The Cup from Discommon. All images courtesy of Discommon.
After years of sharing a space with Greenville, South Carolina-based Due South Coffee Roasters, industrial design firm Discommon recently unveiled its own line of branded coffee and drinkware.
The roasted coffee comes under the name The Beans, and the first packages rolled out alongside a companion product called The Cup, an 8-ounce mug for espresso-and-milk drinks.
“We’re in a comfortable position where we have a community rather than customers, and they expect an adventure from us,” Discommon Founder Neil Ferrier recently told Daily Coffee News. “They expect us to be doubling down on the lifestyle that we show and represent.”
The design and engineering firm sells a number of products under the banner of Discommon Goods, while providing product design services to other brands and companies under the name Discommon Concepts.
Ferrier said the nascent coffee line is part of a broader category of goods aligned by Discommon under the theme “the perfect Sunday,” — i.e., a brilliant morning coffee followed by a day of leisure.
“The plan is to gauge interest, build a subscription model and continue to source fun and unexpected beans,” said Ferrier. “One of the great aspects of this is that it will continually push us as a design firm to develop our packaging design skills.”
Packaged coffee by Discommon.
The first coffee in the program was grown on the woman-owned Finca La Hammonia in Selva Negra, Nicaragua, and imported by the producers’ own Georgia-based import arm Beanealogy Coffee,
While Discommon and Due South are no longer facility mates, the companies remain friendly and the coffees are roasted by Due South Head Roaster Benjamin Byrd in Due South’s 15-kilo-capacity Atilla machine.
“I get most excited by cuppings that involve citrus fruits and sweetness, things that create a real ‘pop’ in flavor,” Ferrier told DCN. “Similar to whiskey, I get excited when my reaction is ‘ooh that’s fun.'”
Byrd told Daily Coffee News that the profile for the first Discommon coffee sits at the lighter end of a well-developed medium roast, designed to hold its own in fluffy milk.
“I knew the project was meant for espresso and cappuccinos especially,” Byrd said. “I’ve made Neil hundreds of cappuccinos, so I kinda knew what we were after.”
Meanwhile, The Cup is a color-blocked piece available in black or white, made from double-fired porcelain and clay. The shape is precisely faceted for ergonomic comfort.
Ferrier said demand for The Cup has precipitated some wholesale orders, although time will tell how far the agency wants to go with its coffee program.
“Our cappuccino cup was met with an unbelievable amount of support, and we’ve already begun a cortado version,” said Ferrier. “We have wholesale cups going to Hong Kong, and Coffee Drunk in Long Beach, whose 2-head Marzocco we designed. So [wholesale] beans could be a natural fit.”
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Howard Bryman
Howard Bryman is the associate editor of Daily Coffee News by Roast Magazine. He is based in Portland, Oregon.
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