2023 Entrants - Narrateworld
Company Name Narrafood Publishing
Products Entered Narratè® Kids - Planet - Classic
Tell us about your business
Narratè® is the brand that defines a new, original, publishing format of food design that creatively combines two ancient traditions, tea and reading. It consists of a short story paired with a tea or herbal tea bag, whose infusion takes exactly the reading time: 5 minutes.
The story is connected with the flavour: for each story, in fact, we have formulated a specific blend that allows you to taste on the palate what you have read with your eyes. Each blend is organic and ICEA certified (https://icea.bio/en/)
Conceived, designed and produced totally in Italy, it was marked in 2015 at Expo Milan with the first title: L’essenza di Milano in un tè (The essence of Milan in a tea bag.) The municipality of Milan distributed it to the visitors of the 25 city libraries during the Expo period. In the same year, our publishing house, Narrafood Edizioni srl, which is based in Milan, was also established.
In 2022 we reached 60 titles in our catalogue, divided into 4 publishing lines and 2 series:
- NarraPLANET (12 titles): they are "Souvenir Teas", to recall the Essence of the most beautiful cities and territories in the world both with the story and with the associated blend;
- NarraPEOPLE (9 titled): teas dedicated to the greatest protagonists of our history;
- NarraLIFE (3 titles): teas to discover the essence of the great themes of life, divided into two series:
• KIDS – The good morning tales (6 titles)
• Zodiaci Essentiae (12 titles)
- NarraTHERAPY (18 titles – currently available only in Italian) This line, called Philosophical Herbal Teas, while relying on the same basic idea (reading time = infusion time) differs from the previous ones also for its packaging: a box-shaped package inspired by that of medicines. The leaflet contains both the texts and the single-dose herbal tea bag. A holistic remedy made up of therapeutic words and biological medicinal infusions. Philosophical tales and herbal teas enhance each other with the aim of helping you understand and fill the gaps underlying the most common contemporary discomforts; therefore, they are called “Literary Supplements”.
Excluding the NarraTHERAPY line, all the other titles are available in two languages, Italian and English.
The paper and cardboard used are obtained from a top-quality recycled mix, while, for the Narratherapy line, we opted for StonePaper, a type of paper resulting from the processing of stone that makes it waterproof but photo-degradable if exposed to sunlight. These choices are oriented towards the maximum environmental sustainability.
The filters do not contain any thread to avoid introducing further elements of potential micro-pollution both into the cup and into the manufacturing process.
The numerous production and assembly stages are all performed manually and, combined with enhancing elements (such as metal hot stamping inserts or fluorescent inks), limited-edition products outside the standard format and the hand-made packaging of filters (made by an organic farm in northern Italy) make it a synonym of Italian excellence.
The products rely on a direct distribution system; currently, they are sold by over 300 dealers in Italy and some also in Italian Switzerland. They can be found mainly at independent bookstores but also museum bookshops, herbalists, pharmacies and over-the-counter pharmacies, literary cafés, cafés and organic stores.
In the future, the publishing lines, series and titles will be further enhanced with special attention paid to the product customization, both for small batches and for large orders. We are committed to growing adequately in terms of human resources, distribution, logistics and operational offices in order to pursue the best strategies aimed at the internationalisation of the brand.
Shortly, the first years of activity have allowed us to understand how Narratè® is perceived and purchased as the “perfect” gift.
These are the positive and negative aspects:
+ low cost (€ 5.90 for end consumers);
+ ability to amaze those who receive it as well as to gratify those who give it;
+ easy to understand, use and tell;
+ its diffusion is based on word of mouth (especially on social and traditional media);
+ rich catalogue with a wide choice of titles and themes (in expansion);
+ innovative products required by stores constantly looking for novelties;
+ constant increase in sales and retailers;
+ publishing products with reduced VAT (with a good margin for retailers);
+ eco-friendly and organic;
+/- mainly bought by and for women (18-70 years);
- seasonal (the two perfect seasons are autumn and winter, the purchase volume decreases in spring and summer);
- long and complex production chain;
- currently available only in two languages (Italian/English).
- KIDS "RISE AND SHINE FAIRY TALES" - Five amazing minutes to wake up and keep on dreaming.
Fed up with the fact that fairy tales have been used mainly to put children to sleep for generations, with the negative results that are seen today, we think that the time has come to try to “wake them up”, hence the development of the RISE AND SHINE FAIRY TALES series. Irony aside, we want to give children - of all ages - five minutes during breakfast to wake up without stopping dreaming. For this series, we have decided to use all the organic rooibos-based blends similar to tea but without theine.
• The author - Roberto PIUMINI: Piumini was born in 1947, he lives in Milan but comes from Valcamonica. As an all-around artist, in his long career, he has investigated almost all the communication media. In 1978, he published countless books of fairy tales, short and long stories, nursery rhymes and poems. He has won many literary awards (including the prestigious Andersen award in 1986) and, more recently, the Dante Graziosi award for his career in 2014. He has published his works with over 70 publishing houses, including the prestigious Einaudi, Feltrinelli and Mondadori.
• The pictures are noteworthy and have been made by two amazing artists: Cecilia CAVALLINI (She lives and works in Pontedera a little town near PISA. Her pictures accompany the first two stories: "The girl in the dark" and "One day the Creator". www.ceciliacavallini.it) and Monica AURIEMMA (She was born in Naples and to London. Her pictures refer to the last four stories: The nursed dragon, The little cowboy, The fisherman Simone and Muspic and the tower. monicauriemma.com).
