SA man’s potent brew hits biggest online store

A SOUTH African man’s coffee blend, which he claims is the strongest in the world, is now available on the world’s largest online shopping website.

Sean Kristafor, 45, was educated at Hudson Park High School and UCT before working in retail in East London and becoming the general manager of The Body Shop Southern Africa.

He made the leap into entrepreneurship last year when he launched The Black Insomnia Coffee Company in Cape Town in July.

By October, the coffee was being distributed to 42 countries and in January Kristafor was selling to American coffee lovers out of a distribution centre in Tampa, Florida.

As from last week, his toe-curling blend using the caffeine-packed robusta coffee bean, became available on the Amazon online retail site, meaning Americans can now buy his coffee, which he says “borders on [a] narcotic”, at the click of a button.

In a month’s time, the brand will be selling on Amazon Prime so that Europe, the UK and Australia will be able to purchase it online.

“The weird thing is that I wanted to retire at the end of 2015 and started the coffee company as a hobby to keep me busy,” Kristafor said.

He operates his global business from a range of coffee shops in Cape Town.

“I thought two or three coffee shops would stock it, but it’s taken off and we even sell merchandise like hoodies, T-shirts and mugs, so it’s become a lifestyle brand.”

Kristafor sent samples of two other coffees which are claimed to be the world’s fiercest to a laboratory and claims his brew beats them both.

Just one cup almost fulfills the daily maximum intake of caffeine a day, so this is not a beverage to quaff mindlessly, although Kristafor chooses to ignore this warning.

“I wake up at 4am and have a cup of Black Insomnia and then I drink another at 5am, so when I go for my 6am run, I have so much energy I can run 10km,” he said.

“But I never drink it after noon because then I would not get any sleep.”