Our new coffee packaging hit the café shelves Friday. After over a year of planning, designing, and behind the scenes excitement, we are delighted to finally introduce these bags, the first phase of a major redesign of the Matchstick look.
The history
When we began roasting coffee at Matchstick over three years ago, we wanted a simple, beautiful bag that let the coffee speak for itself. Developed with designers Dirk Wright & Cameron McKague, our kraft paper bags received design accolades, allowed us to work with 20 artists who contributed bag illustrations over the years, and, vitally, kept our coffee safe as it travelled across the city and country.
But the kraft paper bags also have shortcomings: they wrinkle easily, and damage quickly if not treated with care. The process of stamping each bag was slow and prone to error, and did not allow space for the amount of information we eventually came to want to communicate.
Next generation
We are pleased to present a new generation of Matchstick packaging, once again designed by Dirk Wright & Cameron McKague. These bags are the first in a series of redesigned elements which we look forward to sharing with you as they roll out.
What’s new:
- Design – colour, illustrations, patterns and a new shape.
- Easy-closing zipper – a tight seal maintains coffee quality over time.
- Compostable – the new bags - exclusive of the zipper and valve - are fully biodegradable and can be put into any city compost bin. Please dispose of the bags thoughtfully when you are finished with your coffee.
- More information – new bags will include expanded origin information, tasting notes, and details about the producers.
- More espressos available – many espressos used to be available only on bar while you were visiting our shop, or as a wholesale offering. We’re now making all of our espressos available in retail bags. Look for lots of new African espresso options on the shelves.
- Phasing out rotating images – at any given time, each coffee will have a unique label colour, but we will no longer be pairing images with each coffee. We’ll miss the novelty of ever-changing art, but we think that the beauty and functionality of these new packages makes up for the change.
We hope you’ll be just as excited tearing open your first bag as we were packing our coffee into them. 
