Nestlé stirs up the instant coffee market

Nescafé® Taster's Choice® instant coffee is getting a quick pick-me-up with contemporary new packaging that replaces its trademark glass jar and screw cap with a convenient, easy-to-dispense-from plastic container and lid. Introduced this spring by Nestlé USA, Glendale, CA, the new package design was undertaken to reinvigorate the brand and to reintroduce the North American market to Nestlé's flagship coffee brand, Nescafé.

Nescafé® Taster's Choice® instant coffee is getting a quick pick-me-up with contemporary new packaging that replaces its trademark glass jar and screw cap with a convenient, easy-to-dispense-from plastic container and lid. Introduced this spring by Nestlé USA, Glendale, CA, the new package design was undertaken to reinvigorate the brand and to reintroduce the North American market to Nestlé's flagship coffee brand, Nescafé. (Taster's Choice was brought into Nestlé's Nescafé family of coffees last year.)

The new rectangular package, molded by Pechiney, preserves some of the curves of the original glass container, but the curves are located closer to the lid, making the package easy to grip. Most innovative is the container's hinged polypropylene closure, custom-designed and injection-molded by Phoenix Closures. In a deep-brown coffee color, the cap offers a tabbed area on its neck that directs users to "PUSH." Upon pressure to the neck, the top of the lid opens for easy access to the instant coffee granules. The lid's positive latch enables secure closing after product use.

Supplied in nonstandard 76- and 82-mm sizes, the oblong closure tops four different sizes of the instant coffee: 4, 7, 10 and 12 oz. Molded on one half of the lid's top is the Nescafé logotype, and on the other, the Nestl´ name and logo. The instant coffee's new package is swathed in a full-body shrink label from American Fuji Seal that provides greater shelf impact. Retaining the well-established Taster's Choice brand identity, graphics include the image of a man savoring a steaming cup of the brew, against a deep-red background for Regular and Decaf varieties, and a rich-brown backdrop for Gourmet Roast.