labels Sam & Oliver Sparks, Flare & Burst (dry spice labels)

So here's a preliminary concept of 3 dry spices, I thought to take a slight risk with the colors to keep the dry spice lines separate from the wet sauce lines (as will be the two BBQ sauce lines):
 
Sparks is an adobo seasoning is a dry spice blend of salt, onion, garlic, cumin, chipotle and other delicious things.  It smells divine and can be used on anything from vegetables, potatoes and steak to pizza, fries, sandwiches and more.
 
Flare is a mango-chipotle dry spice that has a great nose and adds some mellow sweetness to things like mashed potatoes, roasted butternut squash and even right on pork chops, etc.  Definite sweetness with a warm chipotle end note.
 
Burst heavily focuses on cracked 'gourmet grind' black pepper as it's primary nose and body.  I didn't go with butcher grind because it was too coarse.  Red pepper, Cayenne and other spices round this out, very close to concept of a steak or chicken grilling seasoning blend but with NO salt.  I know people argue whether to put salt on before or after grilling a steak, and I decided to err on the side of a) healthy and b) you can always add salt later which is c) another future line coming (smoked sea salt).  Salt can always be added later but not easily removed.
 
Here's the concept work (note, most fields are simply borrowed from the Cinder / Stoke line, but the label is not the same size as a woozy, this is 3x6" instead of 3.25 x 5.5".  Because of this, the center panel needed to be 1/2" wider so it didn't appear "boxed" by a white bar on each side when viewed.
 
Also to note: these are printed in 2 color in an effort to reduce cost of reproduction.  A 3rd color could be added but will require an extra plate and higher per-label costs.
 
Sparks1.png

 
Flare1.png

 
Burst1.png

 
Example1.png

 
Thoughts?  Too wacky with the colors?  To hard to read the colors?
 
No salt or sugar.
 
Technically a 4-pepper that contains gourmet grind black pepper, red pepper, chipotle, smoked paprika
 
various other trace spices.
 
I don't know why I don't just call it 4-pepper.  Hmmph
 
Maybe stay away from the numbers. Black pepper being peppercorn, and paprika, most people don't even know that's a pepper. Red pepper, as in bell?
 
Okay, I swear you'll get emails "Why is there only chipotle in this, I ordered 4 pepper blend!"
 
And most people are going to assume there is salt and sometimes sugar (for pork etc.) in a rub. I'd say you can use this in a rub but it is not a rub yet.
 
So maybe:
 
Smoky Pepper Seasoning
 
or similar.
 
Like LD says, to paraphrase, spell stuff out for people, knock them over the head with it, treat them as imbeciles LOL. Something like that LD?
 
THP - I try to be polite about it because I don't want to put down anyone, but something like that, yeah. ;)

Spelling things out avoids misunderstandings.

Misunderstandings can cause people to not purchase a product, or to purchase a product and get mad because something that was implied or inferred isn't there.

Question for S&O: are these "seasonings" things you've made and used? Or are they things you slapped together to have a line of seasonings? Have you done much market research here?

I buy a lot of rubs - I'm a BBQ buff. I'd go so far as to say I am your target audience.

I also know a lot of BBQ buffs. Collectively, we buy jars of smoked paprika, dried peppers, etc. I have 4 types of chipotle and over 30 individual dried pepper powders, ground and flaked.

I make my own rubs and have more than a dozen brands of gourmet rubs.

One of the 1st, if not THE first question to ask when bringing a product to market is, "am I filling a need?"

Based on the ingredients you mentioned I would not purchase this. I can easily make it myself, and as THP says, they're not quite rubs (no salt, no sugar) and I don't really even see them as "seasonings" since they have no salt.

Just playing devil's advocate here, but I'm trying to think of what i would do with these and every answer I come up with I already have something on hand to do it with, so I wouldn't pay a premium for it.

Dunno....
 
Lucky Dog Hot Sauce said:
I try to be polite about it because I don't want to put down anyone, but something like that, yeah. ;)
 
LOL yeah I don't mean they actually are, but if you act as if they are at least 100% of people understand your product. Or let's say 95% There's always that 5%. ;)
 
These are a low-cogs line of add-ons for booth sales.  My main focus is still sauces.  (hot and bbq) - these are blends that I use myself, and asked a spice mill to blend for me so I have them to sell as addon and secondary sales.
 
"for the sake of having it?" kind of.  I'm simply counting on a customer coming by the booth and saying "hey what do you have... oh this smells great, hey honey smell this... wow this would go great on _______ how much is this?  Oh 3 for 10?  I'll take one of each" - while I upsell the sauces and use these as add-ons.
 
I have a great buy line on these and the prices won't be high.  Like I said, I got a great deal, so it will be passed along as such.
 
