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JA's 17 Blend Coffee pods are available at Wegmans.
Josh Allen is a relatively new coffee drinker, but he’s been consuming a lot more of it lately.
That’s good timing, since he's launching a line of coffee called JA's 17 Blend Single Service Coffee Pods.
The new coffee brand, to be sold exclusively by Wegmans, is the result of a deal struck between Allen and PLB Sports & Entertainment, which has been the Bills star quarterback’s partner for three years on Josh's Jaqs cereal.
JA's 17 Blend was scheduled to go on sale Wednesday, though a number of Wegmans stores had them available earlier.
“Josh just started drinking coffee fairly recently but has gotten kind of hooked on it,” said Ty Ballou, president of PLB. “He really got into the process and is completely in on this and supportive. This is truly a blend that he picked.”
Josh Jaqs is the No. 1 selling cereal at Wegmans, Ballou said, and it's expected to reach 500,000 boxes sold by the end of the NFL season.
Ballou said the new coffee, offered in medium roast in 10-count and 36-count boxes, is likely the biggest thing his company has done since Flutie Flakes, which sold 3.2 million boxes. Coffee has a higher ceiling for sales as a staple, everyday product line, he added. The goal is to become a bigger seller of coffee pods in the area than top-seller Tim Hortons, Ballou said.
“We’ve never had a product like this and certainly with how Josh has ascended, we have extremely high expectations,” Ballou said. “There’s only one Doug Flutie and Flutie Flakes is my Cabbage Patch Kids and Rubik’s Cube – I’ve been chasing Flutie Flakes for 24 years … but I think this product has the feel that it can be almost as big.”
So how did it come to be?
Ballou was in Los Angeles for the Super Bowl in February, where he met with Allen’s agent Tee Stumb of CAA and they brainstormed ideas for a product to offer in addition to the latest iteration of Josh's Jaqs. They decided on a coffee and received support for it from Allen and Wegmans.
“I said, ‘Why don’t we do another category that Josh can own and we’ve never done before?’ ” Ballou said. “If this was going to work, with coffee being such a big deal in Buffalo, it really had to be a tremendous coffee. We’re the No. 1 cereal brand up there, but the coffee mountain is a little bit higher to climb.”
Toronto coffee roasting company Mother Parkers, which makes many private label brands, sent a variety of coffees for Allen to try. He decided on a medium roast – the No. 1 flavor profile for coffee – using an arabica bean that is mountain grown.
“Josh went back and forth with about four or five samples,” Ballou said. “We all concurred that if we can’t bring something to market with the ilk of a Tim Hortons or Starbucks, we shouldn’t bother.”
Ballou said they had hoped to bring the coffee to market before start of the NFL season, but packaging issues held it up until this week.
The 10-count of pods are $6.99 each and a 36-count is $24.99. Coffee mugs can also be purchased at Wegmans. The coffee is also available in a 10-count online at ja17coffee.com or plbse.com.
The package features a photo of Allen and a coffee-bean-shaped football. The JA17 Allen logo is on the lid of the pods.
Ballou said he hopes to extend the line of coffee products after this season, potentially getting into dark and light roasts and whole beans.
“This product category lends itself to so many different iterations of products,” said Ballou, who also works with Bills wide receiver Stefon Diggs' line of hot sauces and blue cheese.
A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the coffee will benefit John R. Oishei Children's Hospital in a similar arrangement with proceeds from the cereal. Allen has been the face of the hospital since shortly after his arrival in Buffalo in 2017. A wing there recently opened in honor of his late grandmother Patricia Allen after more than $1 million was raised in her name.
Allen has become one of the NFL’s hottest pitchmen as well. Allen has already been featured in national commercials for Gillette and Frito Lay/Pepsi.
Allen, who is ranked fifth by Forbes among earners in the NFL, is slated to make $51 million for 2022, with $47 million on the field and $4 million off the field. Forbes said Allen is sponsored by at least 10 brands. He was listed as the highest-paid athlete in the world under 25 in the spring by Forbes. He turned 26 in May.
“It’s good to be Josh and it’s good to his agent right now, and I say that with a lot of respect, with all of the deals that are out there,” Ballou said. “I’m very happy that Josh and the CAA people want to work with us.”
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JA's 17 Blend Coffee pods are available at Wegmans.
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