Copper Cow Coffee

Copper Cow Coffee is a Los Angeles-based specialty coffee company that produces Vietnamese-style coffee products for the U.S. market. Its core product is a pre-filled, single-serve pour-over filter containing ground Vietnamese robusta coffee, paired with shelf-stable single-serve sweetened condensed milk creamers that allow customers to assemble a Vietnamese-style latte at home or while traveling without equipment. The catalog also includes 12oz bags of ground and whole-bean coffee, latte kits, multi-count pour-over packs (8ct and 48ct), bundles, and accessories such as mugs, apparel and an electric kettle.

The company sources 100% Vietnamese robusta grown in Vietnam's Central Highlands, which it describes as bold, low-acid and higher in caffeine, stating each serving contains roughly 238-272 mg of caffeine. Flavored lines — including Churro, Vanilla, Salted Caramel, Cardamom Pretzel and a Dubai dessert-spiced variant — are blended with whole herbs and spices such as ground cinnamon and scraped vanilla rather than artificial flavoring. After a multi-year effort with smallholder growers, the company launched a USDA Certified Organic line sourced from what it describes as Vietnam's first certified organic coffee farms.

Copper Cow Coffee was founded and is led by Debbie Wei Mullin, a Vietnamese American who combined an interest in Vietnamese coffee with a background in sustainability. The company describes itself as women-owned and led, states it pays its farmers twice the market rate, and maintains direct relationships across its supply chain.

Founding story

Founder Debbie Wei Mullin, a Vietnamese-Californian who grew up with traditional Vietnamese coffee at home, combined that background with work in sustainability to adapt the drink for American consumers, noting she did not see it on U.S. grocery shelves or in cafes and wanted a format that was easy to make and yielded a full cup.

Business model

Consumer packaged goods: the company manufactures and sells branded Vietnamese coffee, latte kits and creamers through its own e-commerce site — including one-time purchases and discounted 1- and 2-month subscription plans — and through wholesale distribution to national grocery and mass retailers.

Product sales at retail price points ranging from about $11 for a 5-count pour-over pack to $58 for a 48-count pour-over box, with subscribe-and-save discounts of 10-15%, plus wholesale/retail channel sales.

Traction

As of the May 2021 Series A announcement, the company said it had tripled revenue annually since launch, shipped its first coffee kits in 2017, operated a fast-growing subscription channel, and was distributed in over 3,000 retailers nationwide.

Latest developments

The company has introduced a USDA Certified Organic ground and whole-bean line described as the first organic Vietnamese coffee line, plus newer flavors including Dubai Chocolate/Dubai dessert-spiced and Cardamom Pretzel pour-overs and latte bundles, and a co-branded bundle with snack brand Like Air.