The adobo blend I did myself.  I use it all over when I cook, as the stuff you get at the grocery store (Goya comes to mind) is just salt with turmeric powder and garlic  I'm aiming for a $4 5oz (weight) item, here, with my sauces being in the $5-6 range for a 5oz woozy.
 
So yes, all these blends are my blends, they offered to make these for me in cases of 12, minimum of 4 cases at a time.  So not heavily invested in this like the sauces where I need to commit to 150-300 gallons per shot.  The ingredients are quality though.  I always insist on good ingredients, not crap fillers, nothing extra for the sake of bulking up.  I'll admit this isn't exactly in my wheelhouse... dry spice blends I usually make on demand when I cook too.  I have a veritable warehouse in my pantry of random unique stuff.
 
 
Again, learning curve year for me, this is the year I get out there in a booth at a lot of shows and not just a table or by hand.
 
Edited for continuity.  It's been a long day.  I need a beer.
 
 
Don't give dunkin' donuts any more ideas ;)  I wouldn't be surprised at one point that someone simply offers to press a branding iron into your tongue for you.
 
Anyway, here are some updated revisions, I'll mess around a bit more...
 
{style_image_url}/attachicon.gif embers-mango1.png
 
{style_image_url}/attachicon.gif embers-3pepper.png
 
{style_image_url}/attachicon.gif embers-adobo1.png


chipotle adobo
EMBERS

blah blah blah
EMBERS

now the detail can be larger for dropping seasoning, especially since it's a rub? ...

i don't expect seasoning to lead to nice bark, but i do expect a rub to, i think ...

not sure where you are headed, but ...
On a side note (recipe note) I know you said the rub is salt free... is it sugar free too? Salt and sugar play a role in rubs, salt especially, so just wondering. If it is just three peppers and nothing else, I'm not sure I'd call it a rub.


nevermind, THP was there (I just didn't get to his yet) ...
 
If the concentration is sauce you may want to try one dry spice. I have no idea what I would put dry mango on, in Indian cooking they use dried green mango (amchoor) for tartness, but for a mango dish, I'd use fresh mango. Hard sell. Chili powder is great on mango, but this is both powdered. Popcorn? Ice cream? No idea.

Next.

The spice blend could be good but to be a rub I'd make it a real rub, and put a twist on it to make it unique. Maybe combine these two into a Caribbean Rub.

Sam & Oliver
Caribbean BBQ Embers
Seasoning & Rub

Adobo is a hard sell. Most people don't know what it is, and if they do they buy stuff in the ethnic foods aisle. If they know what it is they may wonder what the heck chipotle is doing in there. You know, purists. Most people wouldn't know if it is something to add before cooking, during, or after. Or what you do with this shaker. Drop Adobo, play on Chipolte. Chipotle is a very popular flavor and very good powdered. Play that up!

Sam & Oliver
Chiptotle Embers
Seasoning

Chipotle Embers sounds cool it would pique my interest. The Adobo would throw me.

On the side you could put "An adobo style..." blah and explain.
 
Just more opinions.  ;)
 
The Hot Pepper said:
If the concentration is sauce you may want to try one dry spice. I have no idea what I would put dry mango on, in Indian cooking they use dried green mango (amchoor) for tartness, but for a mango dish, I'd use fresh mango. Hard sell. Chili powder is great on mango, but this is both powdered. Popcorn? Ice cream? No idea.

Next.

The spice blend could be good but to be a rub I'd make it a real rub, and put a twist on it to make it unique. Maybe combine these two into a Caribbean Rub.

Sam & Oliver
Caribbean BBQ Embers
Seasoning & Rub

Adobo is a hard sell. Most people don't know what it is, and if they do they buy stuff in the ethnic foods aisle. If they know what it is they may wonder what the heck chipotle is doing in there. You know, purists. Most people wouldn't know if it is something to add before cooking, during, or after. Or what you do with this shaker. Drop Adobo, play on Chipolte. Chipotle is a very popular flavor and very good powdered. Play that up!

Sam & Oliver
Chiptotle Embers
Seasoning

Chipotle Embers sounds cool it would pique my interest. The Adobo would throw me.

On the side you could put "An adobo style..." blah and explain.
 
Just more opinions.  ;)
+1
 
I get the Embers for seasonings as being little bursts of heat.  I like that. 
 
Speaking as a potential customer's line of thought here....
I don't get what an "adobo" seasoning is.  The only thing I know of as adobo is the sauce that chipotles come in.  So did they dry chipotles in adobo and grind it up?
 
 
I agree that a rub should have salt and/or sugar.  That's kind of important for butt rubs, etc.  Nothing wrong with just calling it a Smokey Southwest Spice Mix, or Caribbean Spice Blend or a 3Pepper Spice Mix.  Then put "tropical hints of mango combined with the smoky flavor of chipotle makes a perfecgt spice for pork, chicken and asa seasoning for stir fry....blablabla.."
 
