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Need feedback on Coffee Cube Idea

Idea threads

Rob Tennant

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Hi All,

I have something that I've made to make my life easier and think it may have some potential. I guess its best described as a bullet proof style mushroom coffee cube. I melt down ghee butter, add mct oil, several mushroom extracts, and theanine- all at optimal dosages and refrigerate into small cubes.

I then just pull a cube out of the fridge in the morning, drop into coffee and mix with hand blender. I love them, and have only seen some similar recipes cobbled together by people, but no actual productization.

Problems solved:

  1. No oily mess on counter or hands
  2. Portion control (I make then smaller because I dont want the 100 calories dose)
  3. Aggregates many ingredients together at optimal dosages, eliminating guesswork, research, sourcing good product etc.
I paid a Fiverr hire to design and run a Facebook ad to test this, but results were not good. I dont think the relevant groups were targeted though, and the product page designed was lacking, so I'm not ready to throw the towel in yet. See attached pic for general idea of what this is..

Thanks!
 
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garyjsmith

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No towel throwing. And I think your Fiverr experience is typical. “When a man with money meets a man with experience, the man with experience leaves with money and the man with money leaves with experience.”

A few questions to get a better idea of the product:
How does it taste? Have your friends tried them?
What are the health benefits?
How quick is it for the consumer to go from "I don't have cubes" to "now I have cubes"?
Can they be kept in an office environment without a freezer?
 

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Sounds great for the bulletproof crowd. Anyway you can remove the need for the blender?

Or further still, incorporate the coffee right into the cube?
 

AllenCrawley

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I'd be interested in the product for sure. You may want to validate the idea offline. Hit up some crossfit boxes and other gyms to see if they'll let you offer free samples and get feedback.
 
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Rob Tennant

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No towel throwing. And I think your Fiverr experience is typical. “When a man with money meets a man with experience, the man with experience leaves with money and the man with money leaves with experience.”

A few questions to get a better idea of the product:
How does it taste? Have your friends tried them?
What are the health benefits?
How quick is it for the consumer to go from "I don't have cubes" to "now I have cubes"?
Can they be kept in an office environment without a freezer?

Yea, I'm moving over to Upwork I think, Ive never had a good experience with fiverr.

It tastes great, assuming you put it in high quality coffee. My wife, and 2 friends have tried them and love them. I use them daily and am a huge coffee snob. Health benefits are many. From energy, mental clarity and focus to immune boosting. Its also good for the intermittent fasting crowd. I sort of blended together BP coffee and mushroom extracts with some other nootropics and theanine. The theanine rounds off caffeine's edge and preserves the adrenals. I've used info found from Examine.com for ingredient info and optimal dosing, as well as personal experimenting.

I am in discussions with a co packer on how to make these profitably, so I don't have a product currently. The way the cubes are now they need to be in a fridge. I'm thinking maybe put into a packet to get rid of this need. Better for shipping and customer storage. Co packer says they might be able to put in a hot coffee soluble pill-like form, which would be really cool.
 

Rob Tennant

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Sounds great for the bulletproof crowd. Anyway you can remove the need for the blender?

Or further still, incorporate the coffee right into the cube?

I don't know how to remove the blender from the equation, other than going all powder form and putting into a k-cup..I like the idea of putting coffee right into the cube. I could really control the taste better by taking coffee out of the equation, and more convenient for buyers.
 

Rob Tennant

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I'd be interested in the product for sure. You may want to validate the idea offline. Hit up some crossfit boxes and other gyms to see if they'll let you offer free samples and get feedback.

Good idea. I lean towards the introverted side, so it seems things like that are always my last resort..but you've got to do what you've got to do. Appreciate the feedback.
 
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BrooklynHustle

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Good idea. I lean towards the introverted side, so it seems things like that are always my last resort..but you've got to do what you've got to do. Appreciate the feedback.
Get out there and give it a full go!
 

garyjsmith

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So, what kind of feedback would you like from the group? What info would help you most?
 

Argue

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Great idea, in my opinion. You need better marketing however. That image looks like corn bread next to coffee.
 
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Rob Tennant

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So, what kind of feedback would you like from the group? What info would help you most?

The feedback received has helped. I think Allen is right, this may be one of those things where I just need to get out there and offer samples. It just helps to hear opinions from like minded people, and I know I'll get honest feedback here. In addition to gyms, I'm thinking smaller coffee shops. I'll have to learn the legalities of offering food samples.
 

