CELEBRITY
Robert Downey Jr. Launches Happy Coffee Company
Happy
Robert Downey Jr. has launched a coffee company that touts the hot beverage’s positive mental health effects, and partners with the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
The 58-year-old actor, recently nominated for an Oscar for the third time for his work on Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, shared a post on Instagram Friday teasing that he was sippin’ on a secret.
In an exclusive interview with People published Tuesday, Downey Jr. revealed that secret is the Happy coffee company.
“I credit coffee, in part, for my sanity, he told the outlet.
“I roll out of bed, I hit my knees. I have one of several prayers, usually of gratitude or just being like, Please let me stay out of my way. And then I roll downstairs for coffee, he said.
On Christmas Day in 2022, the actor posted an Instagram photo of himself enjoying a cup of coffee, and said he was thinking of starting a coffee company next year … in fact, it’s a resolution.
He founded the new company alongside entrepreneur Craig Dubitsky, the man behind EOS lip balm and Hello dental products.
Happy sells whole beans, ground coffee, instant coffee and pods in light, medium and dark roasts. The flavor profiles are cheekily described as “toasted biscotti and levity, “unexpected touches like cacao and contentment,” and “notes of cashew and elation.”
“It’s just become such a massive industry, but we realized you’re either getting stuff that tastes like pencil shavings, or you’re getting the [artisanal] stuff that was passed through the small intestine of a yak,” Downey Jr. joked to People.
The founders wanted the coffee to be good, but not snobbish, and made with beans traceably sourced from responsible growers. The lion’s share of the brand’s whole bean and ground coffees are Raíz Sustainability Verified, while the coffee in Happy pods are sourced from Rainforest Alliance Certified farms.
“We didn’t want to be, we made up this word, baristacrats. We didn’t want to be snobby,” Dubitsky said. “It was important for us to make something that could elevate the every day.”
Downey Jr. is a true coffee lover, in the sense that he can drink anything from the low end to the high end, and sought to find a coffee for everyone.
“Honestly, I love it so much that I’m agnostic about whether it’s low-end stuff that you’re getting at a truck stop or now these almost comically complicated and highfalutin blends,” says the star. “I don’t want to overcomplicate this. I want to feel like I’m making coffee that ticks all the boxes for everybody.”
Instead, Happy celebrates the simple pleasure of coffee, and its get-up-and-go power.
“To me, it is family, Downey Jr. said. It is home. I associate that morning coffee with my mom, getting ready to drive me to school. You want to talk about mother’s little helper back in the ’60s and ’70s, it’s the unsung hero of proper parenting.”
The company also entered a unique partnership with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), providing the organization with an equity stake in the brand. The coffee even features NAMI on its labeling, offering information on how to find mental health assistance.
“Coffee sparks conversation, Dubitsky said. And loneliness is another big, big epidemic in this country. In some ways, we’re not in the coffee business, we’re in the happy business. That said, we’re still making sure the coffee is awesome.”
TMX contributed to this article.
