Warming the Heart With a Cup of Topics Coffee
By Francesca Bartolomey 
July 12, 2010 
14 Comments
Not everyone has that certain quality that makes Topics Coffee founder Jason Rodriguez special. From a very young age he knew he was put on this earth to do something unique that combined his two loves: entrepreneurship and his community.
I met Jason at the recent Eat, Drink, and Be Hopeful event put on by the American Cancer Society of Brooklyn and when I heard his pitch and tasted his coffee, I knew I would be back to talk to him in more depth. The way Topics Coffee united charity with coffee made it the perfect fit for Appetite for Good and I was dying to tell its story.
Jason’s first job involved packing and toting groceries out to shoppers’ cars for tips before he had even turned 10. By age 14, he was selling jackets for his friend’s record company and all the while volunteering at his local church, cleaning up a summer camp for underprivileged kids, feeding the homeless, and teaching English.
As with most entrepreneurs, there were many false starts before Jason came up with his Big Idea. A few IT ventures came and went before he realized that he did not want to spend his life dealing with other people’s technology woes. He had a bug to combine technology with philanthropy and a consumable product – a product that anyone could relate to. He felt himself edging ever closer to the idea, but couldn’t quite nail it down. He felt the frustration of someone having just woken up, struggling to remember the details of a pleasant dream with only a few fleeting words and vague images to hold onto. Then one night in 2006 after work Jason found himself pacing the length of his room until 6:00AM murmuring words, phrases, and barely-formulated ideas before his eureka moment had finally percolated.
Coffee.
It was so simple. Everyone related to coffee in one way or another, even those who never drink it. Coffee is a national pastime, something everyone understands. With the proliferation of Starbucks all over the country, coffee has come to mean not only a cup of joe, but a latte, a macchiato, a cappuccino and a whole host of other potable products. As the idea brewed in his head, Jason scribbled the Topics logo on a napkin (all great ideas are born on a napkin) and thus Topics Coffee was created.
But still, coffee was only one piece of the puzzle, the consumable. How would technology and philanthropy fit their way into the mix?
The technology piece came from an unlikely source: Ryan Seacrest.
It was 2008 and Topics Coffee lay by the wayside as work and family life got crazy for Jason. His brainchild remained entombed at the bottom of a file cabinet until one day, while watching an episode of the seventh season of American Idol, Jason got an idea. He was enthralled with the idea of how many people were so engaged with the show that they felt compelled to get off the couch and dial in their votes. That’s what my product needs, he thought, some way to engage consumers and get them involved – a communal connection between the consumer and the coffee.
An interactive relationship: the cup of coffee creates a service that is two-fold. First, there is the service to the consumer, the cup of coffee itself. Second, there is the service to the community. The coffee, and thus Jason, serves to bridge the gap between the consumer and the community. The former supports the latter via an intermediary – the cup of coffee.
The website was the key to establishing the interactive relationship. Everything about the site was designed with interactivity involved. When a user enters the site, she is greeted immediately by the coffee and the cause. Topics Coffee also utilizes the usual suspects in social networking, such as Twitter and Facebook.
Once the major connections were made, the rest fell into place with little ado: Topics Coffee would sell gourmet coffee and donate 10% of the proceeds each month to a different charitable cause, or “topic.†Each bag would be adorned with a label that told the consumer what cause she had supported by purchasing a bag of Topics Coffee.
Now that Topics Coffee was created, Jason first needed to find a coffee distributor that both produced excellent coffee and would package and send off each bag sold without requiring bulk purchases. It was a tall order, but Jason ended up with a fantastic distributor of coffees from South America, the Middle East, and Africa. What’s more, they use a technique called hot air roasting as opposed to the fire burning technique preferred by many large coffee companies. The end result is a clearer, cleaner coffee with no burnt residue.
Once the website was up and running, it was time to choose the first spotlight organization. Jason decided on the Coalition for the Homeless, a New York-based organization that works to end homelessness and provide support for those living in poverty. The Coalition remained the featured organization for a few months while Jason worked out the kinks and Topics began to gain ground. At first, he was selling a bag here and a bag there to midwesterners and people in Germany. Eventually the institutional sales began to come in – these are companies that purchase cases of Topics Coffee each month. Soon Jason began to branch out beyond coffee and created the Topics Green product line which includes environmentally friendly products such as cutlery, cups, and stirrers. Additionally, Topics Coffee has come out with a very popular line of delicious chocolate covered espresso beans — each one is jolt of both flavor and energy.
So what does the future hold for Topics Coffee? In addition to the budding Green line, there is also a section devoted to Purposeful Jewelry, and according to the website, a Topics Bakery is in the works. Perhaps for the java-phobic a Topics Teas may one day emerge.
But the beauty of Topics is that it combines great causes with great products and one thing is for sure – that will not change no matter what perks up in the future. 
Photos by Francesca Bartolomey for Appetite for Good.
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I think this is such an awesome concept. but one problem with this is … EWWW RYAN SEACREST!?!! BLLLLLLEEEEEH :p
the espresso beans look delicious !
yum yum yum im sure those will help you thru any boring court room cases!
They are SO good. I’m eating them right now actually. I’m trying to save some for you but I’m not sure how long they’ll last…
No worries Patrick! A case is heading your way. Email me your address.
What a great company…I love the cause and sounds like they have some wonderful coffee:)
Isn’t it a neat idea? And the coffee is really good — you should give it a try!
I enjoyed this article — and I like the idea. I’ll definitely buy the coffee.
I’m glad you liked it — come back often!
It is great to see entrepreneurs putting their minds to helpful causes. Thanks for the info about this Francesca.
My pleasure — thanks for stopping by!
Great article Francesca! I really like the idea behind the Topics coffee.
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