If you’re a metalhead, you might already be aware that Florida-based Concept Cafes has brewed up sensational coffees alongside many metal legends in the music industry for their own special blends, including: Motörhead, Ministry, GWAR, Cannibal Corpse, Ice Nine Kills, Testament, Max & Iggor Cavalera.
Some of the artists even take it with them on the road, made available for fans to buy at the merch booth—including Testament’s “Brazen” coffee, GWAR’s “Berserker Mode” coffee and Motörhead’s “Speedfreak” coffee, which recently debuted in the UK at Download Fest.
All the specially designed packaged coffees and blends can be purchased online at https://www.conceptcafes.com along with flavor and taste descriptions.
The person behind Concept Cafes Coffees is Mike Tonsetic and he took time for an extensive interview with OOTB.
How did the idea come together to collaborate metal bands with coffee?
It’s kinda a loaded answer, so I’ll try my best to explain this coherently. [laughs]
1) Coffeehouses in the ‘60s were filled with beats, ideas, art, performance, rebellious beliefs, revolutionary ideas, etc… just like the ‘90s, when we came of age, where coffeehouse culture had an indie-DIY-punk ethos, where you could see everything and anything from angsty spoken word to LARPs, to hardcore shows, etc.; and now what do we have… this generic taupe milquetoast home goods store coffee culture.
It’s kinda 1984 conformity, scary when you think about it; we’re all just non-living in the coffee matrix Starbuck’s programmed, where you have 2.2B cups being poured daily, but marketed to less than 5 percent of the populace.
Every other coffee company has this absurd fantasy of rivaling Starbucks, but they all wind up looking like a knockoff; so, our purpose from the very beginning has been simply to offer coffee drinkers an alternative; something that really aligns with subculture(s), counterculture(s), etc.
We don’t have to ‘be’ for everyone, but we do have to be the best we can be for some people.
2) No disrespect to anyone, but, in regards to metal coffee private labels—or the greater majority of coffee private labels out there, both past & present, just in my own personal opinion, biased or not—haven’t really lived up to the hype, especially when it comes to Metal.
When you are working with one of the most, if not the most, creative genres of music, and you just basically throw on a sticker & press on a generic black bag with even more generic cheap coffee inside; well yeah, it’s almost fated to come across gimmicky and kinda disrespectful to the artist’s legacy.
Actually, until we actually got into the biz, we had no idea of the mere amount of private label coffees that exist out there, or even worse posthumously, “shelf-sitters” a fair apt term.
We by no means created this market, we just realized it was broken, and were just offering a solution to help artists create the private label they really want out there for their fans.
Look… cheap low-grade coffee from god knows where, in uninspired packaging, is just going to simply look and taste just like that: cheap and uninspired… it’s is as simple as that.
We’ve been saying this from day one: coffee is NOT your typical merch, it’s not even really merch at all, it’s a consumable, just like a beer, or a hot sauce, or even something you smoke. [laughs]
People are actually ingesting this into their bodies, so just like the music penetrating their ears andreverberating inside their nervous systems, you want the coffee composition to be as perfect as possible.
We actually really owe a LOT to Sabaton, whom really initially ignited this mission—as around the unholy birth of all this chaos—they were very publicly outspoken in the media on venue merch cuts, and we just thought maybe we could do our own ‘lil part to help support artists financially with an additional recurring revenue stream, to hopefully help them to continue to record and tour with the music we all love and is literally in our DNA.
Look, we’re not so unaware that we don’t completely understand and recognize that the major bulk of an artist’s earnings come from touring, merch and selling records… and really introducing this burgeoning concept of a legacy consumable product to the Metal world, is STILL in its infancy, just a ripple becoming a swell, and we’re confident eventually a coffee tsunami!
It also comes down to having absolute respect for the artists, and one of the tenets, testaments that we are extremely proud of, is making sure everything is about and branded to the artist, which really, in our opinion, hasn’t been done this way before to this extent; it’s kinda become our invisible signature, if you will.
4) I think when you take on a responsibility like this, it’s also extremely important to recognize and always be cognizant that you are, in a way, a steward of the music and Metal community, even if at the microbial level; so, a big part of our job is to try our best to assure these coffees connect back to the music and if you can even do that just with one single person, whether an existing fan or not, is simply the best feeling in the world.
Let’s face it, coffee has become universal, it’s bigger than all of us and most things; so, our drive is rooted in the idea of connecting more coffee drinkers to the music and when you have a person come up to you and say: “…ya know…I’d heard of Gwar before, but I never really listened to their music, or really knew much about them, so I went to a show recently and had the greatest time and even picked up some vinyl”… that’s really why we do this all day, everyday; coffee is just a great communicator-connector, just like music is.
