“The world’s strongest coffee” is about to become the strongest off-world, too. Death Wish Coffee, billed as such for its high caffeine content and intense flavor, is set to be launched to the International Space Station, as the office manager Jeff Ayers writes on the company’s website:
“Ignition sequence start. 3…2…1… liftoff! It is official: Death Wish Coffee will be heading into space to fuel the astronauts on the International Space Station. On June 28th, our coffee will be packed in the Dragon capsule along with other supplies and science experiments headed to the ISS on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on June 29th from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The world’s strongest coffee will now be the strongest coffee in the galaxy.
But how did this all come to be? Last year, I started to think about all the people I would like to talk to on our podcast, Fueled By Death Cast. At the top of that list was always an astronaut.
My love for space and space exploration started early in my childhood, and to be able to talk with someone who has walked among the stars seemed like a far-fetched idea at best.
But I found the website of retired NASA astronaut Nicole Stott – the first person to paint in space, and a coffee lover. I decided to send her an email asking her to be a guest on our show, which had only ten episodes at the time. Nicole wrote me back and graciously agreed and my co-host Dustin Alexander and I recorded her interview over the phone.
We talked about flying on the Space Shuttle and living and working on the Space Station, and what it was like to perform a spacewalk. Nicole told us just how tired you get after something like a spacewalk and that she would crave good coffee. We joking said how we should get Death Wish Coffee into space, and Nicole thought that was a good idea.
Now, with the help of Nicole Stott and the wonderful people at NASA Food Labs, we are doing just that. We created an instant blend of freeze-dried coffee, packaged by NASA in astronaut drink pouches. It’s designed to caffeinate the crew aboard the International Space Station, without sacrificing the coffee’s texture, flavor, and potency.
“We couldn’t think of a better way to showcase the smoothness and strength of our coffee than by providing the crew aboard the International Space Station with an easy-to-make blend that will keep them on their feet, so to speak,” noted Mike Brown, Death Wish Coffee’s founder.
This story is so much more than just Death Wish Coffee hitching a ride on a SpaceX rocket to the ISS. This is about the idea Mike Brown had back in 2012, to create a strong coffee that tasted great and people loved and to build the best coffee company in the world. He started that dream in the bowels of his coffee shop, and now it is rocketing to the stars — from the basement to the cosmos.”
Jeff Ayers
