KLS presents "Together Talks" feature #28 with Hooked Coffee

"Together Talks" feature #28: Hooked Coffee

Some Background on Hooked Coffee

Today's edition of "Together Talks" campaign, KLS was joined by Natalie Ma, Founder of Hooked Coffee. It is a women-owned coffee brand that empowers people to brew coffee to its true potential by delivering a simple yet elevated experience, with no equipment needed. By partnering with award-winning roasters and utilizing nitrogen flush technology, they preserve the beautiful tastes and aromas of fresh specialty coffee in their all-in-one pour over pouches. Hooked Coffee curates a third-wave coffee shop experience by honoring the brewing ritual and bringing good coffee into coffee lovers’ hands.

Pivot

How did Natalie come up with this business idea? During the pandemic, she went back to Hong Kon where she stumbled upon these widely popular pouches. These coffee pouches can be likened to tea bags in terms of their concept. She fell in love with the clever design and brought a suitcase full of coffee pouches back to San Francisco, pondering if there is an opportunity to introduce this concept in the United States.

Along with her roommate, Melody Jung whom she met during college at University of California, Berkely, they embarked on a new venture. Natalie described Melody as the creative force behind their partnership, who came up with the name "Hangover Coffee". Double pun! The duo began working together to build a DTC brand. Along the journey the saw the demand and satisfaction from customers and thought there was a bigger play for them.

The goal

With their success for their own singular product, they wondered, "What if we expand our reach by partnering with other roasters around the country. As Natalie told us, "we are going to provide consumers the ability to have their favorite roasters from anywhere in the country. Whether they want to pick their roasters or use our expertise to surprise them with a box, we can deliver quality coffee, every time with our single-serve pour over pouch products."

In March 2023, they launched a Kickstarter campaign for their new brand, Hooked Coffee, (another pun!) and raised $20,000 in just 5 days. What's great about Hooked Coffee pouches is that they only require hot water and a mug. You simply place the pouch over the mug and with the built-in filtration system the hot water curates your coffee in your mug in a matter of minutes. It is the epitome of convenience without sacrificing quality. And that is what Natalie told us over and over again on our chat:

"Simple process, Elevated experience, Curated cup"

3 Pillars

She told us these are the three pillars of their company and why she believes it will be such a success.

As stated the process could not be any simpler, you can take your favorite roast anywhere in the world and have a fresh cup instantly. Elevated experience which Natalie was able to convey to us as a "perfect fresh cup every single time." This process removes the variables. She also educated us that the ability to fully appreciate and enjoy coffee is a huge investment. Time, resources, equipment, space...it is not functional or realistic for the majority of individuals. And even if you can make all of those things a possibility, there still is no guarantee the results will be there. But with their technology and the pour-over pouches, it is the same consistent taste with every single serving.

Curated is the final pillar which she said is a collaboration between the consumer and

Hooked Coffee. The consumer can either take a quiz to have the roasters chosen for them. It gives a surprise to the consumer with each box they receive. Or for the consumers who know the exact roasters they want, they are able to make their own selections as well.

A new experience

Throughout our chat we asked Natalie, why can this be successful? There was no hesitation from her, "There is soooo much good coffee out there. But there is a barrier to entry for home drinkers. Most have to sacrifice taste due to some sort of constraint so they settle for instant or drip coffee. We are here to change that. We want to provide incredible coffee from across the country with no work on the consumers' part."

We were curious about the initial concern Natalie had when starting Hooked Coffee and meeting with roasters from across the country to offer their brand. She told us there was initial worry, but most of the conversations have gone incredibly smoothly. The roasters understand the opportunity, they also get exposure of their brand outside their region. Some of the companies already on board are Onix Coffee Lab and Equator, amongst others.

The other challenge identified is educating consumers about this new experience. As she told us, "Coffee is a ritual, people are stuck in their methods, and can be hard to change." Thus, Hooked Coffee is making an effort to spread the presence of their brand through social media and pop-ups. In addition to their TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube, they also have a series on Instagram that provides outstanding educational components to the mission of Hooked Coffee.

Watch their TikTok here to see just how simple using their product is!

Sign up for their launch updates as well from their website!

In Closing

We are thrilled to have been introduced to Natalie and her sharing the story of this up-start coffee subscription company. Hooked Coffee is an opportunity to enhance the coffee-drinking experiences for consumers nationwide. Simple, Elevated, and Curated with every single cup.

A beautiful new company looking to make mornings better for everyday coffee drinkers. Thank you Natalie and Hooked Coffee for sharing with KLS for this edition of "Together Talks".