Robert Downey Jr. Launches a Joyful New Coffee Company: ‘I Credit Coffee, in Part, for My Sanity’ (Exclusive)

Robert Downey Jr. he takes coffee seriously – very seriously.

The star who just received his third Oscar nomination for his role in Christopher Nolan’s film Oppenheimer, works on it. Every morning, “I roll out of bed, hit my knees. I have one of several prayers, usually in gratitude or just along the lines of, ‘Please let me get out of my way.’ And then I roll downstairs for coffee,” the 58-year-old actor tells PEOPLE. “I partly deserve coffee for my sanity.”

This can be confirmed by Downey Jr.’s wife, who has lived with him for 18 years, producer Susan Downey. “When we have a big day, she says, ‘Wait, wait, wait, don’t talk to him yet,'” he says. “And he’ll bring me a cup.”

Now the star is throwing his hat into the caffeine ring, launching a new happy coffee company, offering a range of whole beans, ground, instant coffee and K-cup compatible capsules. Downey Jr. — “multitasker” at heart – has been developing the company for two years with entrepreneur Craig Dubitsky (of EOS lip balm and Hello dental product fame). Together they hope to add a jolt of joy to the market.

Happy coffee company of Robert Downey Jr.

Happy

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“It’s just become such a massive industry, but we realized that you either get stuff that tastes like pencil shavings, or you get [artisanal] the thing that went through the small intestine of a yak,” Downey Jr. gushes.

Packaged in futuristic, ergonomically designed pods, the cheerful coffee blends are available in light, medium and dark roasts with smile-inducing flavor profiles including “unexpected touches of cocoa and satisfaction”, “notes of cashew and exhilaration” and “toasted biscotti and levity. ” Prices start at $10.

Its founders sought to create a satisfying experience with specialty blends made from traceably sourced beans. “We didn’t want to be, we invented that word, baristacrats. We didn’t want to be snobs,” says Dubitsky. “It was important for us to make something that can lift every day.”

Cozy K-cups for coffee.

Paul Abell/Happy

Downey Jr. his love for the classic hot drink dates back to his childhood. “For me, it’s family,” he says. “It’s home. I associate that morning coffee with my mom getting ready to drive me to school. If you want to talk about ‘mother’s little helper’ of the ’60s and ’70s, it’s the unsung hero of proper parenting.”

Today, the retired Iron Man takes his drink black (“my lady, she needs some oat milk”) and tries to give back: happy has teamed up with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and offers information on how to find help with his label.

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Partnership was natural for the founders. “Coffee encourages conversation,” says Dubitsky. “And loneliness is another big, big epidemic in this country. In a way, we’re not in the coffee business, we’re in the happy business. However, we still make sure the coffee is great.”

And while Downey Jr. may not be a great connoisseur of beans, the actor enters the market as a self-proclaimed coffee enthusiast – who knows a good cup of joe when he drinks it.

“Honestly, I love it so much that I’m agnostic about whether it’s the cheap stuff you get at a truck stop or now these almost comically complicated and highfalutin concoctions,” says the star. “I don’t want to make this too complicated. I want to feel like I’m making coffee that meets all the requirements for everyone.”

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education