It’s always nice to have your go-to feel-good coffee at any time of the day. It makes you feel ready to take on the day. But what exactly makes coffee even more special? It’s when the people who make it are deeply passionate about providing excellent coffee and sharing it with the wider community without compromising on their commitment to sustainability. Take New Mexico’s Little Bear Coffee, for example.

Through a more sustainable way of sourcing coffee and directly partnering with the farmers and producers who have a primary hand in caring for and making coffee, Little Bear takes coffee to a whole new level. Since their founding in 2018, Little Bear has been dedicated to creating a space for all coffee lovers to enjoy a great cup (or more) of coffee with great company. And now, years later, they have three wonderful spaces across New Mexico.

One more thing about Little Bear is that they ensure their sustainable approach to coffee is also reflected in their coffee packaging, so they chose noissue as their coffee packaging partner and opted for a recyclable, soy-based ink-printed packaging alternative to serve their coffee in. Find out more about Little Bear below!

Tell us a bit about your brand, introduce it to the world!

Little Bear Coffee is a specialty coffee company and roastery serving fully-traceable, ethically-sourced, specialty-grade coffee in Albuquerque, since 2018. With the slogan, Love People Use Coffee, Little Bear works to be an inclusive, supportive space for the community and delivers an incredible experience with incredible coffee.

Little Bear coffee has three cafes in Albuquerque; the original cafe in Uptown, the industrial, converted vintage garage cafe in Nob Hill on historic Route 66, and the bright and airy Civic Plaza location in Downtown Albuquerque. Little Bear’s passion for good drink goes beyond coffee; in the evenings the Nob Hill cafe becomes Little Bear PM, a vibey natural wine bar serving premiere natural wines, beer, and cocktails.

Tell us about the design for your packaging and how you’re using them?

Earlier this year, we made the switch to custom noissue cups for to-go cortados and drip coffees. It was important to us that our cups were not only a strong brand moment for Little Bear but also sustainable.

Now our cups create less waste, are fully recyclable and, as a bonus, they look incredible and are recognizable immediately. In town, you can spot a Little Bear to-go coffee a mile away, and we love that.

What made noissue a good fit for your packaging?

Transparency and sustainability are very important to us at Little Bear. We take pride in ethically sourcing the highest quality coffee and ensuring the producers and farmers are fairly compensated for their work. We wanted our coffee cups to be no different, noissue was a good fit for this reason. noissue shared the same values of sustainability, fair trade, and quality.