Bridging the gap between coffee and energy drinks

Coffee is one of the most widely consumed drinks on the planet but still manages to hold the most niche associations. Whether it’s George Clooney, bearded hipsters, or scrawny philosophy students, the persona that springs to mind when you picture coffee as a person is likely to contradict what the data suggests. On the other hand, energy drinks have successfully managed to become associated exclusively with athletes, musicians and hustle culture, despite largely being consumed by students, ravers and tired commuters.

Both coffee and energy drinks are mostly drunk for their functionality, with caffeine being the key ingredient. Our coffee concentrate has 212mg of caffeine per 100ml (106mg per 50ml serving), Red Bull has 30mg of caffeine per 100ml (77.4mg per can). Our product is substantially stronger in caffeine content, but the general perception of coffee remains as a mellow pick-me-up when compared to energy drinks.

So energy drinks have less caffeine than coffee, lots more sugar and artificial ingredients. Coffee is consumed at a much higher rate, by a much more diverse group of people and is much better for your health. It’s time for the coffee industry to look beyond beards and bare brick walls and realise that ‘hand roasted’ is a terrible selling point for coffee. WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE (sorry), coffee’s main selling point is that it wakes you up — and that needs addressing.

Coffee is the go-to pick-me-up for most athletes, creatives, and grafters of all sorts. But for some reason, coffee is not treated as a contender in the energy drinks industry despite being the original energy drink.

The glamour and illicit nature of coffee shops has long passed us, coffee has now become a domestic staple and honestly quite boring. The likes of Red Bull and Monster hold tightly on to the garish neon appeal and still push the extreme angle of being extreme. Is there a space on the shelves between the seas of pastel blue and white tetra paks and metallic loud cans? A product that says energy without the artificial nonsense, and coffee without the dainty illustrations of cows and coffee beans. Coffee has lost its edge and energy drinks have too much edge. We hope that we can be the company to bridge the gap.