CBX Captures Bubble Tea Experience

Del Monte Foods is tapping into the fast-growing Bubble Fruit Tea beverage market with the launch of its new bubble tea brand: Joyba. Brand design agency CBX of New York City and Minneapolis was, in turn, tapped to establish the beverage brand’s positioning, tone, and reason for being.

The CBX design process for Joyba had two main phases of work. CBX began by developing a Joyba brand mark for the lightly sweetened, brewed tea and juice drink that features popping boba that burst and release a flavorful juice when you bite it. With consideration for logo design, typography, and color, CBX wanted to keep the opportunity of brand expansion for Joyba open for future innovation into other categories beyond ready-to-drink beverages.

The second phase of CBX’s work was the Joyba Bubble Fruit Tea design exploration. Joyba launched in a custom 12-ounce plastic cup with an embedded telescoping straw to replicate an authentic boba shop experience. The design team took advantage of the transparent cup to showcase the popping boba at the bottom of the cup, and created patterning reminiscent of the popping boba and tea experience dating back to Taiwan in the 1980s.

Joyba’s visual world captures and celebrates joyful moments and experiences. The design for all four flavors – Strawberry Lemonade Green Tea, Mango Passion Fruit Green Tea, Cherry Hibiscus Caffeine Free Tea, and Raspberry Dragon Fruit Black Tea design – uses a collection of simple, iconic shapes to illustrate flavors. “Joyba’s key consumer targets are Gen Y and Gen Z consumers, and CBX knows that this new Joyba branding needed to feel aspirational, trendy, and experiential rather than functional,” says Associate Creative Direct at CBX Lauren Kossar. “The imagery needed to clearly convey it was a popping boba bubble fruit tea product, but also speak to a more adventurous flavor profile and experiential moment.”

The color palette is fruit and product inspired with natural colors derived from real fruit and milky flavors. The fruit depictions transform real fruit flavors and ingredients into a playful, boba-inspired experience. The combination of colors, tones, and shades gives the “bubbles” the illusion of movement, breathing life into the flavors.