When we started Ritual Chocolate back in 2010, our focus was almost entirely on product quality and flavor.
That’s still the foundation of our work, but in those early years, branding and packaging were definitely an afterthought.
When we finally started cobbling packaging ideas together, we found it surprisingly difficult to create something that reflected the quality and process we’d worked so hard on. I thought design would come easily. I felt young and hip to the trends, so surely that would translate to our packaging, right? 🙂
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We looked everywhere for inspiration: Mayan art, early Spanish colonial images of drinking chocolate, old Swiss chocolate and mountain posters, Art Nouveau and Art Deco, whiskey bottles and wine labels.
Our first designs featured illustrations of old chocolate-making machines. Then came our first proper packaging—the kind professionally printed rather than made on our home printer and hand-taped together. It was inspired by a Scotch whisky label we loved that exuded elegance, process, and fine flavor.
We paired delicate animal illustrations with gold line work and beautiful linen paper.
It felt wonderful in your hand… but got completely lost on a store shelf.
We forged on for a couple of years, but knew we needed to evolve.
When we moved to Utah in 2015, our lives had become steeped in the mountains. We’d walk the trails from our Park City factory to watch the sunset after a long day and spend weekends exploring by mountain bike. We wanted Ritual to carry some of that sense of place.
We combined Art Deco-inspired monoline imagery with mountain elements and colors pulled from the landscape: sage green, red rock, purple meadow flowers, and even silver foil inspired by the area’s mining history. The Ritual look we’ve become known for was born.
And, as much as we hate to admit the importance of packaging… our sales doubled almost overnight.
It was my first real lesson in how important emotional connection is for a food brand, especially chocolate, which, let’s be honest, is often a wonderfully emotional impulse buy.
From there came our Mountain Line: flowy background hues, geometric ingredients, and a more playful, expressive side of Ritual.
And now we’re evolving again.
Our new packaging
is sleeker and simpler.
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We’ve moved away from the folding box, which had become expensive and incredibly labor-intensive to assemble, particularly during the holidays. Losing that format allowed us to rethink the brand again: a stronger logo, messaging that speaks more clearly to who we are today, and some fun new elements that still feel unmistakably Ritual.
The packaging has changed a lot over the years,
but what’s inside, and what drives us, hasn’t.
We hope you love this next evolution as much as we do. And thank you for supporting Ritual, in all its different looks, through the years.
