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Faster than a turbo shot, stronger than 250 TDS, able to fill tall orders in a single batch, it’s Comics On Coffee!
The Fort Myers, Florida-based specialty coffee roasting company recently re-upped a licensing deal with the consumer products division of Warner Bros., giving it continued rights to feature iconic characters such as Superman, Batman and Scooby-Doo on its packaging for the next three years.
The partnership with Warner has helped spur rapid growth for the coffee company since its founding three years ago by Floridians Tony and Tanya Scholl, who described the royalties paid to Warner based on retail bag sales as “fair.”
The Scholls have tapped into comics-loving audiences online and in person through events such as the Megacon comic convention in Orlando.
“Imagine the [SCA] coffee Expo, but times 100 and with a bunch of nerds,” Tanya Scholl recently told DCN. “People can tell that we actually know comics, we know the characters. I think they can see that spark in our eyes, and then when Tony starts talking about the coffee, you can see he’s really knowledgeable and into it. Something about that just makes a huge difference, and I think Warner Bros. knows that.”
While the wands, capes and cowls draped from the familiar figures are signature elements of licensed Warner Bros. properties, the artwork on Comics on Coffee bags is fresh, courtesy of the Scholls. Tanya is a professional artist who has drawn book covers for publication.
“The fact that [Warner Bros.] is working with us is pretty incredible because we’re so small, and then they went and renewed with us, so they haven’t learned their lesson yet I guess,” said Tanya. “I’m just kidding. I think they like us, honestly, because we are true fans of the characters. Batman is my all-time favorite superhero, The Joker is my all-time favorite villain. The Blue Beetle movie I love and can relate to so much because I grew up in the same Hispanic culture.”
Coffees for products such as the Batman-emblazoned Dark Knight Roast (using a natural-process robusta grown in Nicaragua), Wonder Woman Paradise Island (also a single-origin arabica from Nicaragua with added coconut and pecan flavoring) and Blue Beetle Horchata (grown in Mexico, of course) are roasted by Tony Scholl in Fort Myers on dual production roasters, one from Toper and one from Mill City Roasters.
“We always try and match the flavor of the coffees up with the characters,” Tony Scholl told Daily Coffee News. “Wonder Woman is coconut pecan because she’s from Paradise Island. Batman is just a dark roast because he’s the dark knight and that made sense to us. Superman’s vanilla.”
Tony Scholl maintains a direct line with coffee producers in Nicaragua for much of Comics on Coffee’s greens.
“I travel over to Nicaragua and [purchase enough to fill] an entire container of green beans at a time,” Tony Scholl said. “The Batman dark roast is from the same origin in Nicaragua [as our original offering], grown in high altitude also. It’s a different farmer [to whom] I was introduced by the first farmer, so there’s a close relationship there, but it’s two different families that own two different farms.”
After studying geology and logistics in college, Tony Scholl roasted coffee for nearly a decade on a small machine in front of customers at The Sandy Butler market in Fort Myers Beach.
From there he headed to South America, conducting geological surveys of bedrock outcroppings in Colombia, Venezuela and elsewhere. That work would occasionally lead him into contact with coffee producers, rekindling a desire to work in coffee.
“I was always telling Tanya, I just miss the roasting; I loved it so much,” Tony said. “It’s why I stayed in it so long before I went for what I thought was going to be my career.”
With an outlook of continued high-volume sales assured by the ongoing Warner Bros. deal, Tony finds new flexibility to explore more exotic beans. This will start with a relatively small quantity of Gesha-variety coffee currently on its way.
“I’ve never actually done Gesha coffee like this before and I just want to mess around with it and have fun,” said Tony. “With the growth that was required for this deal, outside of experimenting with some flavors and different things, it’s been all business, just trying to keep up. Now we’re finally to the point where this will allow us to do some more fun pet projects.”
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Howard Bryman Howard Bryman is the associate editor of Daily Coffee News by Roast Magazine. He is based in Portland, Oregon.
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