Popular orange liqueur brand Cointreau is getting one of it's most significant facelifts since the brand’s founding in 1849. Cointreau will soon be rolling out a brand new bottle design, inspired by French elegance and as a tribute to its crucial ingredient – the orange.

For the first time, new Cointreau bottles will now feature prominent illustrations of oranges on the label. Fanny Chrtomberg, international director at Cointreau, elaborated on the decision to bring the fruit front and centre:

"When I first joined Cointreau in 2017, I realised that because it’s a square bottle with amber glass, you can’t see what is inside, and because of that, people don’t know how to use it. This has been our challenge worldwide. So we said, maybe we should try bring the precious fruit, the orange, from the inside to the outside, and show people that Cointreau is made with orange"

The bottle also pays homage to the brand’s roots, with the gates to Cointreau’s very first distillery in Angers, France also depicted on the label. These aesthetics were designed to convey the sensorial experience on walking into an orangery.

The new label also features the quote ‘harmonie d’esprit d’écorces d’oranges douces et amères’, which means ‘harmony of sweet and bitter orange peel spirit’. (Image source: Cointreau)

Even the copper cap was changed with the fruit in mind, with the new Cointreau bottle featuring a textured cap finish meant to resemble the orange peel.

As for the bottle shape itself, the brand kept the square design constant but did make some adjustments for better ergonomics. Changes include lengthening the bottle by 4mm for easier pouring while still keeping the weight the same, which the brand highlighted as a “major technical challenge”. On the side of the bottle is a raised rendering of the stained-glass windows at the Angers distillery, adding aesthetic flair while helping to improve grip. The new bottle is made from two-thirds recycled glass, featuring materials sourced from Europe.

Another consideration was balancing modernity and tradition. So while the bottle continues to pay tribute to the motifs of the brand’s past, the redesign will also see a QR code added to the label. Scanning the QR code will automatically give consumers access to a online experience with almost 400 drink recipes and tips for making cocktails with the iconic orange liqueur.

The newly designed Cointreau bottles will hit shelves in the UK in autumn 2022, and is scheduled to be available globally by the end of this year.

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You may also be interested in checking out this vintage 1930 Cointreau poster ad designed by Charles Louput!

Cheers!

@lotusroot518