“We are coffee-obsessed in Australia,” Tom Baker, co-founder of Coffee liqueur Mr. Black Cold Brewshows entrepreneur. “It's like a religion. It's a point of national identity.”
Image Credit: Courtesy of Mr. Coffee Liqueur Black Cold Brew. Tom Baker.
After World War II, Italians immigrated to the country and brought with them espresso machines and European cafe culture. The Australian coffee the scene flourished to the extent that Baker says his high school even had a barista.
People in Australia also like to drink, says Baker.
Baker wanted to start a business that would bring the country's passions coffee and spirits together, so he asked distiller Philip Moore to join him in the venture. The co-founders launched a campaign on the Australian crowd-funding site Pozible in 2013 and decided they would do it for real if their coffee liqueur sold 200 units – which it did.
“It's a coffee liqueur that actually tastes like coffee, not fake sweet stuff.”
According to Baker, the quality taste of Mr. Black singles it out the competitors in the market. “It's a coffee liqueur that actually tastes like coffee,” he explains, “not like the fake sweet stuff you're probably imagining when someone says twin or Tia Maria or those other brands.”
Although Baker admits those famous brands are quite popular, he says they don't do what Mr.
To achieve this flavor profile, Mr Black sources a special quality, single-origin coffee, two-thirds of which comes from Colombia. The company gets the rest from Ethiopia and Kenya. Every day, Mr. Black's Australian facility roasts 1,000 pounds of coffee, Baker says.
Image Credit: Courtesy of Mr. Coffee Liqueur Black Cold Brew
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In 2015, Diageo Investment Corporation became a minority investor in Mr Black through its accelerator program, Distill Ventures. This and subsequent investments allowed Mr American market.
Diageo bought Mr Black for an undisclosed amount in September 2022. Until then, the brand was the leading premium coffee liqueur by volume in the US and was available in 22 countries.
“Americans like to drink cold. (So) it was a good signal for American drinkers.”
Mr. Black's, of course the road to success it was not always smooth sailing. The pandemic proved to be one of the most significant challenges, says Baker. of New York Times published an article about the brand on March 19, 2020, and “as you can probably imagine, it wasn't what people were talking about on March 19, 2020.”
Mr. Black had also spent considerable time and money establishing himself in the bar scene, where he saw most of his volume in 2019. So the brand needed to pivot; has used social media to connect with cocktail and coffee lovers and encourage them to enjoy the product in the comfort of their homes.
The payoff was huge – and continues to be. It's been seven years since Mr. Black launched in the U.S. and over the past year, the multimillion-dollar brand, which is available in all 50 states, has doubled its business here — and just sold its 100,000th box liters.
Baker attributes some of his popularity to Mr. Black in the USA test-and-learn approach. According to the entrepreneur, Australians drink coffee hot no matter how warm the weather is, while people in the US often take their caffeine cold.
“Americans like to drink cold,” explains Baker. “It was a good signal to American drinkers like, 'Oh, good. You are a new product. You're not like my father's coffee liqueur.”
“Everybody likes to go out and have a party and drink a few espresso martinis.”
Americans also love the espresso martini. Drink, which was developed in London by bartender Dick Bradsell in the 1980sbecame famous in the 1990s, peaking in popularity at the end of the decade. After a slump, it's back: Last year, the espresso martini rose five spots in the top U.S. cocktail rankings, according to the CGA from NielsenIQ's Cocktail Sales Tracker.
Baker says Mr. Black was the “driving force” in the espresso martini's revival, noting that the brand has taught tens of thousands of bartenders how to make the drink and that he and his team “personally probably drank more espresso martinis in the U.S. than most.” of other people”.
Even Mr. Black has brought Espresso Martini Fest, which premiered in Australia in 2017, to the US for the past three years. This year's festival, which has involved 250 bars across the country to showcase their “creativity through a range of espresso martini variations”, will take place from September 19 to September 29. “It's great,” Baker says. “Everybody likes to go out and have a party and drink a few espresso martinis.”
Image Credit: Courtesy of Mr. Coffee Liqueur Black Cold Brew
However, as much as Baker appreciates the mutually beneficial relationship between Mr. Black and espresso martinis, he defies the assumption that his brand only has as many fans as it does. BECAUSE of the caffeinated cocktail. “It's easy to attribute ours sUccess about this drink, – says Baker, – “but it's more interesting to ask: 'Why are we winning?'
The answer to this question, according to Baker, is simple and goes back to the beginning of Mr. Black: quality remains the differentiating factor of his coffee liqueur.
“We probably could have saved millions of dollars and some years I would have spent another three months thinking about it.”
Moreover, so happy that Baker is from brand success to this day, he says that Mr. Black has only scratched the surface. “I'm not shy about ambitions for the brand,” he says. We want to be no. 1 (in the world).
For other cocktail enthusiasts aspiring to create their own brand of spirits, Baker has some tips that could save them big time – and money.
First, understand that the playbook is different these days, so going through the motions and trying to replicate another brand's success to a tee won't get you the results you're looking for, Baker says. He suggests drilling who are your customers – and how to keep them coming back.
“(I wish we'd spent a little more time early on thinking about how we were going to actually recruit drinkers to our brand,” Baker explains. “What are we going to be better at than any other spirits company? How are we going to get into the (customer) repertoire? I think we could have saved millions of dollars and I would have spent another three months thinking about it before we started Mr. Black.”