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Business partners Daniel Harris and Gary Menachemson first read about cold brew coffee in Cory Doctorow’s novel Homeland.
They were so fascinated by the way the author described the beverage that they tried to make their own from scratch.
Using a rolling pin to crush beans and a cotton cloth for filtering, they believed their first batch was decent enough to turn into a fully-fledged product.
They read articles on nitrogen-infused cold brew coffee and devised a business model they could use from their research.
Both Harris and Menachemson resigned from their jobs in advertising and finance, respectively, to focus on getting the venture off the ground.
They spent weeks trying to come up with a name and settled on Mighty Monk.
The “Mighty” refers to the belief that coffee is a beverage that energises and makes one stronger, while monks are generally characterised as being focused and disciplined, other qualities that people hope to get from their coffee fix.
Nitrogen-infused cold brew coffee is distributed in a similar fashion to draught beer – Mighty Monk’s business model entails installing taps at customers’ premises, and then delivering kegs with the cold brew coffee afterwards, says Menachemson.
Infusing the beverage with nitrogen means it emerges from the tap in the same manner as a stout draught with a thick, creamy textured head on top, he explains.
Mighty Monk’s cold brew coffee is currently offered at Pablo Eggs-Go-Bar in Melville, Zesty Lemon at Wits University, Liberty in Braamfontein, Fitcave Coffee Bar in Centurion, the Futurespace offices in Sandton and the Gordon Institute of Business Science, among others.
How did you secure funding to get started?
Gary Menachemson (GM): Mighty Monk is self-funded. We had our savings and started pumping them into the business.
The challenge is that it’s very capital-intensive, so we could eventually run into trouble because every installation costs quite a lot of money.
At the moment, all the money we make gets pumped back into the business to carry on expanding. However, we will have to eventually source external funding to continue with more developments.
How did you make your first sale?
GM: We sold the first bottle of concentrate that we made to Daniel’s dad. Outside our social circle, the first sale was at the Jozi Real Food market in early 2016 – that was the first time we sold directly to the public. From there we continued at the Neighbourgoods market in Braamfontein.
What have been the biggest difficulties you’ve had to overcome?
Daniel Harris (DH): Apart from funding, we are working in a market that doesn’t know the product. We are not just pushing our own brand but are actually trying to educate people about cold brew coffee in its entirety.
GM: The other is getting the product and shelf-life right. This was a big hurdle for us because when we started, our coffee had a short lifespan.
We conducted research to increase that lifespan, and our coffee now has an average lifespan of 30 days.
Biggest lesson learnt?
DH: You can’t dictate to the market. When we first started serving the product, we were like, “This is how you should take the product, take it or leave it.” We served it black with no sugar.
We slowly realised that we needed to expand our offering.
The markets that we sold at over the weekends offered the perfect opportunity to engage with our consumers and determine what they wanted, and the changes we could make in how we served our product.
How tough is competition in your sector, and what differentiates your product from others?
DH: At the moment, the cold brew sector does not have that many competitors. In terms of business strategy there are a few companies doing what we are doing.
GM: The challenge is not necessarily competition but creating a market for cold brew coffee.
There are some companies doing cold brew coffee, but they’re not infusing it with nitrogen like we do.
Our goal is to make the best coffee and keep as consistent and as high a quality as we can.
DH: Through working in weekend markets we have been able to engage directly with our customers and get feedback from them. We’ve engaged with a lot of people from overseas who are far more familiar with cold brew coffee and who’ve given us positive responses.
What is the best business advice you’ve ever received?
DH: One of my classmates at university had a book of quotes, and on the front cover there was something to the tune of, “Don’t be afraid of growing slowly, but be terrified of standing still.”
I think this captures two important concepts in business. The first is the fact that rapid growth can be quite dangerous, as it’s important to have time to assess and make changes to your product offering and business strategy.
Slower incremental growth often allows you to be more aware and responsive to your strengths and weaknesses.
The second is that there really is no end-point in terms of success for a business, no matter how successful you are – if you stop innovating you risk falling behind or dying.
GM: Ask for forgiveness, not for permission. The idea behind this is that, instead of procrastinating or waiting for approval to do things, do them. You have to decide and act quickly, make mistakes and fail fast.
What is the three-year goal for Mighty Monk?
DH: A mixed expansion of the nitro market; rolling out the ready-to-drink beverages; increasing the shelf-life of the product; growing and developing.
GM: Growth. And at the moment we don’t roast our own beans; it would be nice to do this ourselves in three years.
Another thing that would be great would be to own our own coffee shop that focuses on cold brew rather than the other aspects of coffee.
Since we both love all kinds of coffee, the idea is to have something that focuses on that and gives people the cold brew experience.
Also, at the moment we have a small plant. The idea is to build a bigger production facility and launch additional products.
WHAT IS COLD BREW COFFEE?
The process starts with the selection of a carefully selected blend of 100% Coffea arabica beans. This bespoke blend is ground and left to steep in purified cold water for around 16 to 24 hours.
As only cold water is used during production, the end product is less bitter and up to 60% less acidic than regular coffee. It also packs an extra caffeine kick, as the beans have so much time to steep.
After steeping, the solution is passed through a double-filtration system, leaving a smooth, delicious, high-caffeine, low-acidity coffee.
This cold brew concentrate can then be diluted and served over ice as a rich, smooth iced coffee or mixed in with boiling water for a hot cup of coffee.
This article originally appeared in the 2 November edition of finweek. Buy and download the magazine here.