People kind of know the general gist of a Southwest Spice Mix, so beyond that, as long as they can read the ingredients and it sounds good....If they like it they will buy it again, regardless of the name.

I feel like "adobo" is one of those things you are going to be explaining to Every Single Customer!!!! n and we've had this discussion before.  If you're not there to explain it, and the customer can't "get" it by themselves just looking at the label (not even going to if they will pick up the bottle and read a side panel...)  They won't buy it.  It has to be 100% StupidProof to save yourself a LOT of mental :headbang:-ing.
 
Case in point. FROM WHAT I KNOW, the definitions vary. In Mexico it's an immersion of something in a sauce (chipotles en adobo) and canned or set aside for marination, and in Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic it's a general purpose seasoning salt. Every household has Goya Adobo and they sprinkle it on pretty much everything they cook. Not sure which one this is trying to be. It says Chipotle, but it emulates the dry seasoning.
 
I am sure there are other definitions. LD mentioned adobo in CA.
 
They use the hell of the Goya stuff here if you ever order anything at a Hispanic grocery. Burgers, etc. Yuck. It's just garlic salt and other stuff. MSG I am sure.
 
I guess I am saying to me it is not appealing lol.

salsalady said:
I feel like "adobo" is one of those things you are going to be explaining to Every Single Customer!!!! n and we've had this discussion before.  If you're not there to explain it, and the customer can't "get" it by themselves just looking at the label (not even going to if they will pick up the bottle and read a side panel...)  They won't buy it.  It has to be 100% StupidProof to save yourself a LOT of mental :headbang:-ing.
 
Yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuup!
 
I have seen that gravy like chicken dish called chicken adobo, so that is Filipino, cool! That's the adobo I would like. I also the adobo sauce chipoltes are in. Other than that haven't liked what is called adobo.
 
This is like what is curry? But even more vague.
 
adobo.jpg

 
It's based off a recipe for adobo seasoning I got from the food network actually a while ago.  But I tweaked it to fit a variety of things.  Tons of stuff.  From a fry seasoning to veggies, to on a sandwich, to a rub on a pork shoulder... on chicken, then onto the grill it actually forms a "shell" as the sugars in it react to the heat.  A great way to make a crispy skin on skinless chicken breasts.
 
rub.jpg

 
Anyway... it smells divine and it so extremely versatile it is a very good value for what it is.
 
Kosher salt, granulated onion, garlic, cumin, chipotle, ground oregano and 8 other spices round it out... it's one of those that sells itself with it's smell.  I've passed around shaker bottles of it at our work cafeteria candidly and almost everyone used it, people loved the way it smelled and tasted.  Any samples I handed out were positively received.
 
The smell is important but hard to convey on paper.  I suppose this is why I'm going to be selling it in-booth mainly, and it will be available online but I'm hoping this will lure 'browsers' and add-on sales while I'm selling sauce.
 
Will come in a 5oz (weight) plastic container (clear plastic) with a black shake/measure flip lid.

The  mango (I don't have a picture of) has a strawberry-blonde coloring and smells like a mango, with a hint of smoky chipotle in the back end.
 
Goes great on roasted butternut squash, right on top of pork chops, mixed into mashed potatoes, on a salad, etc.
 
has a nose of sweet mango that fades nicely into a mild heat from the chipotles, not too grainy for a mouth feel.
 
It sounds good, but the word adobo will confuse people. Especially since you made your own version up with added spices. The spices you listed are basic spices that could be in any mix. You tailored yours to your liking, the amounts and the ones you use, but I don't see how that makes it adobo. Goya Adobo is an everyday spice. So it is by those terms, but then why not call it something like Everyday Spice?
 
Sam & Oliver
Chipotle Embers
Everyday Spice Mix
 
Sam & Oliver 
Chipotle Embers
All-Purpose Seasoning
 
I don't know much about adobo but I know jerk. You can visit Jamaica, love jerk, and come home and make your own by taking out some spices and adding 8 new spices and chipotle. Is that jerk?
 
: shrugs :

This may be one of those times where you stick to your guns and call it what you want. I've had fun giving input but I'm exhausted. Looking forward to see what you do! :D

Or just simply call it Embers.
 
Same & Oliver
Embers
Everyday Spice Mix
 
Same & Oliver 
Embers
All-Purpose Seasoning
 
 
Okay............. done :)

Wait...
 
 
 
one more...
 
 
 
I think I like this:
 
 
Sam & Oliver
Embers
Everyday Seasoning
 
Has a good ring to it. Explain Adobo style on the side.
 
Okay.................................done!!! :)

Good luck!
 
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