Heliograf’s moulded-fibre, fish-shaped soy sauce dropper, branded Holy Carp!, has entered its next phase, with the first production batch now being packed and distributed to a select group of foodservice venues for real-world trials.
The Sydney-based design collaboration, founded by Angus Ware and Jeffrey Simpson, is working with what it calls a group of “early a-drop-ters” to gather feedback from staff and customers on performance, usability and how best to manage the shift away from single-use plastic soy fish.
Ware says the team is confident in the format, noting that fibre-based sauce cups are already established in the market. “We see Holy Carp as an evolution of that proven format,” he told PKN.
Refining the concept
The move into trials follows significant early interest, according to Ware, including enquiries from around the world and tens of millions of social media views since the innovation was first revealed. Feedback from the preview batch led to refinements in dropper hole placement and sealing geometry to further improve reliability, leak resistance and user experience.
Holy Carp is manufactured in China using a moulded fibre production process.
“We partnered with Vert Design, who have extensive knowledge of fibre-based packaging and helped ensure a rapid progress from prototype to production in a relatively short space of time,” Ware said, noting that the main technical challenges were around sealing performance and the dropping experience.
“Maintaining consistent function in a fibre-based format required careful calibration,” he says, adding that the team’s expertise helped streamline development.
The company has also applied its 'plastic-free' philosophy to Holy Carp’s sample packaging and is working towards plastic-free bulk packaging. Heliograf has used moulded fibre protective packaging for its Light Soy lamp since its launch in 2020 and has taken a similar approach here.
Where possible, the business specifies recyclable or compostable materials and aims to minimise packaging through design.
“Our supply chain is not 100% free of plastic yet, and it would be very challenging to achieve, but we are working towards it and see it as a continual process of improvement.”
Looking ahead, Ware says widespread adoption of Holy Carp will depend on performance, availability and awareness. The current focus is on proving the dropper works reliably in commercial settings, expanding distribution and reinforcing growing consumer expectations for plastic-free packaging options, driven by both environmental and health considerations.
With regulatory pressure building around single-use plastics, the venue trial phase represents an important step towards commercial scale for Holy Carp.
