Values into Vision
What we’re doing, and how you’re a pivotal part of the change we hope to bring about.
When we started Revolution Coffee Co., we established values of Honor, Service and Unity. These values were meant to be our guideposts as we navigated the perils and pitfalls of business. We had no idea just how much those values would be tested every single year. It seemed like every turn tested our ability to stay unify, to honor one another and to serve our customers. Those of you who have been with us since the beginning have watched us fall and rise again many times over now. Survival mode became the only modus operandi we could establish, and our attempts to do more, to be more, always got smacked by the reality of our situations.
While business will always require careful navigation, responsible stewardship and keen oversight, we are not fighting every day simply for survival. We can breathe, plan and, most importantly, act. Our actions have always been driven by our values. This is why we could continue to fight for this little Revolution even when it was dark, hopeless and difficult. It is why we could make decisions that propelled us towards who we wanted to be, instead of resorting to the default behaviors of survival (claw, scrounge, hoard, etc.).
As we’ve expanded into TMC and found ourselves in front of a much larger, relatively new audience, we’ve found our biggest talking point is WHY. Why does our coffee taste different? Why aren’t our drinks like our predecessors? Sometimes it’s a compliment, sometimes it’s someone who wants what they’re familiar with and knew before. The simple truth is, our drinks will always be different because they’re made in alignment with our values and our vision. What is that vision?
We want to help 5 million people clean up their coffee habits.
Take some time to fixate on that sentence, because it will be expounded. Coffee is arguably more popular now than it ever has been. It is available to more people across every conceivable walk of life than it ever has been, and just about everyone in existence has a way they like (or don’t like) their coffee. Now, let’s get a little real. The majority of people aren’t drinking black coffee. They aren’t drinking americanos. Very few are drinking just traditional lattes.
There’s a little something extra in most of the coffee drinks the average consumer enjoys. Lavendar. Vanilla. Caramel. Maybe some ice and whipped cream. For some people, it takes a lot of extra accoutrements, so to speak, to get them to a cup that they wake up for every day and crave. Please note: THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THIS. There is no RIGHT or WRONG way to enjoy coffee. There is YOUR way, and we’ve always enjoyed working with people to find what they love, and consistently give that to them.
Whether it’s due to our desire for creativity, our need for control or our distrust of the supply line, we’ve always relished coming up with new handmade syrups. We became fully syrup independent in 2021 when we began handmaking our Caramel and White Mocha, and found that it allowed us to really ensure that what we were producing and serving was GOOD. Good for your tastebuds and good for your body.
It’s no secret that the mass amount of sweeteners and coffee marketed syrups contain a whole host of ingredients that a lot of people can’t even pronounce. Whereas a handmade vanilla syrup needs only pure cane sugar, water and vanilla, some larger brands end up having ingredient labels that look like terms of service agreements (you know, the ones we all never read but agree to?). Even sweeteners marketed as healthy or diet sweeteners such as aspartame, saccharin and sucralose have a whole host of risks associated with them. These are substances that have made their home in the coffee sphere, and that people consume almost daily. Sugar laden, brightly (unnaturally) colored beverages, have taken over the coffee industry. If we are going to meet people’s coffee needs, we want to make sure we’re doing it ethically and sustainably (as in, none of our customers end up with health problems because of what we serve).
As always, it’s important to note that our prerogative won’t necessarily be yours. That’s okay. We’re not trying to shame or guilt anyone. What we are trying to do is educate and provide alternatives for people who want something different, something better. And it won’t be for everyone, and we’re okay with that. We accept that our caramel latte will never taste like a caramel latte from a large chain using mainstream produced caramel sauces solely because we choose not to go to the dark side. Not to grab corn syrup and preservatives to spruce up our product.
Recently, we went back and forth internally about frozen drinks and ultimately decided to drop the pursuit because no matter how hard we worked to create a healthy alternative, the majority of people asking us for frozen drinks didn’t want our version, they wanted what they were used to at larger chains. If we seek to imitate instead of pushing forward in our conviction, we dishonor the people who are with us because of that conviction. So, we dropped the pursuit entirely. Was it a hard decision? Not really. Will it cost us some sales in the future? Probably. Being driven by vision and values allows us to accept that loss, and to continue forward, firmly planted in our mission.
As I read this back, I can’t help but worry it may sound self-righteous. And yet, I don’t want to do you, the reader, a disservice by pretending this isn’t a big deal. We’re the focus group for this entire industry as it is. We haven’t had a chance to study the LONG term effects of what we’re consuming. All we have are short term studies and controlled lab observations. What we consume, what we put in our bodies, has a larger effect than most people want to give credit for. It determines how our body functions, how our brain operates, how we age, how we EXIST.
We want our coffee, our products, to edify you. And, most importantly, we don’t want to be a contributing factor to health problems anyone experiences later in life. We want to do everything we can, with the information that we have available, to serve our customers products they can enjoy for decades and decades and decades. We want to promote awareness, we want to cultivate goodness and we want to empower you to make educated decision in what you drink, eat and overall intake.
We care about you. We cared about you yesterday, we care about you today, we care about you tomorrow and we care about you decades from today. We take it seriously. So, 5 million coffee habits cleaned up. That’s the goal. What happens after we hit that? I’ll give you a hint. 10 million. 20 million. 50 million. As long as we are here, we will fight to grow, to expand, to edify, to uplift, to empower and to help truly make a change in our industry and the world.