We were asked to develop a new range of Cordials under the name “Shake-it”, tapping into a renewed interest for drinks and convenience culture focused on elevating the experience of drinking and eating at home. The goal was to bring one of the oldest ingredients in cocktail making back into the “Art of Mixing”. We saw the opportunity to create a link between the rise of cocktail making at home, the search for more complex flavours, and the use of healthier ingredients.

Technically speaking, the word cordial is used to describe a tonic, syrup, or non-alcoholic drink used to mix cocktails. First produced in Italian apothecaries during the Renaissance, cordials were usually based on alcohol and seen as medicine in which herbs, spices, or other ingredients were allowed to steep. By the 18th century, cordials were being imbibed for their intoxicating effects and medicinal virtues and were fast becoming recreational drinks, eventually evolving into liqueurs. Fast forward to today, cordials contain no alcohol and have lost their association to either “medicine” or “grown-up pleasure”.

The name almost bluntly clarifies the context in which to use the products. What we needed was to position these products in the premium segment focusing on quality and credibility. Examples of existing brands in the cordial category are Monin and Rose’s. None of these products suggests mixing in their identity. Our concept pays homage to the first bartender’s recipe book by Jerry Thomas (1862), by rekindling the legacy of mixing and restore the pride in the cordial category.

The bottle is inspired by vintage carafes and classic glass juicers — the first associated with hosting and special occasions, the latter to everyday use. The 12 grooves at the bottom of the bottle offer a distinguished and premium look, exciting light refractions, and a good grip while pouring. If you slice across any citrus fruit, you’ll see a circle divided into sections called “liths” and limes have 12. Lime is the hero of cordials, the most commonly used. The grooves are meeting at the bottom mimicking the shape of a juicer. The cork has a utilitarian quality, balancing premium cue with accessibility.

The label is inspired by 19th-century medicinal labels. The bottom label communicates the flavours with illustrations of the main ingredients and a debossed pattern creating the illusion of a separate label material. Each product has a different cocktail suggestion on the back label, with an illustration of the drink as a nod to Italian aperitifs of the 70s.

Year: 2020
Client: Hans Just Group
Industries: Beverage

Deliverables:
Art Direction, Packaging, Branding, Custom bottle, Identity, Illustration

Materials: 
Glass, Uncoated paper, Aluminium

Techniques: 
Glass casting, Glass engraving, Offset printing, Blind embossing

Collaborators:
Irene Laschi, Illustration
Tomas Lindell, Illustration
Hinda Fahre, Photography
Mathias Hansson, CAD Development
Jesper Lind, Cocktail Stylist