The base of this blend is a honey-processed Pacas from Vista Hermosa, producing an elegant, bright cup. We layered the blend like a good reverb, with a honey-processed Bourbon and Pacas blend of beans that comes from the Santa Ana region. This bean has loads of body, with a sweet, caramel-like profile. Together these beans make an approachable iced coffee that is delicious on its own and also pairs well with cream and sugar.
Pop-artist set to debut new toys and coffee at events with partners Threadless, Dark Matter Coffee, Fender Guitars, and pop gallery ROTOFUGI.
Nathan will be hosting a number of activities to connect with fans at the Threadless booth on Saturday April 1st. In addition to signing toys and comics, Hamill is celebrating the launch of his own signature Coffee Cold with Chicago based coffee roaster Dark Matter Coffee, based on his Vinyl toy LAVABEAR called 'LAVABEAN.'
Hamill is also partnering with Fender Guitars to give away an artist edition Malibu Player acoustic guitar. Nathan will customize the guitar with his signature art style and raffle it off for convention attendees at the Threadless booth. Threadless will fulfill the raffle by the end of the convention. The guitar is valued at $500.
Then on Sunday, April 2nd, Nathan will be debuting a new vinyl toy, Drorgs: Ooze Ed at Chicago pop culture gallery ROTOFUGI. Shirts, toys, and coffee based on Hamill’s work will be available for sale.
Nathan Hamill is an artist from Los Angeles with an affinity for large eyed creatures, ranging from cute to macabre, bashful to bellicose. He was raised on a healthy diet of cartoons, comics, movies, and toys, which informed his personality and artistic sensibilities. Nathan worked at Matt Groening's Bongo Entertainment as a colorist and writer from 2005 to 2014, working on titles like Bart Simpson, Futurama, and the Library of Wisdom series. Nathan designed and released his own line of vinyl toys with characters like LAVABEAR, Boris the Raccoon, and Bellicose Bunny, which have been distributed and sold internationally.
Visit http://nathanhamill.com/ for more on Nathan and his art.
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The outer bag of the collector's edition of this acid-free Museum coffee is screen printed onto sandpaper. What an amazing – abrasive idea! Except it has already been done: The Durutti Column's 1980 release on Factory Records – had sandpaper glued onto the outer cover (it is said by members of Joy Division while Ian Curtis watched porn) The idea was that it would slowly destroy the release to the left and the release to the right. An AMAZING unbelievably original idea! Except that it was itself "inspired" by Situationist: Guy Debord whose book ‘Mémoires’ was released in 1959 – in a sandpaper cover.
The blend contains two different Guatemalan beans from our friends at Finca San Jeronimo. A washed Sarchimor makes up the base of this blend with a honey processed Catuai being a bright accent coffee. Together they create a nutty, sweet coffee cold with notes of baking spice.
Dark Matter Coffee is proud to announce our collaboration with The Black Angels, and our own limited vinyl variant of their new album, Wilderness of Mirrors.
Wilderness of Mirrors is The Black Angel's most adventurous and impressive album yet. While their signature fuzzed-out and delirium-inducing brand of psychedelic rock remains intact, Wilderness of Mirrors also sees the band expanding their sonic vision beyond the furthest horizons with the addition of acoustic guitar-driven dirges, string arrangements, keyboards, and PLENTY of Mellotron. Stuffed to the gills with rich texture and defiant, heavy riffs, Wilderness of Mirrors reflects the tumult, struggle, and chaos of the last five years and weaves them into 15 tracks that force the listener to recognize their place in the new age of wilderness, gnawing at the edges of society and begging a return to primordial instinct. This is a record you can't afford to miss.
We combined washed Bourbon and Pacas from El Salvador to lay down a sweet-chocolate and nutty foundation, with Yellow Icatu rounding out the mix and adding a playful, mysterious earthy quality reminiscent of freshly-steeped black tea. Much like the record it's paired with, this blend is built on elements familiar to the DMC oeuvre, but with plenty of depth to find delights not experienced before.
