To say that Chamberlain Coffee is built around its eponymous namesake is to belabor the obvious. At just 21-years old, vlogger Emma Chamberlain has built an audience of 26 million followers across Instagram and YouTube without much of a gimmick to speak of; her videos include activities like driving, cleaning her apartment and making lots of coffee.
It’s the latter that she spun into a business of her own in 2019, marketing organic blends in whole bean, ground and steeped varieties. With a rapidly growing presence outside of social media — see her meme-worthy interview with Jack Harlow on the MET Gala red carpet while serving as a correspondent for Vogue — Chamberlain isn’t your typical brand founder doing typical brand marketing type things. As the specialty coffee space matures, CEO Chris Gallant sees opportunity for Emma and her brand to welcome a new audience into the category.
“In terms of thinking about the different generations of coffee drinkers,” he said, “there’s nobody speaking directly to Gen Z, which is what this brand is doing.”
That hasn’t come without its challenges; Chamberlain Coffee was relaunched with a new package design featuring illustrated characters in 2020, featuring names like Night Owl and Fancy Mouse Espresso. Since then, the business has scaled rapidly, moving into categories like matcha and into flavored blends (Fluffy Lamb Vanilla and Witty Fox Hazelnut) while expanding beyond D2C and into limited retail with partners like Sprouts and Bristol Farms in Southern California. According to Gallant, the company has one employee working on product development, but the majority of heavy lifting is being done by its sourcing and roasting partner, Bixby Roasting Co.
Even as its range of offerings widens, Chamberlain Coffee’s move into co-branded partnerships is likely to serve as a litmus test for the strength of the brand’s (and Emma’s) appeal beyond coffee. In addition to a range of clothing and merch, Chamberlain teamed up with kitchenware maker Bodum last year to release co-branded coffee gadgets, and in April it began offering prepared coffee drinks for rapid delivery exclusively via Gopuff.
But this month, Chamberlain is formally entering the RTD segment by teaming with New York City-based zero-sugar beverage maker Swoon to launch Matcha Lemonade, a LTO available exclusively online in 12 oz. cans. Swoon founders Jennifer Ross and Cristina Ros Blankfein connected with Chamberlain after their company’s pink lemonade started showing up in her social media posts. Both companies have embraced an offbeat approach to long-established categories, and the synergies between the two made for a natural collaboration on the drink, which is now available for $39.99 per 12-pack at Erewhon, Mother’s Market, Foxtrot, Fresh Thyme Market and Gopuff (in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago), among other retailers.
“The Chamberlain team is really rooted in also just having enjoyment and joy and fun and to take these really high quality ingredients, and a relatively serious approach to coffee and matcha, but also just have fun with it,” said Blankfein. “They have these characters that have these really bright colors and just have that approachability that really rang true for us. So there was just a real organic liking of the product from Emma and then our brands really just being synergistic in terms of our approach to beverages.”
Meanwhile, next month will see the launch of a co-branded variety pack with plant-based creamer producer nutpods featuring “Emma’s favorite flavors” – unsweetened French Vanilla, unsweetened Caramel and sweetened Sweet Crème – for $14.95. Similar to Swoon, the collaboration came about after Chamberlain, an existing fan of nutpods, reached out; according to nutpods founder Madeline Haydon, “Emma has been extremely supportive of us over the years,” often using the creamer in her videos.
“If you take a look at the collaborations we do, they’re pretty organic, which I think speaks to why Emma herself has become so popular — she’s really authentic with her audience,” said Gallant.
In terms of a direct move into RTD products, Gallant said the brand is “super excited” about their potential, noting his own background in the space during previous stints at Aqua ViTea and Red Bull, along with his role as co-founder and president of Bronx Brewery. More broadly, Chamberlain has found a sweet spot in single-serve products like its sachets, and the company has plans to expand those offerings in new formats later this year. That includes more snacks along the lines of its chocolate covered espresso beans, Gallant noted.
“If you look at Gen Z right now and where they are in their lifecycle, they’re graduating college, they are starting to buy their own groceries at grocery stores,” he said. “And so as we think about meeting them where they shop, that’s going to be a new big place for them. And so we want to make sure we’re there.”
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Swoon was based in Los Angeles. The article has been updated.