There’s been an uptick in single-serve packaging, from premium condiment sachets to beautifully designed shot-sized supplements, but nobody in the olive oil space has done anything close to what Yiayia and Friends pulled off with their single-serve sticks designed by Beetroot. 

Each flavor gets its own saturated block color, making the range function as a color-coded system you can read across a kitchen counter at a glance without ever squinting at the small print. The recurring pair of expressive illustrated eyes that appear across the range as an alternative logo is one of the most charming and clever brand devices, making the brand instantly recognizable and deeply human. What makes this so different from the olive oil category’s usual approach of rustic photography and serif typography is the complete embrace of illustration and character as the primary design language, treating a single-serve sachet like an itty bitty canvas for storytelling and cultural joy.

Yiayia and friends is a brand born in Greece but addressed to a global audience. It represents local, traditional values with universal appeal: respect for nature, a sustainable life cycle, care for others and the environment, food as an expression of tenderness and care. Bright block coloring, naif-style illustrations that are equal parts joyful and evocative, interlocking characters that shape and complete each other, are the defining features of the unique yiayia and friends illustration style.

The single-serve range was created in response to customer needs. For one, single servings are a perfect way to ensure you are using the correct amount each time to perfectly season your salad or dish. And for another, proponents of the Mediterranean Diet drink “shots” of extra virgin olive oil neat, in order to take full advantage of its plentiful health benefits. Single-serve packages are easy to store, to transport, and to use, quickly, cleanly and requiring no kitchen implements.

The yiayia range includes one classic EVOO and five flavored versions: garlic, basil, chili, truffle, and lemon. Each flavor has an assigned color: var(–fixed-dark-color) (yiayia’s signature color!) for the classic EVOO, gray for garlic, green for basil, orange red for chili, brown for truffle, and yellow for lemon. The classic EVOO is distinct not just because of the color, but because it bears yiayia’s likeness. For the flavored EVOOS, the single color visually communicates the flavor, so that you can easily pick up the right sachet without having to read the print. At the same time, the distinctive “yiayia eyes” are present on all packaging, acting as an “alternative logo” that identifies these products as yiayia’s goodies!

The single-serve range package design has also been extended to include two more products: tomato juice and lemon juice. These are also color-coded, in red and yellow, respectively, but they are differentiated from the EVOOs with the use of the relevant vegetable/fruit shape on the packaging. These two products are including in the same packaging scheme as the EVOOs because customers consume them the same way: as single-serve dressing potions, and especially as single “health shots”.