Combining coffee, non-alcoholic beer and upcycled barley rice protein, the brains behind Super Coffee and Athletic Brewing believe they’ve created a product their core consumer base never knew they needed.
Positioned as a pre-workout beverage, Suped Up, features caffeine, less than 0.5% ABV, and a blend of malted barley, barley rice protein, coffee, oats, wheat, hops, yeast, and coffee flavoring. Each 12 oz. can offers 130 calories, 23 grams of carbs and 5 grams of protein and is available exclusively on Athletic Brewing’s e-commerce platform while supplies last.
The idea spawned from the friendship between the non-alcoholic beer brand’s co-founder and CEO, Bill Shufelt, and Jimmy Deciccio, co-founder and chief brand officer at Super Coffee. The duo realized early on in their “parallel entrepreneurial journeys” that the two brands also shared a very similar audience.
“People who understand and appreciate Super Coffee are the same people who understand and appreciate Athletic, so [this product] celebrates our customers together, and maybe introduces Super Coffee customers to Athletic and vice versa,” explained Deciccio.
“It’s a product we wanted to see in the world and we both love each other’s products, so why not try to collaborate and make something really fun, functional and bring our communities together,” Shufelt added.
While coffee brews aren’t a novel concept, blending protein and caffeine into non-alcoholic beer was also uncharted territory for Athletic’s brewing team. Super Coffee’s products use a dairy-based whey protein which was not a viable nor appealing option for this particular product. Suped Up found ingredient-based synergies in new upcycling technology, incorporating repurposed barley rice protein as its protein addition. EverGrain, which backed by beer giant Anheuser Busch and also a minority investor and distribution partner for Super Coffee, launched an upcycled barley rice protein ingredient last year.
“Kind of like how protein is an unexpected, exciting functional ingredient in Super Coffee, we wanted to get all the great flavor elements of Super Coffee into a great functional coffee stout,” Shufelt explained.
Despite being officially positioned as a pre-workout drink, the team believes Suped Up will also be a popular option after exercise with Decicco explaining that beer generally has become a “very common post workout activity.” Regardless of its intended use-occasion, the duo has full faith its loyal fanbases won’t hesitate to reach for this limited run, novelty product at any time of day.
“I think our communities are gonna really surprise us where and when they drink this product,” Shufelt said. “I’m sure it’ll range from everything from in the shower first thing they wake up to all sorts of weird nighttime occasions.”