CRISTIAN VALVERDE ELEVATES FESTIVE TRADITION WITH ELEVARIA’S MINIMALIST CHOCOTÓN PACKAGING

In Trujillo, Peru, specialty coffee shop Elevaria has unveiled a refined Chocotón for the 2025 festive season, with packaging designed by Cristian Valverde. Using porous materials, embossing and restrained typography, the design reimagines the visually saturated panetón category through calmness, craft and contemplative luxury.

In the northern Peruvian city of Trujillo, where festive tables are traditionally laden with brightly wrapped panetón boxes, specialty coffee house Elevaria has chosen to take a markedly different route this season. For Christmas 2025, the café introduced a Chocotón that not only refines its bakery credentials but also challenges the visual language long associated with one of Latin America’s most iconic festive staples.

Designed by Cristian Valverde, the Elevaria Chocotón arrives encased in packaging that speaks in hushed tones rather than exuberant shouts. In a market dominated by saturated reds, gilded flourishes and overt celebratory imagery, Valverde’s approach is contemplative and pared back. The result is a premium, multisensory presentation that positions the product as an experience of intention rather than impulse.

Panetón – from which the chocolate-infused “chocotón” derives – is deeply woven into Peru’s festive culture. Supermarket aisles each December become a riot of colour and nostalgic symbolism, with packaging codes that have remained largely unchanged for decades. Against this backdrop, Elevaria sought to retain the cultural character of the product while distancing itself from the category’s visual clichés. The brief demanded a delicate balance: respect tradition, yet renew it.

At the heart of the design concept lies Elevaria’s primary ingredient: sourdough. Rather than relegating this detail to a line of copy, the packaging allows it to become the central narrative device. The materiality and texture of the box echo the artisanal nature of the bread itself, inviting consumers to engage not just visually but tactilely. Porous cardboard was selected deliberately, its subtle grain and organic quality reinforcing the handcrafted process behind the Chocotón.

Embossed detailing further amplifies this sensory interplay. The raised surfaces catch light softly, creating depth without ostentation. Hot stamping is applied with restraint, offering glints of sophistication rather than overwhelming shine. Together, these techniques elevate the packaging beyond mere containment, transforming it into a quiet celebration of craft.

Valverde’s visual proposal leans heavily on breathing space. Generous empty areas frame the typographic composition, encouraging the eye to pause. In a retail environment often characterised by visual noise, this calmness becomes a differentiator. The typographic pairing itself is carefully studied: refined, contemporary letterforms converse with more expressive elements to anchor the product within Elevaria’s established brand DNA.

The café’s enigmatic iconography – a signature of Elevaria’s identity – is subtly integrated, ensuring coherence across its broader visual system. Seasonal motifs appear, but they do so discreetly, filtered through the brand’s aesthetic lens rather than imposed as generic festive markers. The overall effect is one of intentional restraint, where celebration is suggested rather than declared.

For Elevaria, consumption is framed as a conscious, quality-driven act. The Chocotón’s packaging reinforces this philosophy by slowing down the moment of purchase. It invites consumers to appreciate material, texture and typographic nuance before even tasting the product inside. In doing so, it aligns the act of gifting or sharing with reflection and discernment.

The project was also shaped by practical realities. Developed within limited resources and tight time constraints, the design demonstrates how thoughtful material selection and disciplined visual editing can achieve a premium effect without extravagance. By focusing on fewer but more meaningful production techniques – embossing, hot stamping and the inherent tactility of porous board – the team achieved depth through simplicity.

Within Peru’s competitive festive bakery market, where price promotions and bold graphics typically dominate, Elevaria’s Chocotón stands apart as an object of design. It signals the café’s broader ambition: to elevate everyday rituals through excellence in both product and presentation. The packaging does not attempt to outshine tradition; instead, it reframes it.

Ultimately, Valverde’s work for Elevaria is less about rejecting the festive spirit and more about redefining how it can be expressed. By allowing sourdough to “illuminate” the design and by celebrating space, materiality and subtle iconography, the Chocotón becomes more than a seasonal indulgence. It becomes a statement of intent – that luxury, when handled thoughtfully, does not need to be loud to be felt.