Smart Bar, for the uninitiated, is the nightclub located under Metro and one of the United States' most important nightclubs featuring cutting-edge DJs from around the world. For the last 10 years, Queen! has been hosted by legendary drag queens Lucy Stoole, Jojo Baby, and Nico serving the looks with music selections by resident DJs Derrick Carter, Michael Serafini, and Garrett David. Consider it your weekly gospel to underground House and Disco.
For the coffee, we wanted to create a juicy, rich coffee cold, strong enough to keep you moving through the 4am crowd. Using a natural processed Pacas from Las Marias as the base with its red fruit notes, we paired this with a honey processed Sarchimor from Finca San Jeronimo Miramar to bring in the sweetness of brown sugar.
Together these create a balanced, smooth coffee cold and phantom disco balls clouding your vision.
For the blend, we've decided to pair two sides of a washed Guatemalan coffee (get it?), roasting one side to our typical light roast parameters and for the other side a bit heavier, caramelizing more of the sugars present in the bean. This darker component also matches the roastiness of the chicory, to further enhance that profile when brewing the two together.
As an homage to his hometown of New Orleans and their coffee traditions, we have built this blend to pair well with roasted chicory root, a first for us. During times of economic crisis and coffee shortages, chicory root was roasted and blended with coffee to stretch the supply and has since become a staple in the coffee culture in Nola.
This blend is a combination of two roast profiles on the following coffee:
Initially put together to support venues during the height of the pandemic, the first Situation Chicago LP successfully raised 35k for more than 25 stages. We're back for round two, and this time around, proceeds from the follow-up record go to the CIVL SAVE Emergency Relief Fund, powered by The Giving Back Fund, giving need-based grants to furloughed staff, local artists, and venues via need-based grants in the Chicagoland area. Volume 2 features tracks from Jeff Parker, Umphrey's McGee, and Fess Grandiose.
For this coffee cold can, we chose to highlight a fun, fruity coffee from El Salvador that went through a unique fermentation process. The Pacamara cultivar is a cross between Pacas and Maragogype, a spontaneous mutation of Typica with especially large cherries. Immediately after the cherries were picked, they were collected in an enclosed vessel using carbon dioxide to purge out any oxygen remaining. The intact cherries were left to ferment in this closed system, allowing the natural microbes and yeasts present to ferment the mucilage on the bean without introducing any outside factors. After a few days, the cherries were removed and dried in their skins on raised beds, further developing the acidity and complexity of the coffee.
Nightroamer is the third album from our friends Sarah Shook & the Disarmers, and we're happy to report their blisteringly energetic brand of punk-rock'n'roll-country fusion is more expansive and genre-defying than ever! Are they a rock-inspired country outfit or steel-guitar punk? Doesn't matter if it's this good.
Inspired by this dynamism, we crafted a blend just as versatile as the band themselves: something that can be sipped and shared on the front porch, on the front dash of a tour van, in a honky-tonk roadhouse or a punk rock hole in the wall. Liz Pavlovic's violet night sky gives an indication of the blend inside: dark fruit notes and a twinkle of acidity. Honey processed Salvadoran coffee pairs creamy body (with more citrus acidity coming through as it cools), with hints of berry notes provided by a Bourbon natural from the Pacas family. Is it a comfort cup or a heady dive? Doesn't matter if it's this good.
Lastly and definitely not least, we were graciously given three tracks from Nightroamer that are yours free via digital download when you purchase a bag through the DMC website. Make sure to grab the record here.
Blend Breakdown:
Drawing inspiration from the Jägermeister Cold Brew Coffee - a classic herbal liqueur with coffee and a high of chocolatey cacao - we created a unique, limited-edition line of non-alcoholic, Jägermeister Cold Brew Coffee-infused chocolate bars and coffee beans.
Take heart in knowing with each sip and bite, you're enjoying a combination of family traditions, innovation and craftsmanship.
Chocolate
For this collaborative chocolate bar, we used a well-rounded Trinitario from Chiapas that has been infused with Jägermeister Cold Brew Coffee Liqueur. Trinitario is a hybrid cacao cultivar discovered in Trinidad and Tobago and is a cross-pollination of Criollo and Forastero, two of the most common cultivars in the Americas. It has a dark fruit profile and complexity that pairs perfectly with the botanicals in Jägermeister Cold Brew Coffee Liqueur.
