“We are obsessed with coffee in Australia” – Tom Baker, co-founder Mr Black Cold Brew coffee liqueursays Entrepreneur. “It’s like a religion. It’s an element of national identity.”
Photo: Courtesy of Mr Black Cold Brew Coffee Liqueur. Tom Baker.
After World War II, Italians emigrated to the country they brought coffee machines and European café culture with them. Australia’s coffee scene has blossomed to such an extent that Baker claims there was even a barista at his highschool.
Baker says Australians also wish to drink.
Baker wanted to begin a company that might mix the country’s passions for coffee and spirits, so he asked distiller Philip Moore to hitch him in the enterprise. The co-founders began a campaign on the Australian crowdfunding site Pozible in 2013 and decided that they might really try if their coffee liqueur sold 200 pieces – and it did.
“It’s a coffee liqueur that actually tastes like coffee, not like sickly sweet fakes.”
Mr. Black’s quality of flavor sets him apart from competitors in the market, in response to Mr. Baker. “It’s a coffee liqueur that actually tastes like coffee,” he explains, “not like the cloyingly sweet fakes you probably imagine when someone talks about Kahlua, Tia Maria, or other brands.”
While Baker admits these big-name brands are quite popular, he says they do not make what Mr. Black does: roughly “a cup of coffee you’d pay $8 for at a coffee shop.”
To achieve this flavor profile, Mr. Black sources specialty grade, single-origin coffee, two-thirds of which comes from Colombia. The company sources the rest from Ethiopia and Kenya. Baker says 500 kilograms of coffee are roasted every day at Mr. Black’s Australian factory.
Photo: Courtesy of Mr Black Cold Brew Coffee Liqueur
In 2015, Diageo Investment Corporation became a minority investor in Mr Black through its Distill Ventures accelerator program. This and subsequent investments allowed Mr. Black to build a roastery and a brewery and enter the American market.
Diageo took over Mr. Black for an undisclosed amount in September 2022. By then, the brand was the leading top-priced coffee liqueur in the U.S. by volume and was available in 22 countries.
“Americans love cold brew. [So] “It was a good signal for American drinkers.”
Naturally, Mr. Black’s path to success wasn’t all the time smooth. Baker says the pandemic has proven to be one of the most vital challenges. The New York Times published an article about the brand on March 19, 2020, and “as you can probably imagine, this is not what people were talking about on March 19, 2020.”
Black has also spent a lot of time and money establishing himself in the bar scene, where he saw most of his sales in 2019. So the brand had to alter; used social media to attach with smoothie and coffee lovers and encourage them to enjoy the product in the comfort of their very own home.
The payoff was big – and still is. It’s been seven years since Mr Black launched in the U.S., and over the past yr, the multi-million dollar brand, available in all 50 states, has doubled its operations here – and just sold its 100,000th nine-liter container.
Baker attributes a part of Mr. Black’s popularity in the U.S. to his test-and-learn approach. According to the entrepreneur, Australians drink their coffee hot irrespective of how warm the weather is, while Americans often drink their caffeine cold.
“Americans love cold brew,” Baker explains. “It was a good signal to American drinkers, like, ‘Oh, great. You are a latest product. You’re not like my dad’s coffee liqueur.”
“Everyone loves to go out, have a party and have a few espresso martinis.”
Americans also love espresso martinis. The drink that was developed in London by bartender Dick Bradsell in the Eightiesgained fame in the Nineties and reached its biggest popularity at the end of the decade. After a decline, there has been a comeback: Last yr, the espresso martini climbed five places in the top U.S. cocktail rating, in response to CGA NielsenIQ cocktail sales tracker.
Baker says Black has been a “driving force” in the espresso martini revival, noting that the brand has taught tens of 1000’s of bartenders make the drink and that he and his team have “personally probably drank more espresso martinis in the U.S. than most other people.”
Over the past three years, Black has even brought the Espresso Martini Fest, which premiered in Australia in 2017, to the United States. This yr’s festival, which brought together 250 bars from across the country to showcase “their creativity through a range of espresso martini varieties”, will happen from September 19 to September 29. “That’s great,” Baker says. “Everyone loves to go out, have a party and have a few espresso martinis.”
Photo: Courtesy of Mr Black Cold Brew Coffee Liqueur
But while Baker appreciates the mutually helpful relationship between Mr. Black and the espresso martini, he disagrees with the assumption that his brand only has as many fans because it has Because a cocktail containing caffeine. “It’s easy to attribute our success to this drink,” Baker says, “but the more interesting question is, ‘Why are we winning?'”
According to Baker, the answer to this query is easy and goes back to the very starting of Mr. Black’s history: quality stays the distinguishing factor of his coffee liqueur.
“We probably could have saved millions of dollars, and if I had spent another three months on it, I had been thinking about it for a few years.”
Additionally, while Baker is excited about the brand’s success so far, he says Black has only scratched the surface. “I’m not shy when it comes to my ambitions for the brand,” he says. “We need to be no 1 [in the world]”
For other cocktail enthusiasts trying to start their very own spirits brands, Baker has advice that would save them a lot of time – and money.
First, realize that the rules are different now, so going out of your way and trying to duplicate one other brand’s success on a T-shirt won’t produce the results you wish, says Baker. He suggests getting more specific about who your customers are and keep them coming back.
“[I wish we’d] we spent a little more time early on considering about how we were actually going to get drinkers into our brand,” explains Baker. “How will we be better than every other alcohol company? When I get in [customers’] repertoire? “I think we probably could have saved millions of dollars, what if I had spent the next three months thinking about it before we started Mr. Black.”