Box Vox

packaging as content

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July 13, 2009

Decaf Orange

Sanka-Jars
Photo from Roadside Pictures’ Flickr Photostream shows chronology of instant Sanka labels

Sanka was so successful at getting the public to associate their brand color with decaffeinated coffee, in general, that, in the context of coffee, orange has become genericized.

First marketed in the United States in 1923, Sanka was initially sold only at two Sanka Coffee Houses in New York, but it soon was brought into retail…

The bright orange label that made Sanka easily identifiable to consumers found its way into coffee shops around the country in the form of the decaf coffee pot. Coffee pots with a bright orange handle are a direct result of the American public's association of the color orange with Sanka, no matter which brand of coffee is actually served.

–from Wikipedia’s entry on Sanka

As with trademarks, the color, orange (genericized or otherwise) takes on different meanings in different product categories. (For example: this, this, this, this & this.)

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

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