Oscar Joyo (b.1992,Lilongwi,Malawi). At a young age, he was introduced to art by his mother but his passion grew through animation, comic books, video games and film. He moved to the United States in 2000 from Malawi and lived in South Bend, Indiana where he continued to pursue art to serve as means of expression and communication.
After graduating high school in 2011,Oscar moved to Chicago to attend the American Academy of Art and explore the creative Chicago art scene. He graduated with a BFA in life drawing at the American Academy of Art in 2015. Technical training in traditional drawing skills from the Academy led him to find interests in professional illustration, graphic design, photography, and fine art.
Oscar currently lives in Chicago and has been involved in many artist exhibitions around Chicago. He has also been a part of showcases outside of the city such as The Society of Illustrators student exhibition in New York, Congressional Art Exhibition and Digital Arts Showcase in South Korea.
Summer has landed in Chicago in the same way we've been known to descend on a tray of hot dogs - hard, fast, and sweaty. The days are getting longer, paleta men are hitting the streets, and things are opening up at a pace that a year ago seemed impossible. Hell, we even already got started in on the festivities by opening up the backyard patios and having artists paint up our picnic tables!
For us, the rising thermometer is always associated with an increased consumption of coffee cold, and lord do we love our coffee cold. Supercharged and super tasty, these ice cold babies are the lifeblood of many at music and beer fests everywhere and a daily requirement for function for yours truly (and hey, maybe you too!). After a year of our 2019 caterpillar selves metamorphosing into the beautiful 2021 butterflies we've all become, it's time to enter the world again with the energy of a people that have been inside for the better part of 14 months. There's so many things to do in a city crawling its way out of a pandemic, we'd be remiss if we didn't take the opportunity to present Summer activities and their perfect coffee cold counterparts.
Chocolate City is an all-time classic in the iced coffee world, the perfect balance of both get up and go with a taste that makes it easy to throw back time after time. It's also a great companion for those all-day skate sessions or a precursor to catching a day game. Hell, maybe you're just shooting hoops in the backyard. Either way, Chocolate City is the gold standard for a clean and tasty caffeine boost.
With Lollapalooza, Pitchfork, AND Riot Fest all making their returns this year, you're gonna need some get up to get down if you're ever gonna survive all three weekends. Lucky for you the smooth sweetness of Vanilla Suburbs is there to serenade you with flavor and energy like Limp Bizkit is sure to do at this year's Lolla. Granted, in their case that flavor is hot dog water and ours is just like, vanilla? You know what, maybe this one got away from us...
Sometimes the only thing better than an afternoon at a brewery is an afternoon of biking to a whole mess of them with your friends. Here's the problem - ya can't bike around drinking all day without ending up on your ass. Luckily you can keep things rolling and your mouth full of hops with our Brown Acid dry-hopped coffee cans.
What's better than a casual hangout with some nice libations? Our Black Splash barrel aged iced coffee is the ideal warm-up for a full day of grilling and chilling with friends. Simultaneously sweet and boozy, Black Splash is a top tier cocktail companion or perfect to wash down a hamburger hot off the grill.
]]>We are proud to announce our newest music collaboration with the dynamic duo Klevah and TRUTH a.k.a. Mother Nature! Their newest mixtape SZNZ off of Closed Sessions is a fifteen track instant CLASSIC featuring production work from the unstoppable Boathouse and guest verses served up from the likes of Brittney Carter, Valee, and Sir Michael Rocks. Honestly? We've had the thing on repeat since it dropped. We're not the only ones either, they've been reeling in acclaim from the likes of Complex and Pigeons and Planes. Overall SZNZ is brimming with bombastic, no bullshit attitude, meaning that we HAD to step in and provide a companion coffee to match! The can features album artwork and, in a first for us, a QR code that takes you straight to the mixtape so you have no fucking excuse to not check out the vibes. We also had the pleasure of hosting an interview in our Maggot Brain studio between Mother Nature, Boathouse, and Closed Sessions label co-founder Alexander Fruchter, followed by an in-studio performance of a few tracks off the album. You can watch that below.
