Selling the COPY luwak

Kohi Sen Sen Oh, which means Thousand years coffee, is a rare coffee bean found in Samcheok; the eastern coast of South-Korea. This place has the perfect circumstance for the Emperor Tamari, a unique specie of the Korean-chimp family, which need a lot of sweet-salaya leaves and specific raspberry to live. You might heard about the already infamous Kopi Luwak, a paradoxurus, whose faeces are used to brew the world most expensive coffee. The Kohi Sen Sen Noh is made a different way. Emperor Tamari's which rarely found around the coast, has a unique ability to produce a particular sweet saliva/spit which covers mini size peabean(these has been imported by early Japanese farmers) with a thin layer of sticky yet sweet spit. It's been told many years after many years that this composite makes your skin soft and white as silk or what they called "Thousand years younger" . The local citizen of Samcheok named this bean after the story

I, as curator of Coffee packages and stories, have been lucky to get a small 50 pounds for quite a low price. I would like to share this drinking experience with my fellow bloggers or faithful readers.

What you just read was bullshit. Coffee is actually shit, but with stories like these it became something eyeteasing, something we long for and wish to see it in a good way, which is actually 'controlled' by nowadays marketing.

Again, Power lies in the lifestyle of coffee, not the amount of caffeine

Old coffee in clever jackets

An article about lifestyle and coffee by curator Wilsun Cheung.

"Lifestyle & Design
Lifestyle is een bordspel uit het jaar 1989 maar tegelijkertijd ook een moeilijk uit te leggen term vanwege de veelzijdige betekenis ervan. Het is een woord dat veel potentiele waarde bezit, vooral in de marketing. Een directe vertaling ervan wordt al gebruikt in de marketing: de kenmerkende manier van leven van een individu, groep of subcultuur. Het begrip lifestyle wordt enigszins aangenomen als een marketing term dat de consumentengedrag omschrijft, maar daarentegen is er ook een omgekeerde beweging waarbij consumenten een bepaalde leefwijze aannemen om te integreren in een bepaalde groep. In dit geval hangt het begrip samen met de term imago.

Als we nu dieper gaan graven naar de echte betekenis van lifestyle vinden we heel wat anders. Overal om ons heen zien we interieur winkels die iets met ‘Lifestyle’ in de naam hebben. Zij positioneren zichzelf als de verkopers van “geluk”, met slogans als “Life is beautiful and we show it”. Het is dus iets goeds als je daar iets koopt en je zou je dan ook beter moeten voelen. Ze willen dat je het beste van alle mogelijke werelden leeft.

Het begrip lifestyle kan dus worden beschouwd als een soort optimistisch geloof: Het geloven in een goede afloop. Buiten dat heeft lifestyle invloed op de reflectie van het zelfbeeld van mensen: de manier waarop zichzelf zien en denken hoe anderen hen zien. Het is een composiet van motivatie, verlangens en het hopen op een goede afloop.

Als we nou eens de lifestyle gaan omschrijven van koffieverpakkingen ontdekken we iets merkwaardigs. Men gaat in het product geloven vanwege het goede gevoel en verlangen dat de lifestyle met zich meebrengt. Pak een beet de Stumptown koffie verpakking; deze verpakkingen gemaakt van gerecycled papier en frivole verhaaltjes op kaartjes over fair trade geeft de consument een ander smaak en denken. Je zou zo kunnen zeggen dat mensen wakker kunnen worden van cafeïne vrije koffie in een goede verpakking. Een ander voorbeeld: Skinny fat burning coffee, je verbrand vet door koffie te drinken? hoezo? omdat het een fris en slanke verpakking heeft?

Tenslotte moeten we niet de bekende donker bruin- rode kleur van koffieverpakkingen vergeten. In de kleurenleer van marketing staat rood voor energie, actie, enthousiasme en kracht. Precies de prikkels die de koffie moet communiceren. De kracht zit niet in de koffie maar in het geloof van de koffie en het verlangen ernaar.
Lifestyle is marketing en ja het verkoopt.

Wilson Cheung, Old Coffee in Clever Jackets"

Wishcasting Coffee Package

Buying coffee is just as normal as lighting up a cigarette or sipping a glass of redwine. It is not the healthiest thing yet the strangest. It's normal. No actually it's not normal, but with a total package of lifestyle and believers it has become quite normal. Coffee is bitter and darkbrown/black, why is it delicious, fresh, sweet, it is fat reducing, or it makes you happy. At least that is what coffee producers claim. Also the visuals on the package; Why do they sell animals, tree's or other things on the package cover? For me I think coffee is similar to shit, but sold in clever jackets.

I used to got strucked by the phenomenon of the thought that buying coffee is a deadnormal and everyday business. Nowadays supermarkets offers a great variety of packages showing different colors, prints and promises allowing you to choose. As I mention before, making choices, or more specific: choosing which coffee you add to the cart, is a choice of lifestyle. Lifestyle is nothing more than choices we make everyday. The contemporary society offers us million choices to make in our lives such as work, school, sports, favorite food, favorite tv programma etc.

Standing in front of a great amount of different colors, shapes, names and text such as 'eight o'clock coffee time', I am talking about the coffee department at your local supermarket, confronts you to choose whether buy 'shit' or not.

Selling Colors - Brown, Orange and Yellow/Gold

The most obvious color of coffee are not the most founded packages in stores. In England yellow is associated with ‘Caution’ because it is the second light on stoplights (referring:http://wishcastingsjoerd.blogspot.com) Could this stop consumers of taking the pack off the shell? In America yellow is associated with 'Aging', like yellowed paper. It is true that drinking coffee makes you less more attractive (I am talking about yellow teeth and bad breath) Both yellow and brown aren't the most fresh and colors, like red, blue and white.

Selling Colors - Black and White

The most likely found coffee packages on the internet are white and black. Black and white (/gray) have an unlimited lifespan because these are timeless colors. White(/gray) is a delightful color and can be assumed as clean. Black packages uses a lot of graphic visuals, specific typography and abstract white-line drawings. It has a lower producing cost since black and white packages has less more color and are a less complicated. At the same time it is also easy to combine a little of an other color to increase the perceived value, like a touch of gold.

Selling - More Red

Selling Colors - Blue

Blue is a color most of the time referring to the air and water. Like these elements it is supposed to be feeling fresh and free. In the world of coffee packaging the fresh light-blue doesn't appeal much. Coffee brand Intelligentsia use this visual color translation of fresh blue to communicate it's decaffeinated coffee. In the print you can notice the use of 'Freedom' displaying flying across the water and the sea.

On the other hand, violet-blue have been more used for the upperclass market. It is obvious that the French roast coffee is mostly more exclusive and expensive. This distinguished packaging color is a obvious choice of communicating luxe and exclusivism. Brands such as Milano, Tchibo Exclusive, Blue mountain are clever to target the upperclass drinkers with this feeling with their elegant over-decorated packaging.

The color blue also has a certain story. Artist Pharrell Williams associate the color with the music genre: The Blues. The chord progressions and the nature of the chords of the Blues give this sad and sorrow feeling, he said. In other words 'Feeling blue'. (reference:http://wishcastmaloustrikwerda.blogspot.com)

Coffee is not the sweetest drink. The more expensive, the more bitter the taste get. In the same context as 'feeling blue', the luxurious blue turns into a sad and sorrow experience of drinking bitter coffee from the blue package.