• The format - The paper format of Narratè® has evolved, getting more and more similar to the structure of a small book together with the use of organic and made in Italy blends.
1. Organic, hand-made and made-in-Italy blends, with ICEA certification.
2. Addition of two spines, a front lap and two flyleaves.
3. Two binding systems.
4. 2 g (one cup) hand-made tea bag without any thread, inserted in the front lap slots.
5. Refillable: each tea bag can be purchased individually and reinserted.
6. Description of the formula of the blend in the back cover.
7. RECYCLED PAPER Internal - 80 g/ sq. m FSC paper
8. TWO LANGUAGES (ITA_ENG)
9. ANTI-DYSLEXIA FONT - The font used for the stories is called "OpenDislexyc" and makes the reading easier for dyslexics.
10. THE VOICE (only in Italian) Each story has been read and beautifully interpreted by Eleonora De Angelis (the Italian dubber of Jennifer Aniston) of VixVocal. Lo listen to it, simply frame the Qrcode printed on the last page.
• Blends - Hand-made, organic, made-in-Italy, theine-free but, above all, VERY GOOD products.
The Rise and Shine Fairy Tales are all based on Rooibos: dried leaves of Aspalathus linearis, a South African shrub plant. In the local language (Afrikaans), rooibos means “red bush”. In Western Countries, rooibos is improperly called “African red tea” and, although it shares many health principles with tea, it does not contain theine. Our blends are all original and new, since they are tailor-made for each text, so that the story is accompanied by the most suitable taste. All the blends are organic and handmade in Italy by a small Piedmontese farm.
CLASSIC
• The idea - Narratè® is a true narrative tea that combines two ancient traditions: tea and reading. An unprecedented publishing format of food design, consisting of a tea or herbal tea accompanied by a booklet whose reading time coincides with that of infusion (5 min.). Our blends are all original and new, since they are tailor-made for each text, so that the story is accompanied by the most suitable taste. All the blends are organic and handmade in Italy by a small farm. The shape and colour of the perforated cups on the booklet covers show the publishing line to which they belong: green Planet, orange People, fuchsia Life (which contains the two series Kids - children’s fairy tales - and the astrological Zodiaci essentiae), lilac Therapy (Philosophical herbal teas, only in italian language).
3 publishing lines and 2 series:
- NarraPLANET (12 titles): they are "Souvenir Teas", to recall the Essence of the most beautiful cities and territories in the world both with the story and with the associated blend;
- NarraPEOPLE (9 titled): teas dedicated to the greatest protagonists of our history;
- NarraLIFE (3 titles): teas to discover the essence of the great themes of life, divided into two series:
• KIDS – The good morning tales (6 titles)
• Zodiaci Essentiae (12 titles)
• The authors - Among our authors we boast the presence of Roberto Piumini (whose works have been published by over 70 publishing houses), Valerio Magrelli (Einaudi), Ilaria Gaspari (Einaudi), Gian Mauro Costa (Sellerio), Franco Bolelli (Sperling & Kupfer), Enrica Tesio (Mondadori) as well as Valeria Arnaldi, Laura Guglielmi, Stefano D’Andrea, Massimiliano Felli, Gianmichele Lisai, Elena Guerrini. Discover their works on our website: www.narrateworld.com.
• The new organic format - A few years after its development, the paper format has evolved to favour the use of organic and made-in-Italy blends. This solution also allows the tea bags to be refilled after their first use, so that the Narratè® products are always ready for a new tasting-reading experience.
PLANET
- NarraPLANET (12 titles): they are "Souvenir Teas", to recall the Essence of the most beautiful cities and territories in the world both with the story and with the associated blend.
At the moment we only have titles of Italian cities and territories, among the most beautiful and famous in the world, cities of art such as Rome, Venice, Florence, Milan, and regions such as Sicily and Sardinia. Soon we will be launching international cities, such as London, New York, Tokyo, Berlin, Paris.
Why did you choose to enter the GOTY competition? have you entered in the past and has it helped your brand grow?
I decided to participate at the suggestion of a dear friend (Furio Ceciliato of Origamo), who insisted that I not miss this opportunity.
What other products will you be bringing to market in 2023
We are working on the birth of a new editorial line which will probably be called "Narra-Taste" and will give the opportunity to taste the great masterpieces of world literature of all time, always in the time of infusion of a cup of tea. The idea is to extrapolate meaningful excerpts with a reading duration of 5 minutes, so that everyone can approach the great masterpieces without awe, in a simple and somewhat informal way. And if you're happy reading these 5 minutes, maybe you'll buy the book.
Where can your products be purchased?
In Italy we are on sale in bookshops, herbalist's shops and pharmacies, as well as in organic products shops. For now we are not distributed abroad, except in Italian-speaking Switzerland. So we hope that someone will fall in love with the project and propose that we also bring it to other countries such as Great Britain (since they are already translated into English). They can currently be purchased on our website: www.narrateworld.com.
Website www.narrateworld.com
Instagram handle https://www.instagram.com/narrateworld
Twitter handle https://twitter.com/Narrateworld
Facebook handle https://www.facebook.com/narrateworld