This isn't our first time working with Closed Sessions or Boathouse, either. In 2019 we teamed up to put out a crazy double 7" celebrating their 10 year anniversary with a coffee and can to match. We've also hosted multiple members of the Closed Sessions crew during our annual Anniversary party and can tell you with certainty, they all rule.
Inside the can, the coffee is a Sampacho from El Salvador that underwent an experimental fermentation process called Carbonic Maceration. Sampacho as a cultivar is a short and sturdy plant, about half the height of other varietals. It's perfect for the mountains of El Salvador where high winds can whip through farms and cause damage to taller coffee trees.
Once the cherries were picked at the peak of ripeness by the Cafe Tuxpal team, they were collected in an airtight container and flushed with carbon dioxide to force out any oxygen. This allows for extended contact between the seeds and the mucilage without outside exposure to air or foreign yeasts. After the coffee has time to chill in these containers, they're processed as a Natural coffee by placing the cherries directly onto raised drying beds and continuing fermentation. We ended up with a bright and acid driven profile, with notes of blueberry, grape, and dark chocolate showing themselves on the cupping table. You can grab the cans here.
]]>If there's been one plant that's served as inspiration for DMC over the year, besides coffee of course, it's gotta be the Devil's Lettuce. You know: kush, cheeba, herb, gas. Whatever you wanna call it, it's been one of our muses since the get-go. With that in mind, Devil's Lettuce is one of our annual blends and offering to the gods of ganja, always accompanied by the artwork of DMC mainstay Jason Brammer and, often times, a mixtape to put you in the right headspace. We're going through designs past and the adjunct tunes to puff puff pass on the cheer during the kindest month of the year. But first, we sat down with Jason to discuss music, art, inspirations and more:
The mixtape for this release was smoked and curated by the Impala Sound Champions. This DJ duo can do no wrong in our eyes and this mix is blessed by Jah as the perfect companion to our coffee.
About the Artist
Hasani Cannon was inspired to pursue his dream of being an artist while participating as a middle school student in YEMBA’s Mentoring Empowerment Program. He was encouraged by Edward Redd, YEMBA founder, who served as a role model and provided Hasani with a drawing pad and colored pencils. Now an art major at the University of Illinois-Springfield, Hasani plans to pursue a master’s degree in fine arts.
Hasani created the original artwork for bags of coffee produced by Dark Matter Coffee in Chicago in an effort to give back to other youth, just like Mr. Redd did for him. Your purchase of special edition Dark Matter Coffee bags will support YEMBA’s efforts to nurture young people and strengthen communities.
About YEMBA
YEMBA Inc. is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to educating our youth mentally, physically and spiritually with a life-long learning and service experience through group mentorship that will equip them with knowledge and tools for leadership development and success in life.
By purchasing this coffee, you are making a direct impact on the life of an at-risk youth in our community by allowing us to continue to enrich their lives through our mentoring initiatives.
San Jeronimo Miramar in Guatemala is an extended home and family for DMC. On Monday, March 9th the Atitlan Volcano, on which this farm is situated, is undergoing a major forest fire.
San Jeronimo Miramar is dedicated to natural preservation and protected major portions of their land by allowing the flora and fauna to flourish without cultivating the land. The highest point of their farm is an untouched jungle and is currently being decimated - this area and other reserves around the Volcano of other Farms is one of the last places you can observe the Quetzal and Horned Guan. Forecasting the fire's path, we are all extremely concerned the fire will continue to travel down the mountain and destroy significant parts of their farm.
More than 300 people in the local community work on this land - and many more farms and communities will be affected as well.
We are asking for emergency relief for all the people of San Jeronimo Miramar and everyone helping. All we can do at this moment is act quickly to save as much of the farm and its surrounding wildlife as possible.
It has been estimated that $50,000 is needed to acquire resources and set up the logistics to halt the progress of this fire. So far we have teamed up with Amigos del Lago Atitlan, Los Tarrales Reserve, Fina Santo Tomas Perdido and San Jeronimo Miramar to raise $30,000. We humbly request you to please donate what you can to this cause to impact an unfolding emergency situation.
