Recreating emotional experience

methodical coffee recyclable coffee bags in an article on methodical coffee coffee packaging design

With the money behind them, Marco, Will, and David launched the first Methodical Coffee location.

But he was the only one who believed in what we were doing and saw the vision we were trying to cast.��

��Obviously, it was a huge risk on the landlord��s part.

It was pretty spectacular.

That was how we were able to open.

In the end, our landlord stepped in and agreed to finance our build-out, which he would put into the cost of our lease.

��We all put our savings in the pot, and even after a loan from family, still had a fair amount to raise,�� Marco says. ��

However, after sketching out a concept, they realised they would need some additional capital to get things off the ground.

The two met and, after bringing in a third member, David, they started brainstorming about how the coffee shop should look.

��I texted Will out of the blue one day,�� Marco tells me, ��and said, ��Hey man, do you want to try to open a coffee shop?�� He was also trying to figure out what to do, ...

It just so happened that, as well as a background in coffee, Will had a similar itch.

Before long, he��d put out feelers to his friend Will about the possibility of opening a new coffee shop in the city.

Luckily for Greenville, this realisation and what Marco calls ��an entrepreneurial itch�� emerged at around the same time.

Living in Atlanta, he had become accustomed to seeing one on virtually every corner; so when he made the two-hour drive over to Greenville and found there were none, he knew that, ...

When Marco Suarez used to visit friends and family in Greenville, he was struck by the city��s lack of modern coffee shops.

This week, we spoke to Methodical Coffee about how they use packaging to recreate the experience of being in one of their coffee shops.

The Coffee Bag Design Series: Methodical Coffee

Did you enjoy this edition of The Coffee Bag Design Series? Next week, we��ll be speaking with Sumo Coffee Roasters.

The response to our bags was why they gave us a chance.��

People had nothing to go on from experience.

��It��s hard to be the new kid on the block in the way we were,�� Aimee tells me. ��

Customers would undoubtedly come back for the flavours or the relationships with farmers �C or both �C but it was the unique designs that grabbed people in the first place.

As intended, they have also played a crucial role in drawing attention to the brand, whether selling wholesale, online, or from their coffee bar.

Interestingly, the bags themselves also act as a source of life: they are compostable and, according to feedback from customers of Recluse, double up as a tool for planting garden ...

We really liked that idea.��

With the nurse log at the base [of the bags], it��s almost like a source of life for the rest of the design.

��We were really interested in that idea of growing out of our experiences,�� Aimee says. ��

The result is a wild, chaotic, but also harmonious mix of plants, all stemming from what��s known as a ��nurse log��: a fallen tree which, as it decays, facilitates the growt ...

As nature-lovers, she says they kept coming back to what inspired them: the great outdoors. To convey this passion, she incorporated designs of plants local to Washington State and ...

��We knew there was something about grabbing attention and giving them that feeling that they were about to have something special.��

��Jack and I talked a lot about how we didn��t want our bags to look like what people thought a coffee bag looked like �C we wanted to challenge ourselves,�� she explains. ...

Aimee, who designed the bags herself, said the most important thing was that they didn��t become lost among the countless other specialty coffee brands.

However, the challenge when it came to their coffee bags was how to bring all their values under one design.

Aimee and Jack are clear about what they stand for when it comes to coffee.

recyclable coffee packaging, recyclable coffee boxes, drip coffee boxes, kraft paper coffee bags, in an article about Coffee Bag Design Series: Recluse Roasting Project

What��s important to us is that the coffee is sourced the right way.

But Jack and I aren��t the people who will shame you for using cream or sugar in your coffee. We want you to drink the coffee whichever way you like.

��People get a little bit intimidated by specialty because they feel as though they��re being judged,�� she says. ��

Instead of making people feel bad for adding sugar and cream, they believe ethical sourcing should come first �C and therefore it doesn��t matter how the coffee is enjoyed.

This approach to sourcing also informs Recluse��s attitude to serving coffee from their coffee bar.

For example, each year we talk to Bernard to discuss how much things have cost and, if it��s more, then we��ll pay him more.��

��That sustainable relationship makes things stronger.

��This relationship with Bernard means we��ve been able to buy more of his coffee,�� she explains. ��But he also knows that we��re committed and we��re not going to sud ...

This is what Aimee refers to as ��intentional growth�� and it��s something that��s mutually beneficial.

After meeting while Jack worked as a judge at Te Van a Conocer Compa, Bernard soon became close friends with the couple �C even going so far as to visit them in Richmond.

An example is the relationship Recluse has with Honduran producer Bernard.

People have begun to form the expectation that we know the farmers.��

��We��re not just pumping out lots of coffee.