Burlap & Barrel Brand Guidelines: Single-Origin Spices & Its Look

Burlap & Barrel sources spices equitably.

Burlap & Barrel is a lesson in an ethical model made the brand. Founded in 2016 by Ethan Frisch and Ori Zohar (co-CEOs), it grew from Frisch’s experience as a chef and as an aid worker with Doctors Without Borders in Afghanistan, where extraordinary cumin sparked the idea. Burlap & Barrel sources single-origin spices directly from smallholder farmers in more than 20 countries — skipping brokers, keeping the chain short and transparent, and paying farmers well above commodity prices.

It is a Public Benefit Corporation, with a legal mission to reduce inequality and exploitation in food systems, under the line “Small farms, big flavor.” Its signature spices — Royal Cinnamon, Purple Stripe Garlic, Wild Mountain Cumin, Zanzibar Black Peppercorns — are fresh and traceable, a deliberate contrast to stale, anonymous commodity spice.

(Honest notes: Burlap & Barrel sources single-origin, direct-from-farmer spices and is a Public Benefit Corporation (mission legally embedded); it is New York-rooted but fully remote, not a single-HQ company; co-founder Ethan Frisch is a chef who worked with Doctors Without Borders; and it shares the modern single-origin spice movement with — but is distinct from — Diaspora Co. No official brand hex is published.)

Burlap & Barrel lives in a warm-spice palette. Click a swatch to copy the hex.

Burlap & Barrel’s identity is warm, clean and modern — a turmeric gold, a chilli red, a cinnamon brown, a burlap tan, and a warm off-white. The palette reads like a spice shelf: turmeric gold, chilli red and cinnamon warmth on a clean, modern ground. It signals fresh, single-origin, traceable spice rather than dusty commodity jars. The honest caveat: with no published brand hex, these tones are an original, unofficial interpretation, not first-party values.

The lesson is a warm-spice palette signals single-origin, traceable spice. Burlap & Barrel’s world reads as warm and honest. For designers, it is a reminder that turmeric gold, chilli red and cinnamon brown convey real, single-origin spice, matching a brand built on direct sourcing and freshness. The takeaways: draw the palette from the spices themselves; keep the ground clean and modern; and treat any single hex as unofficial — using a near-black for small text so the warm tones stay in the palette.

The wordmark spirit is a clean sans — warm and modern.

Burlap & Barrel’s identity carries a warm, modern, ethical spirit — a “BURLAP & BARREL” wordmark whose clean forms match a single-origin, direct-trade spice brand. A clean sans captures the mood: it is modern and honest, the register of a transparent, ethical brand rather than a dusty legacy spice house. Set against a warm-spice palette, the clean sans feels warm and modern — exactly the single-origin, farmer-direct personality Burlap & Barrel carries. It is honest rather than fussy, mirroring fresh, traceable spice. (Burlap & Barrel’s real wordmark is a trademark we describe but do not reproduce, and the exact typeface is not something we assert.) Because the specific mark is not ours to use, the honest description is “a clean sans spirit,” not the Burlap & Barrel logo. The type behaves like the brand: warm, modern and ethical.

Burlap & Barrel stands for equitable, single-origin spice.

Burlap & Barrel is a lesson in making the supply chain the story. Rather than compete on price, it built its brand on equity and traceability — buying single-origin spices directly from named smallholder farmers, paying well above commodity rates, and locking that mission into its legal structure as a Public Benefit Corporation. That ethical model, plus genuinely fresher spice, gives it a credible, ownable position (shared with peers like Diaspora Co) that commodity brands cannot claim. The differentiator is a verifiable, values-driven model.

For designers and brand-builders, Burlap & Barrel offers a clear takeaway: a genuine, structural ethical model can be the brand. The lessons: make the sourcing transparent and central (single-origin, direct-from-farmer, above-market pay); embed the mission structurally (Public Benefit Corporation); and let a warm, clean, modern identity carry it. It is also a reminder to stay accurate: Burlap & Barrel was co-founded by Ethan Frisch and Ori Zohar, it is a Public Benefit Corporation, and it is New York-rooted but remote — with the palette here an unofficial interpretation. Burlap & Barrel made equity the point — proof that an ethical model can be the difference.

Keep Burlap & Barrel’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.