23 Nov 2006 1444H

Chimes Ginger Chews

Kudos to Chimes Ginger Chews, which I picked up at the local H-Mart the other day, for their novel, visual twist on an old, very well established brand of Indonesian soft ginger candy, Ting Ting Jahe. To introduce Ting Ting Jahe to the broad American market, the product manager for Roxy Trading, Andrew Ma, invested in graphic design — packaging cosmetics — to win the shelf space war. He took his ideas to Fitch, who produced some standout packaging for the candy with these laminated bags and tins in eye-catching colors. In addition, there’s something quite innovative by tweaking the recipe slightly to include flavors beyond the original hot ginger, such as peppermint and peanut butter. People are willing to take leadership by breaking the modern conservatism of Asian culinary thought in order to experiment with new things, which is very laudable. The peppermint is not as successful as it could be, I feel, but, I appreciate it!

The only complaints I have about this experiment are that the same attention couldn’t have been applied to the website, and that original checked paper wrappings for the candy contain bigger portions, and are much easier to unwrap than these tiny foil wrappers inside the Chimes bag. Besides being smaller portions, the foil wrappers are quite difficult to bust open, although no doubt the single-serving foil wrapper preserves the desirable soft texture of the candy much longer than the paper packets do.

Permanent link to Chimes Ginger Chews

Filed under Design

1 response to "Chimes Ginger Chews"

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

21 Dec 2007 2136H

Paul Saunders writes:

As a business owner marketing some health products, and a packaging addict I have started the search for tin based packaging which will take our own products to a new level for the consumer. Recently, in Nov 07, I took time out to visit a friend in Chicago with the intention of some quality business down time - but little did I realise how far advanced the ‘tin’ concept has reached in USA until I ventured shopping. Here in Australia it is rare to find top end tin packaging for low priced daily consumables such as mints etc. Things are changing though with some of the big boys from the USA introducing this concept which is well overdue and one which consumers are itching to be exposed to, particulary the 80’s generation. Chimes, and their agency have really done a first class job with their branding I feel - I’m jealous !! Needless to say I will be approaching Fitch to discuss such a brief for our own products which are craving to be tinned ! Embossing is without doubt extremely effective for that touch feely experience. In this eco changing world what consumer would ever throw away such a gorgeous work of art which can used time and time again for a multitude of uses. As a new user of the chews I found them to be yummy and just the right size .. and as a parent of an extreme tennis athelete the 0% ’s allow him to be decadent and healthy at the same time. I’m impressed, well done.

And now it's your turn.

Fire your weapon, soldier. Just be careful of friendly fire. NAME & EMAIL required.

Your response