All funds will be give to *Asociacion de Reservas Naturales Privadas* to combat the fire. The GoFundMe can be found here.
The location for which the word Psychedelegance was forged, Meddle is bathed in purple neon and silver-green wallpaper, surrounding the senses to separate entirely from the chaos and bustle of downtown Chicago, a suspension in time and space. Just like the wall crumbling away to a coffee jungle, Meddle breaks through convention to reveal a deeper experience.
Electric Mud crackles with energy and prismatic light leaving hazy tracers as far as the eye can see. Inside, infamous polka dot patterns, sites like the Maxwell Street Open Air Market, and the history of Chicago blues permeate through ones consciousness. These ripples from Blues' origins in the Mississippi Delta still hold the spirituality and mysticism of hoodoo, black cat bones, gris-gris, and mojo hands.
Going through the doors of Caravanserai is like stepping through a temporal rift to an outdoor Acayucan market. The floors turn to cobblestone and the walls give way to an infinite horizon. Quetzals flutter around the archways, a hidden menagerie in the bathrooms, and vibrant plants are scattered throughout. Caravanserai is also our first partnership with La Rifa Chocolateria out of Mexico City.
Sleep Walk is a Ritchie Valens' mestizo lowrider dream swirling with the people and culture of a pre-colonial Mexico. The smell of warm cocoa fills the building and wraps your senses in a dream-like sense of calm. A complete separation from the physical self and into a land where it's always sunset and Billy Stewart croons into your ear.
]]>In addition to the righteous vibes proved by the artists (the legendary Slang and future legends Anthony Lewellen and KaylaMay to name just a few), we've also put out a healthy amount of mixtapes to coincide with the release. Since life always needs a little bit more music, we dug these babies out of the archives to warm your ears.
2014 - Twinpeaks DJ's
The righteous DJ duo, Twinpeaks, were funky enough to compile an all Indiana based compilation for your listening pleasure. Avid vinyl connoisseurs, the identical twin DJs self-imposed rules for the mixtape: only vinyl and only Indiana based artists or labels. This interesting approach allows for a refined trip down Indiana Avenue, an often overlooked music treasure chest, birthing numerous legendary jazz and soul artists. A proper mixtape for the intellectuals and casual fans alike.
2015 - DJ Rasul
The debut cassette release on our record label Press Pot Recordings, we teamed up with Chicago's own SHOWYOUSUCK to release their AWESOME TAPE! And let us tell you, it is just that, AWESOME! Featuring guest appearances from Indianapolis' Oreo Jones and a remix by The Hood Internet. This was also an unofficial debut of the SHOWYOUSUCK and Hood Internet supergroup Air Credits, who would headline our block party later on that year in July.
2018 - ETC Records Electronic Buffet Vol 1
In 2018 DMC & Etc Records paired up to bring Electronic Buffet Vol 1 into the mix. Featuring an outstanding array of producers that are the tastemakers of Chicago's indie beat makers. ETC Records is a community oriented, forward thinking, progressive label; homegrown within Chicago and we were and are still humbled to be able to release this compilation in collaboration with the label and its talented roster.
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If your brain is permanently set on funkin you're in good company! While over half of our cafes draw their inspiration from a certain Detroit psychedelic tour-de-funk, our original location Star Lounge serves as the genesis and big bang of our Dark Matter universe (Kevin Faige, get at us!). While Star Lounge inherited its name from the previous business in that space, it served as a platform to premier our now-classic iced coffee Chocolate City (which has earned it's own palace on Grand Avenue) and the first Star Child, The Mothership. To this day, Star Lounge continues to stand as an institution of community, creativity, and positivity - just like the crew of whom we draw our inspiration.
Mothership
Pulling triple duty serving as Dark Matter's intergalactic headquarters, roastery AND central office, the Mothership is the home base and vehicle through which we deliver our particular brand of freshly roasted funk to the masses. Here our all-stars roast and bag coffee in the back while we operate a small but always growing to-go service for the public out the front. The Mothership beams good vibes and coffee to every corner of the world so come check it out and melt your brain over it's signature drink, the boozy-sweet Black Magic.
