Open up a book of chocolate 

Cocoa Book made by Boxmarche.

Emotion is the keyword in today’s ambitious chocolate packaging concepts. The package must be enticing on the shelf, and opening it should be a moment of surprise evoking great emotions. The Cocoa Book package made by the Italian packaging manufacturer Boxmarche opens like a book and contains twelve varieties of speciality chocolate bars by Antica Cioccolateria Eraclea.

The unique invention won the Confectionery Category of the international ECMA Carton Awards 2007 packaging design competition arranged by the Pro Carton association. As the jury commended, “the overall concept and the very high quality of the print and finishing all came together to produce a high quality package for a high quality product. A pack that will really stand out at the point of sale and that can also be used as a display.”

Combining aesthetics and protection

All printing, finishing, die-cutting and creasing stages were made in-house by Boxmarche. For the cover of the book, Boxmarche uses Stora Enso’s CKB, a fully coated multilayer board with unbleached kraft on the reverse. The individual chocolate bars are wrapped in Neocart folding boxboard, finished with a matte plastic coating and hot foil stamping.

“The challenge was to obtain a good balance between the aesthetic idea of a book and a practical display and protection of the chocolate bars. The chocolate bars are five millimetres thick, so we had to create a specific solution to keep them in place. We decided to use Laminil foam with two sheets of 360 gsm CKB board laminated on both sides. This way we were able to carve out sturdy niches for the chocolate bars, which are as a result ideally displayed and securely fastened. CKB provides the high stiffness and folding properties to suit this application,” says Simone Fantoni, Product Manager at Boxmarche. “Neocart’s cream reverse side is well-suited to the chocolate end use, as the natural shade lends a warm feeling. The balance between stiffness and folding ability were other key requirements for the board.”

“The target was to create an innovative gift box for the younger market segment and for those who are eager to experience exotic new tastes. The idea for the book came from Eraclea. The package is designed to tell the story of chocolate and to take consumers on a journey to a tropical paradise. The contents consist of an array of exotic flavours for the gourmet to choose from,” concludes Mr. Fantoni.