Co-Brand of the Month: Death Wish Coffee

We’ve been shipping pallets of co-branded Insulated Wide Klean Kanteens to our friends at Death Wish Coffee. Thanks to what they claim is the “world’s strongest coffee” and their hilarious social media presence, they have a created an extremely loyal following of highly-caffeinated coffee lovers that can’t get enough of their products, from coffee beans to Klean Kanteens. We checked in with Teah on their marketing team to find out more about their brew and their business.

KK: Apparently, you have the world's strongest coffee. Tell us more about this unique offering.

DW: In 2011, owner Mike Brown was running his (admittedly failing) coffee shop business. His fans would pester him for a stronger brew, but almighty Google yielded thin results. Through his connections with the coffee shop, he sourced beans from around the world, testing and tasting until he came up with what we now know as Death Wish Coffee. People still expect it to taste like tar with the labeling and caffeine content, but are pleasantly surprised by its smooth flavor. It's always fun to watch people grimace in anticipation, only to be surprised by a clean cup of coffee! That has to be my favorite part of being on the team here at Death Wish.

KK: Any funny stories customers have shared with you after drinking a cup or two?

DW: Our fans are constantly cracking us up here. Honestly, some of the best reactions have come from new Death Wish employees trying it for the first time–imagine being thrown right into having Death Wish Coffee on tap all day for free! We buzz around like a swarm of bees here, it's pretty hilarious.

KK Note: Death Wish has received so many great reviews that they turned a bunch of them into an infographic. Click on the image below to see the full infographic.

KK: What are some of your team's favorite ways to drink Death Wish coffee?

DW: We love the Chemex best of all, we bring them to all of our events when serving coffee. They're great because we love our coffee strong, and the Chemex is a great way for the strength to come through. It's often a fan's first time seeing the device, so it's exciting to introduce fans to the world of specialty coffee.

KK: You have great memes on Instagram. Which are a few of your all-time favorites?

DW: Our memes are truly a great way to get out some negative vibes. I wouldn't say that we're quite as narcissistic as our memes may lead on, but who can't relate with being a bit hostile before our first cup? The memes often come from friendly banter between folks on our team, and make for some really entertaining and relatable content. Here are a few we enjoyed.

KK: Why did you choose to work with Klean on your co-branded product?

DW: In 2013 or so, we started to get serious about the quality of our merch. After making a batch of beautiful mugs with Deneen Pottery, we knew it was time to step up our game on the travel mugs as well. Klean Kanteen is always the first name dropped when talking about quality insulated mugs. We wanted to be proud of the travel mugs that our fans had, and settling was no longer an option. It was a no-brainer.

KK: Where is the best place to purchase a bag of fresh Death Wish coffee?

DW: Though we've started to expand into local retail opportunities, the best place to get a bag is still on deathwishcoffee.com. We're constantly giving away freebies, we're always giving out deals, and it's always fresh. Our friends at National Fulfillment Services do a wonderful job getting the coffee out on the same day that it's ordered. We have come a long way from shipping coffee out of the basement of Mike's shop, but nothing has changed in regards to freshness.

KK: What else do you want to tell us that people might not already know about Death Wish?

DW: Mike has done a wonderful job hiring people that are environmentally conscious, so it only makes sense that our decisions as a company are made in that same vein. Pretty soon, we'll be changing our single serve Death Cups over to 100% compostable cups. It's pretty neat that people will literally be able to chuck them right in their garden when they're through with them. Single serve cups have been terrible on the environment, so it's nice to see it going in the other direction.

We have also learned that many of our fans have started taking the initiative to look for the USDA organic stickers on other products after seeing it on our bags. It's a great feeling knowing that one product in someone's cabinet can influence their buying habits and moral decisions. Death Wish Coffee means more to us than just running a coffee business, especially when we see our fans really get on board and making change in their lives.

Save the Earth, it's the only planet with coffee! :)

A big thanks to Teah and Death Wish Coffee for helping us make this happen. To shop Death Wish products check out their website deathwishcoffee.com.