You’ve worked with so many metal bands! What other bands would you still like to work with?
Well… da da dum [laughs] coffee, the production end at least, is kinda a meditative process i.e. roasting, sorting, grinding, packaging, shipping, etc.; so the mind has a lotta time to conjure up some interesting ideas, especially in tune to the constant roasting soundtrack screaming throughout the warehouse.
So, when the planets align and something clicks, you refill the mug and whittle down the concept so the art-design team has something somewhat still chaotic to work with.
What I’m getting around to is that we actually have a secret vault of coffee concepts we’ve already created for artists that we one day want to work with—kinda an accidental wish list by Metal osmosis, if you will.
On the wish list are of course legends like Maiden, Dio and the mighty ‘M’, whom’ve been constants throughout our lives, as most other Metalheads—artists like the Knot, to Avenged, to Aman, to Dark Funeral; it’s kinda all over the place, as is our tastes, and that’s just Metal…
But look, if it all burns down tomorrow, having had the humbled honor to have worked with legends like Motorhead, Cannibal, Cavalera, Gwar, Ministry already, artists that have literally shaped not only our own lil worlds, but the world at mass, well, I’d be more than happy with that epitaph, right…?!
What’s your personal favorite line of coffee you’ve released and why that one?
Awe man… feel like we’re back on the blacktop picking kickball teams. [laughs]
Ah… seriously though… the rave fave does literally change mostly week-to-week, depending mostly on the prep; as in, if it’s gonna be a pour-over week, shots, lattes, or some signature drink we’ve recently reciped.
So, how’s ‘bout I share the flava of the week, which it’s currently a ‘Laughing Goat’ week—a tossup between “Laughing Monkey Machine” a la Ministry and Testament’s “Brazen Beast.”
Either or is super unique unto itself, in regards to the actual coffee(s) and two fave concepts overall to have been a part of conjuring alive.
“Laughing Monkey,” aka ‘Nutzo,’ just because the blend felt like a happy mad monkey lab experiment, and the packaging was a real leap for us in packaging design evolution, with such a massive existential concept relative to just about everyone.
“Brazen” just because we wanted to change the narrative of the Dark Roast, Full City, etc. gimmick; we introduced the new Brazen Age of coffee: better coffee that doesn’t require an autopsy to determine its origins [laughs].
The big Easter Egg is that it’s actually based in coffee lore and legend, and it’s pretty f’in evil looking [laughs].
Anyways, I digress… those are two definite recommends def before you die…
What is the most memorable metal concert you’ve personally been to and what can you share about when, where or the show itself?
Not gonna pick out any one single performance or tour, just because it’s too hard, both past and present, but gotta give it to the almighty Maiden, just because they kinda really started it all for me, and for reasons I’m sure most of us share in common.
I mean, when it comes down to catalog of music, production quality, stage presence, playing, vocals; they just tick all the boxes.
It’s just such a moment when you can sing along to every single vocal and then you look around & there is a legion of fans hanging on to every line, note, and beat with you.
What is next for Concept Cafes Coffees and future goals?
Well, not planning on sleeping, much less a day off, at least for the next couple of years or so. [laughs] Seriously though, we haven’t even reached basecamp yet, so it’s just gonna be one steady step after another up the mountain.
This year is our “roadshow,” so expect the coffee to be on more tours, more fests, and who knows, you may even see some imps covered head-to-toe in chaff floatin’ around if they ever let us outta the bean crematorium for a couple hours. [laughs]
Our mission is to continue to build on this immersive coffee experience for the fans at these live events; it’s a lot of work, but it’s also kinda cool to have a much bigger canvas to work with that is not constrained by the confines of a warehouse.
You’ll definitely see a lot more Metal releases, but also collabs with other genres of music, even outside of music; we just wanna work with some cool peeps and the love we share for certain things, if that makes sense.
Think as long as we stay humble, keep loving what we do, and most importantly, do it the right way for the right years, you’re gonna see some pretty killer things for a longtime in the coffee world.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
1) Drink more coffee, drink better coffee, and who knows, maybe you won’t need cream & sugar anymore. Coffee is actually good for you; studies show that drinking three or more cups can reduce your chances of liver disease by up to 60 percent, as coincidentally contrary to other artificial caffeinated beverages which can actually give you a fatty liver.
2) Coffee is one of those anomalies where all the marketing you’ve been fed is pretty much conversely the exact opposite in reality
3) Massive thank you to all of the Metalheads around the Metal universe who have supported all of the artists’ coffees over the past few years, as without you, we wouldn’t even be having this Q&A right now, and special thanks to the artists themselves for the opportunity and trust to help create some pretty awesome concepts.
Order Online
https://www.conceptcafes.com/s/order
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https://www.instagram.com/conceptcafescoffee/
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