I will admit I have fallen for buying from a small business/indie brand due to watching someone on YouTube twice now. The first started in 2022 or 2023 I believe with By Samantha March (I still repurchase from this brand), and the second is a new coffee brand called Sips. In this category I don’t count the brands I’ve bought from due to my exposure in working in content marketing — these are strictly brands I’ve discovered on my own and feel compelled to buy from. Yes I have been influenced and yes marketing does in fact work. So with that, let’s talk about it.
What Is Sips & My Recent Experiences With Coffee
I mentioned earlier this year how I started watching little YouTube skits from the creator Stefania Marzelia and how I have started getting more into coffee and upgrading my morning cups. I found some Hawaiian coffee here on the mainland and keep repurchasing it; I use my own personal coffeemaker nearly every day; and I have loved my Nut Pods creamer (no added sugar) and have even indulged in Chobani Pumpkin Spice creamer these past two weeks. I’ve even tried the At Home Starbucks Golden Turmeric Latte. In short: I love coffee.
But since following this former barista coffee creator, I’ve watched her launch her own coffee brand called Sips. I believe it went live October 10th of this year (since that is when I placed my order) and I am honestly happy to contribute to its success. Working in small business content marketing really makes you appreciate the hard work people put in and how important things like reviews are; it’s not easy and heck, I’m always down to try new coffee. So what’d I buy?
My First & Second Sips Orders
Yes I have bought from this brand twice. My first order, like I said, I placed the day it went live (after knowing about the launch date for a few weeks). I knew I wanted to support this new brand and wanted to give the products a try as I do drink coffee daily and love doing little things to make it special. The first time around I bought the Maplewood Cold Brew + Warm Brown Sugar Bundle and the standalone Madagascar Vanilla Bean syrup.
The Bundle includes the Maplewood Cold Brew coffee grounds (which I was intrigued by due to the cold brew nature (I don’t have this a lot) and the flavor notes of dark maple and brown butter) and the Warm Brown Sugar coffee syrup (which I knew I wanted to try because….hello?). These two I knew would compliment each other so well, not to mention you don’t really see brown sugar as a coffee flavoring a lot. While Sips does offer an Apple Cinnamon Crisp syrup as well, I was way more interested in the Madagascar Vanilla Bean variation. After not having syrups in homemade coffee for a while, I really wanted to give these a try and see how they tasted.
My second order, placed yesterday at the time of writing this, is the other type of coffee from the brand: the Gold Coast Medium Roast; bought on a whim with a discount code and containing flavors of caramel, fig, and hazelnut.
My Sips Taste Test(s)
The cold brew coffee comes with instructions (thank God) that give you two different ways of making it: in a fridge or at room temperature. I brewed the first batch in the fridge for a more mild flavor as, again, I don’t ever have cold brew. I tried it out and I quite like the flavor of the coffee! On its own, it’s very good and I can see how the flavor notes are described how they are. But I was way more excited to try it with the corresponding Brown Sugar syrup, and it was the bomb. It’s got the warmness of brown sugar and it is comfortably sweet like you’d expect from simple syrup. The Brown Sugar particular I’d drink with any coffee, it’s such a unique flavor and I love it. The Vanilla is also really good and it goes so well in coffee; the bottle comes with a vanilla bean immersed in the syrup and tastes so strongly it’s amazing.
The second batch of coffee I brewed the other way — at room temperature for a stronger flavor. While I’m still getting used to the limited amount of coffee cold brew actually makes, I liked the more pungent flavor (both on its own and with the syrup). I can’t wait to see how the Gold Coast Medium Roast tastes!
Give Indie Internet Coffee Brands A Chance
I know there are a million different coffee brands out there but that means there are a million new ones to try and give a chance if you so desire. Whether or not you’re a fan of Stefania Marzelia’s content or not (or have even heard of her), I’d give her brand a chance if the flavors sound interesting to you. Available in whole bean and different ground up variations, and paired with limited-ingredient syrups, I’d give Sips a shot if you’re looking to test some new flavors. P.S. I’m also lowkey in love with the brand’s color scheme and overall design.
