Juan Valdez: Cafe Latte

Juan Valdez, who is a fictional character who appears in ads from the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia, has finally made his way to the ready to drink iced coffee category. Unfortunately, we’re less than impressed with this product, starting with its extremely sweet and milky formulation. The coffee feels very much like a secondary part of the mix, with the product tasting like coffee flavored milk rather than an actual coffee drink. And, more importantly, it’s very similar to many other drinks that are already on the market. So, why would anyone try this one? Clearly, they are trying to answer that with the branding, although the familiarity with Juan Valdez (at least in the USA) has certainly fallen since the rise of Starbucks. They’ve haven’t really helped their cause with the graphic design, which uses a rather unattractive burlap sack background and only a small cutout of the larger Juan Valdez logo. Otherwise, the label feels very sterile and easy to miss. Overall, this product seems like something that is banking heavily on the brand recognition of Juan Valdez, but even with that, we can’t imagine this doing overly well given where the product currently stands.