Preparing your cold coffee packaging for future success
Cold coffee packaging is crucial to success in the modern coffee market. It is the first point of interaction with your customers, and making an impactful impression increases the likelihood of converting new customers and keeping existing ones engaged and loyal to your brand.
Choosing the right materials, aesthetics, and design approach is critical from the outset. In the highly competitive retail coffee space – especially for RTD coffee – there is no margin for error.
Sustainable packaging materials, compelling brand storytelling, modern, social media-friendly aesthetics, and convenient formats are non-negotiables; luckily, great solutions exist.
We spoke to coffee retail consultant Bradley Rossiter to learn more about how to appeal to the modern consumer through product and packaging.
Why cold coffee is the horse to bet on
Today’s coffee market is packed with quality. Businesses of all shapes and sizes, from multinational branded coffee shop chains to independent micro roasteries, have the operational and marketing skills to compete in the same retail settings.
Coffeeshop and café revenue still represent a large proportion of overall global coffee sales. Still, customers are becoming increasingly comfortable purchasing their daily brew from alternative channels, like restaurants, supermarkets, or convenience stores – especially young ones.
In years past, local independent coffee shops or branded chains were perceived to be the best place to seek the highest quality coffee beverage. Still, as packaging, technology, and production methods have improved, younger shoppers are growing more confident in buying elsewhere.
RTD coffee is one such alternative, and it is quickly becoming a leading coffee channel. In 2025, the global RTD coffee market is valued at $38.05 billion and is expected to continue to grow at an average of 3.27% CAGR to the end of the decade. Gen-Z is the most captive audience.
In a nod to industry perceptions of RTD potential, one only needs to look at the product development coming from the most prominent players in the market. Starbucks, Costa Coffee, Califia Farms, and Coca-Cola are all jumping into the segment headfirst.
This is a key lesson for smaller businesses of new coffee market entrants: there are big bets on RTD growth. Developing a line of cold coffee products will help you appeal to a rapidly growing audience, expand your potential revenue streams, and futureproof your coffee business as younger audiences mature and increase their spending power.
“Being a father to an 18 and a 14-year-old, I observe how a technological diet of fast-paced social media has affected their ability to slow down and be still in the moment,” says Bradley.
“The retail coffee business, founded initially on staying and relaxing in your ‘third place,’ is shifting with a more demanding customer looking for less interaction at the order point and a quick turnaround.
“Appealing to the high energy generation, ready-to-drink is filling the need for a convenient quick fix. Cold coffee is a growing trend among this younger generation, which, in my view, is choosing a cold drink after the gym, a hockey game, or perhaps after a long work shift rather than a warm drink while sitting in the cafe. Relaxing is out; high energy is in.”
How sustainable cold coffee packaging bolsters your brand’s authenticity
Choosing to develop and manufacture RTD coffee is a solid first step but not a catch-all guarantee to success. Packaging, design, and authentic brand storytelling go hand-in-hand with the product itself when selling to younger audiences.
For good reason, aluminium cans are the most common form of cold coffee packaging today. From a business perspective, aluminium cans are readily available, robust and lightweight, safe and hygienic, and immensely customisable. Companies can make their products truly unique while cutting down on logistics challenges and improving food safety and quality performance.
Aluminium cans are also highly attractive to coffee shoppers. They are sleek and elegant, convenient, and infinitely recyclable. Millennials and Gen Z customers want to support brands with thoughtful, eye-catching designs and brand messaging that provide a convenient beverage solution sustainably and authentically – tick, tick, tick.
“Brand storytelling should take customers on a journey, moving from merely ‘head knowledge’ to ‘heart knowledge’, as a genuine connection is formed,” Bradley says.
“This happens when the customer’s story and underlying values align with the brand’s story and associated values. While crucial for success, it has also been detrimental to companies whose stories are later found to be fabricated. When a brand’s narrative is exposed as fiction, it generates animosity and distrust, revealing it as a short-lived strategy driven purely by financial gain.
“A prime example is the sustainability narrative – often just that, a narrative with little real-world delivery. Mixed messaging, opposing views, and countless voices flood social media, leaving consumers unsure of what to believe.
“At one of the coffee retail chains I worked at, the brand story was built in the most effective, powerful, and authentic way – through word of mouth. Rather than telling customers the story, we let customers share their own experiences with one another. When customers identify with each other, the brand builds itself. Live the brand; let your customers tell the story.”
Sustainable cold coffee packaging demonstrates to the customer that you are committed to environmentally friendly business practices. If their first interaction with your brand is via a recyclable, eco-conscious packaging approach, then your brand conveys authenticity, and your brand narrative is emboldened.
Bag-in-box and flexible cold brew pouches are another excellent example of sustainable cold coffee packaging that delivers eco-conscious brand narratives and consumer convenience. They are similarly highly customisable. While aluminium cans may remain the first choice for single-serve portioning, bag-in-box and flexible pouches offer multi-serve benefits and heightened sustainability credentials via compostability and material efficiency.
At Cold Brew Pak, we offer custom cans, bag-in-box, and flexible cold brew pouches as part of our lineup of cold coffee packaging options. All are highly customisable, recyclable or biodegradable, and available at competitive prices.
To source your own line of cold coffee packaging, visit our website or get in touch with us directly.
Cold coffee packaging
*Images provided by Parkway
