In 2012, Mike Brown, Founder and CEO, had an idea to make the world’s strongest coffee. After searching far and wide for the best beans, formulating the recipe, and perfecting the roasting process, the Death Wish Coffee Company was born.
A year later, the brand really took off after it was introduced on a “Good Morning America” segment, and has accomplished milestones including:
In 2016, Death Wish Coffee’s Super Bowl 50 commercial introduced 167 million viewers to the brand. In 2018, with the help of the NASA Food Labs, Death Wish Coffee developed an instant freeze-dried blend of its coffee to fuel the astronauts on the International Space Station. In 2020, they became the number one selling organic coffee in multi-outlet and natural wholesale channels. And, just this year, the introduction of their medium roast blend accounted for the largest product launch in company history.
But they aren’t stopping there – they’ve got a death wish.
On National Coffee Day (Sept. 29, 2021) they launched a nationwide sweepstakes for free coffee for life. Any Death Wish Coffee purchase made through Oct. 28, 2021, was entered for a chance to win one of three prizes: the grand prize winner will receive a choice of two 1-lb. bags or 30 K-Cups of Death Wish Coffee every month for life, and two other winners will receive a choice of two 1-lb. bags or 30 K-Cups of Death Wish Coffee every month for a year. The sweepstakes winners will be announced in November.
Also in November, Death Wish Coffee is coming out with a brand-new roast, mug, and merch release that was sampled at their National Coffee Day event. In 2022, customers can look forward to another new everyday roast as well as rotational limited-time-offers.
“We are trying to be bold. We want people to understand that this isn’t going to be an everyday coffee drinking experience,” said Mike Pilkington, President of Death Wish Coffee. “If we are going to be bolder than other coffee companies and give our customers a better experience, why not go all the way and give them the opportunity to have free coffee for life.”
A new addition to the Death Wish Coffee experience is their storefront space at their corporate offices located at 260 Broadway in Saratoga Springs. The storefront had a soft opening in 2020, closed due to COVID concerns, and came back with a grand opening on July 23, 2021.
“The store is an opportunity for our customers to interact with the brand and is a way to say thanks to the community for supporting us over the last ten years,” said Pilkington. “For those who drink coffee it is an everyday occurrence, so why not be there for them every day.”
Coffee drinkers can get their Death Wish Coffee fix at over 16,000 stores across America. Locally, you can find their bags of coffee or K-Cups at Price Chopper, Hannaford, Healthy Living, Walmart, and Target. Their website, deathwishcoffee.com, also provides an opportunity for a subscription service, and subscribers get early access to new coffee roasts, mugs, and other merchandise.
“Some customers like to shop at brick and mortar, some customers like to interact directly with the brand, and some customers are addicted to buying on Amazon and we have an extraordinarily large Amazon presence as well,” said Pilkington. “Over the last two years we have been able to meet our customers where they shop.”
What started off as a few of employees packing orders in the basement of a quaint coffee shop, Death Wish Coffee Company has grown to fuel customers across the nation. Their team is always growing, they are currently looking to hire for a handful of positions and for people who want to join the Death Wish Coffee team there are always opportunities out there.
For more on Death Wish Coffee Company, visit their website at www.deathwishcoffee.com.