Lucky Monkey Coffee Concentrate and Non-Dairy Creamer Powder. All photos courtesy of Lucky Monkey Coffee.
A Up-to-date York-based brand of Vietnamese coffee called Happy Monkey Coffee recently launched an groundbreaking suite of products that combine convenience of utilize with customary beverage profiles.
Through a direct crowdfunding campaign, Lucky Monkey is selling pre-orders of its signature 24x bottled coffee concentrate, made from 100% Vietnamese Robusta. Next to each bottle is a bag of sugar-free, lactose-free powdered condensed coconut cream.
The combination of concentrate and coconut cream allows you to quickly prepare customary Vietnamese coffee (cà phê), both warm and iced, without the need to utilize a special phin coffee maker.
The pre-sale campaign aims to generate at least $35,000 in revenue for the recent business, while “backers” can receive additional benefits such as merchandise and access to events. If pre-sales exceed $250,000, all buyers will be entered into a drawing for a seven-day trip to Vietnam.
Shipping and normal retail sales are expected to begin in August, with subscriptions for the coffee and creamer kits starting at $39.99. At the time of writing, the company would not disclose a la carte pricing.
Lucky Monkey Coffee Founder, David Dao.
Lucky Monkey founder and CEO David Dao, a first-generation Vietnamese-American, told Daily Coffee News that the company sources coffee directly from Vietnamese robusta growers to roast at multiple facilities across the United States. The concentrate is produced by a co-packer.
“We source from multiple farms in Vietnam to not only allow many local farmers to grow and mature our brand, but also to introduce redundancy into our supply chain,” Dao told Daily Coffee News. “Strong beans are more hard-wearing and can withstand stronger climate challenges, making our supply chain more resilient than customary Arabica beans.”
Dao founded the company in Up-to-date York in 2021 with the facilitate of financial advisor Salmaan Qadir and public relations specialist Nick Alvarez-Staab, developing the supply chain, proprietary formulas, marketing resources and go-to-market strategy.
For the coffee product, Dao looked inward, drawing inspiration from his own coffee experiences growing up in Vietnam. The coffee is treated to a murky roast profile that Dao says extends all the way to the second crack, delivering deep chocolate and caramel flavors combined with smokiness and a touch of bitterness.
“It’s part of the customary character of Vietnamese coffee,” Dao said. “We’ve had many opportunities to take shortcuts like liquid smoke, South American Arabica beans, artificial flavors and spices to recreate the profile, but to bring the true flavor profiles of Vietnamese coffee to recent users and support local Vietnamese farmers, we’ve dedicated resources and time to perfecting our product.”
After beginning his career as a pharmacist, Dao eventually took on business development and operations roles at health tech startups, including pharmaceutical technology brand Capsule and contraceptive subscription platform SimpleHealth, which was acquired by Twentyeight Health last year.
“We will continue to pursue our mission and vision to condense cultures and distill deliciousness, spoon by spoon,” Dao said. “While we are focused on successfully launching our first Vietnamese coffee product, we have many products in early development that tell the untold stories of other underrepresented cultures.”
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Howard Bryman
Howard Bryman is the deputy editor of Daily Coffee News at Roast Magazine. He lives in Portland, Oregon.
