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Starbucks Tribute Blend

by Diane Lindquist on 03/06/2014 | 3 Minute Read

Starbucks created Tribute Blend® to celebrate the company’s 40th anniversary, to honor customers and partners, and to recognize the accomplishments of the coffee producers and roasters.

"Tribute Blend® combines four of customers’ all-time favorite coffees from all three growing regions. TheSun-Dried  Ethiopia coffee, with an exotic flourish of dark cherry, is from Africa. Aged Sumatra comes from the Asia/Pacific region, featuring deep notes of cedar and sweet. Also originating from the Asia/Pacific area is the Papua New Guinea coffee, a deep-toned coffee with juicy herbal taste. Colombia coffee, with balanced and nutty tasting notes, hails from Latin America.

Like any coffee related design project, work started with a tasting. Tribute has a complex taste from blended coffees, so the team knew they wanted a multi-layered, artistic look for the bag. Elements of origin and branding came together on the black, white and green bag. What came out of sketches and conversations was the idea of hand-painting a green circle rather than using the iconic Starbucks logo. Something bold for this very special coffee."

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“Just as coffee taste is unique to an individual’s palate, people can look at the bag design and interpret it in different ways."

- Marisa Crane, Senior Designer for Starbucks

As a brand and as a studio, we couldn’t be more proud of the finished product. And that goes for both the coffee and the design.

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In-store:

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Designed by Starbucks