The story of Aromatic Spice Blends' packaging transformation over 14 years and counting
by Deepa Patke
First, A Little Background
Before we dig into the transformation, I would like to introduce you to our story. I have been a career scientist with prestigious fellowships and my own grant including experience in mainstream industry to conduct scientific research and help build the business aspects of it. I was successful at bringing in business for the company where I was, while simultaneously learning about customer service, logistics and budgets. I realized that I loved the business aspects of science and being able to talk about and bring my expertise to the customers. Somewhere during 2010, I decided to invest more time with my toddler and that's when my husband persuaded me to follow my second passion: building flavors.
Aromatic Spice Blends was born in December 2010 with just $150 to purchase the tiniest amounts of spices and a few plastic pouches and blank labels. I had a stove and a blender at home, and I had my ideas and a nose for flavors and aromatics. Of course, my husband was my ever-willing guinea pig!
Our First Packaging: Reusable Plastic Pouches with Zippers
These plastic pouches were what we could afford at the time. I painstakingly drew all the label images with Microsoft art and created and printed all the labels. We had a total of 6 blends to begin with. We increased our repertoire slowly and we grew steadily as our spice blends were accepted into a local store in Vienna, VA (The Maple Avenue Market), now closed, and one farmer’s market (The Great Falls Farmer's Market)! From the positive feedback we received from our supportive customers, friends and relatives, we knew we were on the right path.
Despite our success, I was uneasy about contributing to the increasing plastic packaging on our planet. From the start I had made up my mind to use pouches to present our blends. These are easy to use, the blends can be stored in the same pouch for a while making thus not making them single-use. An added bonus was that they were easy to ship, being lightweight, thus reducing shipping costs and ultimately helping us offer our organic blends at a price that all our customers were happy with.
On to Cello Bags: Compostable but Not Resealable!
However, plastic equals pollution so we transitioned into cello bags for a brief period. Cello is a compostable material and easy to ship too. However, we ran into a big problem since they would not hold their seal well and we could not find zippered cello bags that could be resealed in the home.
Our Epic Quest for Plant-based, Compostable, Resealable Pouches
Trying out different options, we realized that plant-based pouches available at the time also did not seal well and had issues with tearing at random places over time since these were brittle.
So, we compromised and used kraft paper pouches with plastic windows like the one shown here. They were sturdy and resealable as well as recyclable. A move in the right direction, but still not quite what I was looking for. We still use these for some of our blends because of the heavy cost of ordering customized pouches in small numbers.
There was a constant feeling that I wasn’t doing enough to find the right people who were doing the right thing in producing environmentally friendly material that could also preserve the potency of our fresh spice blends.
They say where there is a will there is also a way, and if you focus on the intent of doing good, good things always unfold. We were finally able to find a domestic US-based company that created fully compostable pouches just right for spice blends. And even though we were spending roughly more than one third the cost of our blends on packaging, we believed we were doing the right thing without passing on the costs to our patrons, who expect only the best from us.
This euphoria was short lived as we faced increasing costs for the number of pouches we needed the next time we had to place an order, prompting us to look for more companies that could provide the same quality at a better cost for us. We finally did reach out to a company across the ocean in Australia that could create the same compostable pouches we were looking for at a competitive price point so that we did not have to pass on the increase to our customers.
Constantly Improving, for Our Customers and for the Planet
Each year, as we expand and reach more of our patrons, our packaging gets better and better. Our hope is that US-based companies give us affordable pricing for compostable, environmentally responsible packaging in the quantities that we need, so that we will never need to look elsewhere, outside of the border of the USA. Small businesses like ours need the support of other businesses to keep doing our best at a healthy cost for both our customers and our retail partners as well as for our own existence.
A huge shout out goes to the creative, enthusiastic and exceptional graphic designer, Jess Michetti (you can find more of her work at www.goodgoosegraphics.com) who has transformed our compostable packaging into bright, eye-catching, simple yet beautiful designer pouches shown above.
Looking to the Future
With a reliable company to source our pouches from we believe we will continue to look after the environment while always focusing on what we do best: roasting and blending organic and single origin spices to perfection to give you the authentic flavors you have come to rely on, right here in the state of Virginia in the United States of America!
We are very grateful to you, our customers, our retail partners and collaborators who have stood by us for more than 14 years through our ever-evolving transformation and who believe in our product.
Gratitude and best seasonings,
Deepa
