Pierce Mattie Public Relations New York & Los Angeles

As a coffee addict myself (I prefer mine iced) it’s been interesting to watch the coffee wars brewing (pun intended). Fast food restaurants have geared up to compete with the likes of Starbucks and everyone seems to “Run on Dunkin.” There are even coffee connoisseur websites, such as Coffee Geek, and National Geographic is even getting in on this highly popular niche. We have become so obsessed with the brew that there are even people willing to pay $1000 a kilo for Luwak Coffee, which is the eccentric yet deemed ultra luxe brand of coffee that is obtained through the excrement of the luwak (a cousin of the mongoose).

National Geographic’s section of its website dedicated to java breaks down the origin and timeline of coffee, maps of where it is grown, definition of the various roasts and even offers a coffee forum where coffee lovers across the globe can discuss their favorite coffee topics. Their roast section mentions that most American mass-market roasters tend to offer more Light roasts over any other blend. However, as we’ve been seeing in the coffee wars, most places like Starbucks and even Burger King are making the stronger blends more popular with consumers, which of course results in more health issues such as heartburn and upset stomachs than coffee consumption of the past.

This has prompted Folgers to try taking coffee in a completely different direction and capitalizing on a niche no one else is going after: stomach-friendly coffee. This new public relations driven endeavor tends to be leaning towards the baby boomers, still the largest demographic of consumers, who love to drink their coffee, but can no longer stomach the aches and pains that go with it. Folger’s new product called Simply Smooth is the result of a roasting process that can reduce the level of irritants and bitterness in the coffee, but still maintain the taste and caffeine.