Welcome to The Headstand Universe
The world can feel a bit full on and the hustle is real. So we're turning coffee on its head by brewing leaves instead of beans because we wanted to create a drink that helps us all reconnect with ourselves and brings calm in all the commotion.
​
Made in London. Born from a shared set of values. We're 3 friends making seltzer from coffee leaf because it tastes fucking great and is good for you, good for farmers and good for the planet so it leaves you feeling good in every way. Come check out why we think you'll be obsessed with coffee leaf too...
Like all things, Headstand started as an idea...
Barista and coffee roaster Josh spent over a decade traveling around Latin American and
African coffee farms working with producers who supply coffee to some of the UK’s most celebrated coffee spots. On his trips he watched climate change disrupt the ecological balance coffee growing required and saw farmers turned friends struggle to survive harvest seasons.
On one of these trips he found himself standing on the side of an El Salvadorian mountain...on a farm called "The Breezes"...where he began telling his farmer friend, Carlos Pola, that in some places they turn leaves of the coffee tree into tea. Carlos, a man with endless curiosity and an experimental nature, signed up to the idea of partnering with Josh and trying it out. The two became obsessed with perfecting coffee leaf. Josh buried himself in research and studies and soon learned about the benefits of the leaf which was rich in antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties and he got even more hyped up about sharing it with more parts of the world.
Coffee leaf went from a curiosity to a calling when he learned by harvesting it we could double the income a farmer makes from every tree. With 44% of coffee producers living below the UN poverty line this felt like something that needed to be done. Because if we got it right then it meant we could help improve the farmer's day-to-day life making them more profitable and also help fight against how the changing climate is negatively impacting farm's profits.
After way too many to count experiments, Josh & Carlos finally created what they believed would be the best tasting coffee leaf tea. By the time our coffee leaf tea was born the Covid lockdowns had us all feeling more anxious, stressed and worried and a lot of us chose to re-focus on our health whether it was taking a few more than 1x 15 minute walks a day or doing the 5K challenge we were all looking for balance. During this time Josh eagerly created a recipe for a light carbonated seltzer with no added sugar and only 30 calories in a can. He paired coffee leaf with ingredients shown to help people feel calm, cool & collected like chamomile for calm, ginseng to boost your immune system & the green tea extract L-theanine to help you regain focus.
A year after Headstand hit the shelves, friends Chris & Kerry joined the team and created the Headstand Universe - a place we create with our products, ideas, experiences, partners, curiosity and everything in between - where you go to be inspired and reconnect with the world around you in a new way. Chris draws everything you see & Kerry is the Headstand conductor.
Welcome to the Headstand Universe
Josh, Chris and Kerry