Laird Hamilton Enters the Coffee Biz

Surfing’s favourite pie-fingerer Laird Hamilton now has a digit in the coffee business. Laird claims to be a connoisseur of the world’s largest beverage commodity (over $15bn annually!) and has released his own range of Guatemalan Fair Trade Espresso and superfood creamer. The latest venture of Laird Inc. comes as a result of lifelong love of the bean and his desire to maintain his caffeinated focus in the healthiest and most eco-friendly way possible. Or in the fruity words of the press release: “Laird’s love of coffee was derived by the prerequisites of his dangerous sport where maintaining the highest level of focus is tantamount to surviving the ocean’s most dangerous conditions.” Stage 1: Goofy grin. Stage 2: The shakes. Stage 3: The headache. Ah the life of a coffee drinker. We fight a potent bean addiction at Stab HQ, and have long been of the opinion that the black gold’s not particularly good for one’s health. But if big Papa Laird’s come out in support of the black gold then pour me another cup of Joe! (It’s worth noting that our previous java-loving hero was Lance Armstrong, but with his credibility died our hope for a guilt free cup, until now.) We’d suggest ditching the creamer – a powdery flavour killer – and boiling yourself up a cup of Laird in a percolator. But a word to the wise: make sure you screw that sucker on right, because if you fall short on your rotations and the valve on the side’s obscured, then the pressure in that cast iron pot’ll eventually become so great that the top’ll fire off with a boom, leaving coffee all over the walls, and if you’re lucky, singed eyebrows and not a gaping head wound. Killed in pursuit of a fix, that’s dedication.