Black PET liqueur bottle says sleek for liqueur

White Rock Distilleries, Lewiston, ME, has commercialized what it says is the first 1.75-mL, opaque black PET liquor bottle for its popular Ryan's Cream Liqueur, a 34-proof combination of fresh cream, rich chocolate, natural vanilla and imported Irish whiskey. Produced by Amcor PET Packaging (www.amcor.com), the new bottle joins 750-mL and 1-L bottle sizes in opaque black PET that were launched in 2007.

Converted from light brown, stock glass bottles, the black PET versions were a bit of a challenge to create. Explains Jonathan Jarman, project engineer at Amcor, “the primary reason is that the dark, opaque color absorbs heat differently than anything else we produce.”

The cream liqueur was visible through the sidewall of the previous PET 1.75-L bottle. “That's when we decided to invest in custom molds that would come as close as possible to extending the look of our glass to PET,” explains Marguerite Provandie, associate marketing director at White Rock. Provandie adds that the “brow” over the top of the bottle label also was tricky to duplicate in PET from the glass version's length and indentation. Amcor handled processing challenges by developing some proprietary heating techniques and also worked with colorant supplier, Colormatrix (www.colormatrix.com). Amcor's Nicholasville, KY, facility produces the bottle, which is filled at White Rock's Lewiston, ME plant. Topping the bottle is a tamper-evident, 33-mm PP closure, also in black, from Berry Plastics (www.berryplastics.com). The sleek, new 1.75-mL bottle retails nationally for a suggested price of $19.99.