Café Kurubi | Thiago Pinto

Origin · The name

Gravel, in Tupi

Itakurubi means pedregulho — the town on the map where the coffee grows. The name keeps the place and the people in every cup.

Who is Kurubi?

From the Tupi-Guarani “Itakurubi” — pedregulho, gravel, grain, taken from the roots of the Brazilian people and the land our coffee grows in.

The name is a small homage to the peoples who built the pillars of Brazilian culture, and to a family’s more than fifty years of specialty coffee at Fazenda Santo Antônio.

Pedregulho — “gravel” — is also the town in São Paulo where the coffee and the brand’s story grow.

Black-and-white photo of a tractor raking coffee on the drying yard under a wide sky — Fazenda Santo Antônio

Origin · The route

From the farm to the world

Pedregulho to Campinas down the Anhanguera, then out to Brazil and the world. Tap a stop.

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Origin · The story

A fruit of this land

The brand’s own words: a family dream, and a Brazil beyond samba, carnival and football.

Know our roots

Pedregulho, in the high Mogiana region of São Paulo, is where our coffee and our story begin. Kurubi makes a family dream real: to bring you one of the best coffees in the world, made right here, on our land.

Brazil’s flavours carry the aroma of our land and our culture — beyond samba, carnival and football — and deserve to be tasted all over the world. That mix of feeling and flavour is what gives Kurubi life: a true fruit of this land of warriors.

Muito prazer, somos Kurubi.Nice to meet you — we are Kurubi.

Black-and-white portrait of an older coffee picker in a cap among the leaves — Fazenda Santo Antônio

Origin · The farm

Fifty harvests, still by hand

The brand starts where the coffee does: the farm, the harvest and the people who still pick by hand.

Two harvest photos side by side: a worker pulling a tarp between coffee rows in black and white, and a picker in golden light among ripe red cherries — Harvest at Fazenda Santo Antônio

Sunset over the farm: a lone tree and a line of pines in silhouette under a deep blue sky — Pedregulho, end of the day

Origin · The process

From the cherry to the aroma

A picker pouring a bucket of coffee cherries into a trailer at sunset, above black-and-white shots of a tractor raking beans and a wheelbarrow on the drying yard — Picking and drying

Roasted coffee beans floating in the dark around a rising curl of smoke — The aroma

Identity · Symbol and type

A symbol made of aroma

The rising lines of aroma become the symbol, and the stacked KU·RU·BI sits in a frame like a stamp on a sack. Amicale for the type.

Animated icon set: the aroma symbol — diagonal stripes rising like steam — and the product icons — The symbol

Typography plate: Amicale Typeface weights beside a field of diagonal lines — Amicale

Identity · System

A name that travels

Pathways drawn in lines frame the product, and the name was set for export from day one — a Western version and a Chinese one.

Diamond pattern of diagonal lines framing a hand holding coffee cherries in black and white — The pattern

Western and Chinese versions

Packaging · The bag

Kraft and black, screen-printed

Each blend named for the land — Mundukuru, Viakuru — on kraft bags printed by screen, the pattern climbing the top of the pack.

Two Kurubi kraft coffee bags, Mundukuru and Viakuru, screen-printed in black, on a piece of driftwood over roasted beans — Kraft bags, screen-printed

A Viakuru kraft bag on a wooden table among a hand grinder, a burlap sack of beans, an espresso, a latte and a milk jug — At the table

Packaging · Cans, capsules and cups

Cans, cups and good moments

Cans, Nespresso-compatible capsules, to-go cups in three varieties and a gift box that says what to do with it: aproveite bons momentos.

Kurubi gift box with patterned lid, cans in white, yellow and red, and capsules among coffee beans — The gift box

An espresso in a double-walled glass between a blurred kraft bag and a gold Kurubi can — In the cup

Print · Folder and cards

Know our roots

A folder that walks from the farm to the flavours, and cards in the same black-and-white language.

Kurubi print: an open folder with farm photos and flavour icons, its black cover “Conheça nossas raízes”, and two business cards beside coffee beans — Folder and cards

Coffee cherries drying, from deep brown to green and amber, filling the frame — The cherries

Retail · The store

The brand, as a place

The pattern became a glass wall and the tagline a fascia: Sabores do Brasil que o mundo vale a pena provar.

Kurubi store: counter under copper pendant lamps, a lit KURUBI sign on a patterned glass wall, and the “Sabores do Brasil que o mundo vale a pena provar” fascia — The counter

Kurubi store: espresso bar and shelves of bags and cans beside the patterned glass wall with the KURUBI sign — The bar

Retail · The store

Room to stay

Kurubi store lounge: tufted leather banquette and small tables by the window, and the retail counter with cans under black signage — The lounge

Recognition

Bronze and gold, 2017

Bronze for branding at Mídia Festival and gold for packaging and label at Festgraf.

Two trophies: a gold rooster for Bronze in Branding at Mídia Festival 2017, and the Festgraf trophy for Gold in Packaging and Label 2017 — Mídia Festival · Festgraf

“Brazilian flavours the whole world will want to taste.”
— Café Kurubi — tagline

Credits

Architecture: Vanessa Vialli
Photography — products and farm: Marcus Steinmeyer
Photography — store: Fernando Righetto