MitchM

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Hi All,

I have something that I've made to make my life easier and think it may have some potential. I guess its best described as a bullet proof style mushroom coffee cube. I melt down ghee butter, add mct oil, several mushroom extracts, and theanine- all at optimal dosages and refrigerate into small cubes.

I then just pull a cube out of the fridge in the morning, drop into coffee and mix with hand blender. I love them, and have only seen some similar recipes cobbled together by people, but no actual productization.

Problems solved:

  1. No oily mess on counter or hands
  2. Portion control (I make then smaller because I dont want the 100 calories dose)
  3. Aggregates many ingredients together at optimal dosages, eliminating guesswork, research, sourcing good product etc.
I paid a Fiverr hire to design and run a Facebook ad to test this, but results were not good. I dont think the relevant groups were targeted though, and the product page designed was lacking, so I'm not ready to throw the towel in yet. See attached pic for general idea of what this is..

Thanks!
I really like this and I think you have a market with the nootropics crowd but not so sure about intermittent fasting due to the fact that there is butter and when I am fasting I do my coffee straight black. I'm sure it varies though...

Having to mix with a hand blender is definitely a big issue so I think you're going to have to fix that first and foremost. After you get the form factor down to something simple that dissolves into coffee you'll be ready for the next step.
 

Rob Tennant

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Great idea, in my opinion. You need better marketing however. That image looks like corn bread next to coffee.

Yes, 100%. Better pics for sure. Thanks for the feedback
 
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Rob Tennant

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I really like this and I think you have a market with the nootropics crowd but not so sure about intermittent fasting due to the fact that there is butter and when I am fasting I do my coffee straight black. I'm sure it varies though...

Having to mix with a hand blender is definitely a big issue so I think you're going to have to fix that first and foremost. After you get the form factor down to something simple that dissolves into coffee you'll be ready for the next step.

I also do intermittent fasting and have found that 100-200 calories from fats does not affect the process, it actually helps it. Promotes energy and fat loss. I will also add in bcaa's into the cubes to help with workouts and muscle rebuilding/retention during fasting. It is very difficult for me to not eat anything until noon or whenever, and perform well. I'm going to do more research to make sure this is the case, as well as maybe having someone specializing in nootropics or food scientist look over and give blessings. Until now its just been me tweaking based on how it makes ME feel.

You are the 2nd person to not like the blender, so already theres that pattern emerging. Something that can dissolve and just be spoon stirred definitely needs to be looked into. Thanks
 

Carnage

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Cant you just experiment using powdered version of everything?
You could test high quality instant coffee, dehydrated butter, mct oil powder, and then your theanine and mushroom stuff comes in powder form too. Maybe add in stevia to mask any bad taste if thats allowed.
Or you can skip the instant coffee if you're putting the cube into the coffee.
You could have this pressed into a dissolvable cube, or put it in little packets.
 

MetalGear

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Are biohackers really on Facebook? Go to the source...not sure FB is it. The idea sounds interesting and I might buy.
 
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The-J

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If you could do this without the need of a hand blender, this could be good. The bulletproof crowd would love it.

Are biohackers really on Facebook? Go to the source...not sure FB is it. The idea sounds interesting and I might buy.

Did you really ask that? Lol, FB is where that kind of stuff gets shared. Of COURSE they're on FB.
 

MetalGear

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Did you really ask that? Lol, FB is where that kind of stuff gets shared. Of COURSE they're on FB.

Sure, I guess I meant to say that it would not be my primary place to test and get feedback for launch of something new.

I would target biohacking forums before Facebook myself...lots of content, products, and ideas grow in those niche locations BEFORE they go on Facebook.

I'm not an expert, but I don't like Facebook for launches. I see it more of a secondary staging area after a product is more solid. Just my two cents.

Best to try different routes and see what works.
 
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The-J

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Sure, I guess I meant to say that it would not be my primary place to test and get feedback for launch of something new.

I would target biohacking forums before Facebook myself...lots of content, products, and ideas grow in those niche locations BEFORE they go on Facebook.

I'm not an expert, but I don't like Facebook for launches. I see it more of a secondary staging area after a product is more solid. Just my two cents.

Best to try different routes and see what works.

I'd tend to agree. FB isn't the greatest place to get initial sales just because of how expensive it can be. FB is where you'll find the scale that OP is after, though.
 
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Rob Tennant

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Sure, I guess I meant to say that it would not be my primary place to test and get feedback for launch of something new.

