At a recent Toadies concert at Billy Bob's Texas, the band set out all the typical merchandise — T-shirts, CDs and koozies. But also on the table was an eye-catching red bag of Toadies Texas Pecan Coffee.
The Fort Worth-based band was already well-known for its collaborations with breweries around town, but what's the buzz with the coffee?
Toadies Texas Pecan Coffee is bassist Donivan Blair's newest creative outlet.
"We've done the beers, but I'm a straight-edge nerd," Blair says. People who adopt a straight-edge lifestyle typically don't drink alcohol or do drugs. "The guys at Martin House are amazing and its been great working with them — but beer isn't my thing. This is what I'm really interested in."
Before Blair joined the Toadies, he spent years working as a barista. Back then, he would start his mornings by pulling "a quad espresso, first thing" when opening the cafe he worked at in his hometown of Amarillo. His knowledge and conviction have been contagious, and he says he's turned the rest of his Toadies bandmembers into "coffee nuts."
Tami Thomsen, the band's longtime manager, was instrumental in finding a local coffee roaster for the new, caffeinated endeavor.
"Tami has learned how to navigate the avenues for a band to become a business partner," Blair says. "She wasn't going to settle for a scenario where we just slapped a Toadies sticker on a bag and sold it without caring about the whole process."
Thomsen and the Toadies worked with Michael Wyatt and Chris Wyatt of Full City Rooster in Dallas, which has been roasting beans in the Cedars neighborhood since 2013. The shop has an emphasis on fair trade coffee brands that are socially and environmentally responsible.
"I've never done anything like this," Michael Wyatt says of the partnership. "But I'm a fan of the band and I appreciate the way they have stayed true to themselves, and that came through in the way we worked together on this coffee."
So, what kind of coffee does a loud, aggressive rock band produce?
"A lot of our fans are just like me," Blair says. "Coffee is a tool, you know? I mean, I can sit around and talk about different types of espressos or flavor profiles all day, but when I wake up, I just want a good cup of coffee, plain and simple." Toadies Texas Pecan Coffee is made by roasting pecans from Palo Pinto County, with coffee sourced from the Huehuetenango region in western Guatemala.
Fun fact: The pecans were gathered 50 miles from Possum Kingdom Lake. Fans of the band will appreciate the connection to the group's biggest hit, "Possum Kingdom" from 1994.
Blair's brother Zach Blair, who plays guitar for socially conscious punk group Rise Against, introduced Doni to pecan coffee. But adding artificial extracts or oils to force pecan flavoring into a bag of beans wasn't going work for these coffee geeks. Roasting the pecans with the coffee beans offers a nutty essence, says Wyatt.
These kinds of partnerships have become common, and bands like Drive by Truckers and Wilco have released coffee beans over the past few years. For the Toadies, this new release isn't unlike a record release.
"The coffee has been about partnering with people we can be creative with," Blair says. They worked with Amarillo tattoo artist Chad Smith to design the bag, and they believe Full City Rooster's coffee gives them the chance to showcase one of the finest local coffee roasters.
"This isn't about selling a product with our name on it. It's really been another creative outlet for us," he says.
The coffee is available at store.kirtlandrecords.com; a 12-ounce bag costs $20.