The Cup You've Been Waiting For: CG Cookie Coffee is Here! (Well, almost)

Oct 3rd 2017

It's no secret that good coffee can give you superpowers; which is why we made our own, and we'll use it for good (in more ways than one).

Everyone knows coffee is the lifeblood of CG Cookie. One of the first CG Cookie logos ever were printed on a sturdy, thick-walled coffee mug to get Wes through his early-morning drowsiness at the studio. This ☕ is probably the most used emoji one in our teams' Slack chats, and we get genuinely excited about new roasts hitting our local shops.

Coffee is something that connects us all, which is why it was just a matter of time until we did it: our own bag of coffee! You are among the first ones to learn about it as we get ready to unveil our *drumroll* Midnight Realm roast.

Tim von Rueden creates the epic coffee bag

To give shape to our vision of a dark, powerful liquid, Tim von Rueden tackled the coffee bag art head on: "I've never done food packaging art before," Tim says, but I dove straight in." Tim explored multiple ideas and seeking input from the crew before finally settling on a demonic apparition hovering over a figure hunched over its late-night artwork.

"We wanted to use an image that artists can connect with," says the project's creator Wes Burke, "and it was amazing how the name of the coffee evolved together with the art that Tim was creating."

Starting with Midnight Oil and briefly considering Midnight Cookie, we finally settled on naming the coffee Midnight Realm. It's a name that resonates with all of us, signifying an artist's restless urge to create well into the early morning while entering a state of total immersion. Basically, where we all want to be while getting our hands dirty on clay or digital paint.

While working away on the coffee bag art, Tim couldn't suppress the teacher within and shared his full process in a tutorial on Freelancing and Adapting, to illustrate his need to think out of the box on this project.

Bright and earthy beans

Once you open the bag, the awesomeness continues: in collaboration with FreshGround, a local Geneva roastery just 10 minutes walk from the CG Cookie studio, we selected the Ethiopian Yirgacheffe coffee, which brings a bright entrance that is grounded by earthy footing and delivers delightful apricot aromas.

The coffee directly supports a New Covenant Foundation (NCF), a missions organization actively involved in transforming communities Ethiopia through health, education, and business training with the goal to make people self sufficient. On the coffee front, NCF teaches improved organic and sustainable agricultural methods and helps finance improved equipment in order to grow local communities.

Basically, it's coffee that's good inside and out.

Support a charity of your choice

Doing something "just because it's cool" is not our CG Cookie style and we knew we wanted to go the extra mile with this passion project. $5 from each Midnight Realm sold will go to one of the two causes based on your choice.

The first one is the local Kaneland Arts Initiative, a Kaneland School District arts festival committed to introducing established artists to students and families to strengthen their understanding and appreciation of fine arts.

The other option is to support the International Child Art Foundation which provides art programs in schools around the world to inspire creativity and empathy in young learners.

So...where can you get your bag of Midnight Realm?

With the first round of freshly roasted Midnight Realm already unveiled at CG Cookie's Open House event on September 28th, the coffee will officially be available soon...stay tuned for an announcement on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter!

P.S. Still not enough coffee? Have a go at compositing a coffee scene in Blender.

Tim von Rueden creates the epic coffee bag

Bright and earthy beans

Support a charity of your choice

So...where can you get your bag of Midnight Realm?

Pavla Karon

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