Osmium
Our third location opened in Lakeview in the spring of 2014 and mirrors the psychedelic soulful DMC energy through the incredible artwork of Jason Brammer. The mural spans across the entire length of the cafe, endearingly called "Devil in the Chocolate City". It depicts a sunken, waterlogged world's fair dripping with eyeballs, tentacles, oil spills, and other steampunk machinery. In short? He tore the roof off the sucker. Adorning the opposite wall is an original copy Parliament Osmium record autographed by Wayne Coyne from The Flaming Lips. While he has nothing to do with the album, it was the only record we had on hand when we met him, so what would you do?
Chocolate City Coffee Palace and Bodega
Bright lights and flashy coffee cold specials serve as the backdrop to this neighborhood watering hole. An essential feature in any city community, bodegas serve as spaces where people can gather to share their own stories and legends. Bathed in classy neon-drenched funk and carrying all the essentials, Chocolate City Coffee Palace is no different. Located in West Town's Grand Ave corridor, the coffee has been flowing in the Bodega since 2019
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2014 - Astro Black
A collaboration between Chicago Jazz Fest, Corbett vs Dempsey art gallery, Philly's King Britt, and ourselves to pay tribute to what would have been Afro Futurist and Arkestra leader Sun Ra's 100th year on this planet. While he wasn't born in Chicago, it's inarguable that Ra was shaped by his experience during his time here. Or maybe it was the city that was shaped by its experience with him? You decide.
Like the disparate sounds that led to his cosmic approach, Corbett vs Dempsey provided four colorways of their super-sonic design to combine with King Britt's reinterpretation of Space is the Place, which you can listen to below. This was followed by a live performance by King Britt hosted by Chicago Jazz Fest at Constellation the day before Sun Ra's birthday.
As a bonus, our own Minister of Groove Marc Bonadies also put together this mind blowing mix dedicated to Sun Ra as well!
2016 - Robert Glasper Experiment - ARTScience
In our eyes, there aren't many - if any - echelons of jazz that exist above Blue Note Records. We'd also like to argue there are few modern pianists that can look further into the future than Robert Glasper for that matter. Needless to say when approached with the opportunity work with Mr. Glasper and his upcoming album ARTScience on Blue Note we jumped. In addition to selling the coffee alongside the vinyl, we hosted Robert and his crew for a backyard barbecue at our Star Lounge location, which featured guest dj's, a listening party of the album, and a media interview where we heard Robert wax poetic on "What is Jazz?"
2019 - Vinyl Freak with John Corbett
Vinyl Freak, Love Letters to A Dying Medium is a book celebrating crate diggers and vinyl junkies. Author John Corbett compiled an exclusive mix to celebrate and contemplate the desire that drives everyone to acquire those dusty fingertips. John is a long time friend and collaborator of DMC, having helped us release the Sun Ra inspired Astro Black coffee back in 2014.
Discussing more than 200 rare and out-of-print LPs, Vinyl Freak is composed in part of Corbett's long-running DownBeat magazine column of the same name, which was devoted to records that had not appeared on CD. Perfect for vinyl newbies and veteran crate diggers alike, Vinyl Freak plumbs the motivations that drive Corbett and collectors everywhere.
In 2018 we were one of the proud sponsors of the Hyde Park Jazz Festival, and spent our time handing out coffee over a chilly September weekend. Rather than being held in one centralized location, the festival takes a more intimate approach by holding a number of concerts in venues spread throughout the University of Chicago campus and surrounding neighborhood. Some of the highlights were performances by Ben Lamar Gay, Brandee Younger (who also gave an incredible talk on the legacy of Alice Coltrane), and Junius Paul.
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2015
Devil's Lettuce 2015 mixtape once again features our green pals Impala Sound Champions blasting out the reggae love! Twist one up, hit play and pass it around friends!
2016
Helping us smoke the peace pipe are our partners-in-crime, Impala Sound Champions, bringing a super heady ganga mix for everyone's dome!
2017
Push Beats, the premiere beat makers & DJ collective from Chicago provide the mixtape for Devil's Lettuce 2017. Chalked full of token beats to make sure your head is securely unfastened for the musical ride. Released in a limited edition cassette tape via Press Pot Recordings
2018
2019
2020