine & Raw speaks to PackagingInsights about the challenges of matching packaging to brand identity, and the creative journey the company wishes to reflect through its chocolate and its wrapping. Fine & Raw has been enjoying the high that has come with a surge in consumer interest in raw treats and healthy indulgence.

“The market has exploded. There is so much interest and more people making raw cocoa. It’s a powerful spirit of start-ups and good amounts of movement too. The market is growing rapidly,” says Founder Daniel Sklaar.

Sklaar describes how marketing the Fine & Raw chocolate bars requires a creative approach as the bar taps into a range of markets and audiences. “It’s both healthy indulgence and part of a healthy lifestyle.”

In this way, the company was approached by two main groups interested in the bars: specialized, niche raw food stores and artisanal fine food stores. “Previously, chocolate in the states was always candy. Now, it’s a chocolate bar and its cocoa and there's a perceived difference, it is seen as the superfood cocoa with one of the highest antioxidant food sources that we know of: four times more than blueberries, for example.”

Therefore, Fine & Raw addressed the design and branding of their bars with the knowledge that their product was a boundary crossing innovation; raw, healthy, indulgent and premium yet also likely to be featured in the “hippiest” health food shops.

Speaking to Sklaar, it became clear that the brand did not want to join an array of health products that come across as “restrictive.” In fact, the artistry and satisfaction that come from chocolate needed to be present in the packaging. In this way, letting the health benefits of the raw cocoa speak for themselves.

“When I look at products in the marketplace now many products are very in your face: no sugar, no dairy, no nothing. It’s restrictive. It’s a harsh reality and maybe somewhat aggressive.”

“The idea that we try to portray in our philosophy is to enjoy life. Inherent in the spirit of chocolate is a fun-ness and there is no fun in slapping labels with big crosses and 'free from.'”

“We make food as food. If this was 100 years ago there would be no decorations on the packaging or any packaging at all. Often, if you create packaging, a lot of the health food products give an impression that there are many food enemies out there. We are not about that; we are more about enjoying life and being balanced and celebrating art and creativity.”

Expressing this uniqueness through packaging 
The brand initially packaged the bars in brown craft wrappers and minimal aesthetics. “Back then [2008], there was no raw chocolate to speak of and sustainability was not even a thing at this point.” However, “fast-forward ten years and Hershey’s is now using a brown wrapper, so we had to update ourselves to express our uniqueness and creativity,” says Sklaar.

The brand shifted from its minimal craft aesthetic to incorporate a natural look with enlivened compositions and floral imagery and vivid color. This, the company notes, “trends against the industry’s predisposition towards linear, non-organic patterns.”

Sklaar further explains, “We went on a re-design journey. We added a splash of color, making the illustrations tactile and carefully thought out color schemes which were a bit more modern and striking but still minimal and understated.”

Furthermore, the packaging of the bar mirrors its content, which is created from cocoa beans from farms in Ecuador and Ghana which engage in sustainable agricultural practices. Therefore, the packaging is made from 30 percent recycled material and all the wrappings are recyclable themselves. Will the material be made from 100 percent recycled material one day? Well, “There is an idealistic version of what we would like and then there is the reality. We try to avoid things that cannot be recycled and we would like to increase the amount of recycled material that we use, but it is challenging. It's constant work.”

The composition of the bars themselves was also adjusted, in line with scientific findings that linked the explosion of flavor with bar thickness. “Chocolate melts below body temperature and this melt effect has a big impact on flavor and experience. The quicker it melts, the faster the flavor imparts on your tongue and palate. So, the quicker you can get it to melt the more flavorful and indulgent it is. It becomes a question of physics – thinner chocolate melts quicker. So, we made it thinner and longer and wider.”

Fine & Raw offer a range of bars that utilize raw cocoa in the chocolate preparation and extra flavors such as cashew, almond, vanilla and lucuma.

By Laxmi Haigh