Blast Radius is a collaboration between Mike Plant, Founder and President of MPA Event Graphics, and Phil & Domenic Arcidiacono, who own and operate Caffe Arcidiacono, a roaster/distributor of high quality Italian-style coffee and espresso blends.
As it happens, Mike wanted to do a coffee promotion for a conference. A lifelong athlete himself, he is, like many athletes, a coffee drinker, and coffee seemed a nice way to make an authentic connection with an important segment of his client base: race directors in the endurance industry.
“This just kind of fell into our laps,” said Mike. “I’m a coffee lover, and I wanted to do a giveaway at a conference that had real value -- something that related to the lives of the race directors. I spoke to Phil, whom I’d only met once, briefly, about the possibility of developing a high-caffeine-content coffee for athletes.
“I figured he’d say what the other companies I’d talked to had said: ‘Sure, we’ll sell you our coffee, but…’”
That‘s not at all what Phil said. An accomplished athlete himself, he was enthusiastic right off the bat.
“I told Mike I’d been thinking about the very same idea,” Phil said. “I’d even mentioned it a couple of times to my brother. The timing was perfect. I jumped right in.”
Before you could say “interval training”, the coffee had a name, a website, a logo, a label, the whole deal.
What took a little more time was the coffee itself. Turns out, Phil's and Domenic's family has been roasting and blending fine coffee in Italy for 140 years. Blast Radius was not about to be some strong-ass, bitter, nasty-tasting brown crap you gulp down in the morning like medicine. No, no. First came the recipe (four beans, selected for character and caffeine content); then the roast (each bean variety is separately roasted); then the final blend for taste and drinkability.
The result is a coffee with a blow-your-socks-off level of caffeine, but one that is also superbly drinkable.
“You can see it when people try Blast Radius for the first time,” Phil said. “Their eyes get a little wide: “’Wow, this is good!’
Which is the point of course: Blast Radius is not just highly-caffeinated kick-your-ass-out-the-door coffee, but a great tasting, highly-caffeinated kick-your-ass-out-the-door coffee. The great taste bit? Makes all the difference. |
