japan &ndash packaging in japan is as much about delivering a sensory experience to the customer, as it is about protecting and promoting the product.a classic example is the singleserve drip coffee filter, popular with japanese consumers since they give both the flavour and aroma of freshly filtered coffee without the need for a kitchen full of equipment such as coffeepot or plastic conical filter holder, although coffeebags are available in the market, they don&rsquot deliver the sensory experience of the more upmarket filtered coffee.at their most basic, singleserve filters are a nonwoven fiber coffee filter, prepacked with the consumer&rsquos favorite brew &ndash generally higharoma and relatively expensive robusta blends. to retain the aroma, the filter is folded in a concertina form and sealed with a thicker board across the top rim. when the seal is broken, the filter is unfolded, the filter hooks over the rim of the cup and the boiling water poured in.that&rsquos the standard method. however, consumers were unhappy with the conventional singleserve filter the hooks were considered too flimsy and the diameter too small to fit comfortably over the rim of a mug which is generally larger than a coffee cup.redesigned and manufactured by ohki co ltd for ajinomoto general foods inc, the new drip pack coffee features an optimally sized bridge connecting the hooks to the filter. thanks to the new slits applied to the hooks, the coffee filter now comfortably fits into a mug whose diameter is larger than a coffee cup.by reprocessing the more rigid board top rim and slit structure into the elementary part of a hook, the hook bends automatically and grips the cup&rsquos rim. although hook stand paper and filter are pasted using heat sealing, the adhesion intensity was raised using laminating plastic film and a filter made from nonwoven fabric.contributed by stuart hoggard 
