“The Brief
To redesign Cau Tre brand’s Oolong tea box packaging to reflect an updated brand steeped in Tea heritage.

The Idea
Tea have been in existence around the world for thousands of years that have become a global beverage of choice known for a host of revitalizing health benefits. And today there are likely to be as many tea brands all over the world as there are tea plantations. Vietnam itself has fertile mountainous lands that are perfect for producing great quality teas – which became the basis of our idea. As while the world has come to know of Vietnam as a strong coffee region, more could be done for tea.

The Design
Most tea brands today have pushed the creative boundaries as far as trying to project a savvy modern image.

We wanted to take a different stance. We felt that in order for consumers to believe in the quality of tea the brand offered, we needed to go back to the source – the Tea Leaf and the Plantation.

And it would be in seeing the beauty in the micro detail of the ‘top leaf’ and the macro grandeur of the stepped hill tea plantation that became our inspiration for the packaging itself. We decided to completely abandon the client’s brief of a traditional box format, and propose a completely new format – One that would immediately demonstrate the brands passion and knowledge in tea. We also wanted the new format to immediately distinguish the brand from a myriad of other square box tea brands in the market. More importantly, this ‘jewelry box’ format had to be cost efficient, easy to produce in large quantities, easy to display on shelf and easy to use for consumers.

Our next step was to ensure the brand experience would not only stop at the outer box but be at every stage of using the pack from box right down to the tea bag itself. We pushed for a unique tray format in the box to allow easy withdrawal of each sachet. And within each sachet we made sure the tea bag itself kept consistent with the idea of leaf by custom having custom made leaf shaped tea bags. This turned out well as the tea leaves would not at the bottom of the sachet (as in traditional square bags), but sit filling the entire bag which ultimately makes for a more even spread of tea when dipped into water.

The complete tea experience delivered by going back to the leaf itself to give us a distinctive and unique brand unlike any other in the market. ”

“What’s Unique About The Packaging?
Unique Pack Format: First of a kind ‘jewelry box’ format inspired by tea leaf shape.
Unique Product Presentation: ‘Jewelry box’ top lid opening allows for ease of withdrawing the tea sachets within.
Unique Sachet Function: String tag of tea bag is sewn into sachet perforation to allow ease of sachet tearing.
Unique Tea Bag: Leaf inspired shape that also ensures better spread of tea when dipped into water. ”