I would target biohacking forums before Facebook myself...lots of content, products, and ideas grow in those niche locations BEFORE they go on Facebook.

I'm not an expert, but I don't like Facebook for launches. I see it more of a secondary staging area after a product is more solid. Just my two cents.

Best to try different routes and see what works.

You make a good point. I think I need to diversify a bit and go into some relevant forums. I like FB because you can really target and get specific. I need to learn how to do the ads myself and not outsource that, its too important imo.
 

Rob Tennant

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Cant you just experiment using powdered version of everything?
You could test high quality instant coffee, dehydrated butter, mct oil powder, and then your theanine and mushroom stuff comes in powder form too. Maybe add in stevia to mask any bad taste if thats allowed.
Or you can skip the instant coffee if you're putting the cube into the coffee.
You could have this pressed into a dissolvable cube, or put it in little packets.

Yes, I've looked into going powdered everything, the only problem is the butter. I've not found a powdered butter of high enough quality and taste, yet. But yes, a compressed cube would be a good work around. I'm not ruling anything out, compressed cube, pill, packets,etc I just want it to WORK and taste great. Thanks
 

garyjsmith

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...not so sure about intermittent fasting due to the fact that there is butter and when I am fasting I do my coffee straight black.

I thought the same. BUT, there is a huge keto crowd and this would be in line with their morning routine. I can't wait to see where this all goes.
 
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DeterminedJ

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Or further still, incorporate the coffee right into the cube?

This would make the cubes super convenient, which I'd personally be interested in for things like camping. But on a day-to-day basis, I'd be more interested in the cube w/o the coffee mixed in. I tried "Coffee Blocks" before [I have no affiliation with them.] In theory I liked the idea that the coffee was pre-mixed... but in reality, I really did not like the taste. I'd prefer to control the strength and flavor of my coffee, use decaf sometimes, experiment with different beans, etc. It could be worthwhile to pursue both options - cube w/ coffee and cube w/o?

Either way, this is a great idea! I'll be watching along and hopefully consuming some coffee cubes in the future :) Good luck!
 
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Oddly enough, there is a large ad spend going on right now for a company that makes "chewable coffee cubes". I thought this might be them.

You should check them out, it might spur another idea for you. Or maybe you can bring your product to them.

.
 
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EvanOkanagan

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I agree that the intermittent fasting crowd would be all over this. The convenience of having an "all in one" would solve a lot of problems.

I'm either winging it on the butter/mct oil or have to take out some measuring device. That and having "optimal amounts" plus additional healthy ingredients would take out any guesswork.

About the needing a blender problem... if you're aiming this towards folks who already are making bulletproof coffee or some variation of it then this likely wouldn't be THAT big of an issue since they're already used to blending and this is saving a couple steps anyways... but yeah if it's aimed toward a wider audience having an easily dissolvable solution that's not needing a blender would be ideal.
 

Rob Tennant

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I agree that the intermittent fasting crowd would be all over this. The convenience of having an "all in one" would solve a lot of problems.

I'm either winging it on the butter/mct oil or have to take out some measuring device. That and having "optimal amounts" plus additional healthy ingredients would take out any guesswork.

About the needing a blender problem... if you're aiming this towards folks who already are making bulletproof coffee or some variation of it then this likely wouldn't be THAT big of an issue since they're already used to blending and this is saving a couple steps anyways... but yeah if it's aimed toward a wider audience having an easily dissolvable solution that's not needing a blender would be ideal.

I agree. If your already making BP, you have a blender..However, I really like the idea of all powder ingredients for the ease of shipping and storage aspects (no ice or refrigeration). The big barrier here is sourcing a high quality grass fed powdered butter.
 
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Rob Tennant

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Have you tried or evaluated the competition? Just saw a sponsored ad on FB for this:

Four Sigmatic Mushroom Coffee
Mushroom Coffee with Lion's Mane

Just wanted to give you a heads up so your brew/product can best theirs.

Thanks for the heads up. I have had my eye on Four Sigmatic's products for months. I've tried just about all of them. They're OK. But they don't really work for me, or solve my problems, and taste like hell. As far as I can tell, the closest thing to my idea is https://www.fatfuelcompany.com/ I tried their product today, and to be honest its pretty good. I'm still building out my formula, but I think there are several value attributes to be skewed yet. Primary and secondary. I mean, I still prefer my cube to fat fuel's product- if there are a lot more people like me maybe I'll have a chance..I may start a progress thread on the inside, my first actually. I just need to start executing and either this thing has legs or it doesn't.
 

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