Bongo Roasting Co
Designer | The PCKG Company, Elaina Nelson & Team
Location | Nashville, Tennessee USA
Launch Date | April 1st, 2026
Bongo Roasting Co. wanted to create a light-hearted, fun way to tell the story of sustainability in coffee. The idea for Barista Boy began one day when a band rented our café to shoot a music video. One of the musicians pretended to make a latte and shouted, “I’m Barista Boy!” Within fifteen minutes, our company owner had added a sidekick and, true to his background as a former journalist-turned-questionable-poet, had written the first (and only) draft of a coloring book.
In the poem, Barista Boy and Bongo Baby save the world from corporate coffee, explaining that great coffee is about more than taste. Their mission is to buy organically grown coffee directly from farmers they know, paying prices above standard Fair Trade rates.
Rather than spending time refining the poem, our owner called an illustrator friend. Within a week, a coloring book was headed to press. The poem has thankfully been shortened for this box, which introduces the characters and their approach to sustainable coffee.
The old-time comic book style and recyclable box were developed in collaboration with The PCKG Company. Barista Boy and Bongo Baby are the first in Bongo’s planned Superheroes of Coffee series, where each box will tell the story of sustainable coffee and celebrate the people who make it taste so darn good.
Narratively, sustainability is embedded directly into the story. The comic follows Barista Boy and Bongo Baby as they seek partnerships with small-scale farms that grow organically and are paid fairly. Rather than presenting sustainability as a marketing slogan, the packaging frames it as the core mission of the “superheroes” within the story.
This makes the ethical sourcing message accessible and memorable.
The sustainability value, therefore, operates on three levels: responsible material selection, structural durability, and educational storytelling. Together, these elements ensure the message is both credible and actionable.
