Jimmy Butler has already had four cups of coffee on the day I speak with him, even though it is only midday. I’ve had a cup myself, and when we get on the phone, the coffee and anxieties are causing my heart to race. I question, perplexed, “How do you not get anxiоus from four cups of coffee?” His succinct response is, “I just love it.” “When I’m sitting with friends, sharing coffee and stories, one cup easily becomes four.”
Butler’s passion for coffee stems from relationships and stories, but things weren’t always this way. Butler started his coffee business during the 2020 NBA season, just before the epidemic Һit. It began as a joke in a way. Butler took his own espresso machine with him in an attempt to generate some extra money since he knew the coffee that was available in Orlando wasn’t as good as what he and other NBA players were used to consuming. He had no idea that this was the start of the Big Face coffee brand as a whole.
Butler deadpans, “All I could think about was how I could hustle these guys out of their cash as I was sitting in my hotel room in the Orlando bubble.” Coffee was the means of the hustle; he had lattes, pour-overs, cappuccinos, you nаme it. Each drink, regardless of size, came with a $20 cash price tag, which may be high for the general public but reasonable for professional basketball players. “I made the decision to take cash because I knew people had it and nobody was using it because of Cоvid.”
“One cup easily turns into four when I’m sitting with friends, telling stories, and sharing coffee.”
Butler imagined that his colleagues and other athletes would produce their $100 notes, or “big faces,” as he called them, so that he could just shrug in the event that he was short on change and keep the money for himself. He chuckles, “It never really worked.” “A hundred never came from anybody.”
In actuality, Goran Dragíc, Butler’s former colleague, was conniving him. “Goran was literally hustling me out of my coffee while I was trying to hustle people out of their money, and I didn’t realize it until after the fact that he never paid for a cup,” Butler claims. Butler said that Dragíc was cunning. He would stop over for a few cups of coffee, sharing anecdotes with Butler about his summers spent in Slovenia or planning the next day’s match, then slip away to practice with three cups in hand and no money exchanged.
However, Butler is gracious about the entire thing and claims that it has just made him more of a coffee enthusiast. He enjoys pour-overs, cappuccinos, and mochas among other beverages. Every time he creates a cup, he aims to become better at it, even going so far as to challenge people to latte art contests (though he acknowledges that he isn’t particularly good at it). His preferred milk is oat, yet even with it, there is no artwork visible in the froth. He chuckles, “My hands are too big and shaky.”
Someone who consumes up to eight cups of coffee a day should be eager enough to launch his own brand, it just makes sense. After the 2020 NBA season, Butler launched a determined pursuit of Big Face. “Human passion is paramount. Being the greatest is something I’m very enthusiastic about, whether it’s playing basketball or UNO,” he says. “And I have another chance to learn and start again with Big Face. And to be very honest, it provides me with a fantastic chance to travel.
He has already visited Costa Rica, and his next destination is Africa. Not only does he love Brazilian coffee culture, but he also aspires to go there since his idol, football player Neymar, is a native of the South American nation (seeing a future Big Face partnership with the world-famous player).
Right present, El Salvador, Colombia, Ethiopia, and Honduras are the countries from which Big Face imports their beans. Butler explains, “I get to travel to all of these incredible nations and learn about their cultures and the processes involved in making the perfect cup of coffee. I also get to be grateful and thankful for the people who are dedicating their lives to running a coffee farm.”
Butler has seen firsthand the arduous nature of coffee farming, and he is humbled by every cup he has subsequently consumed. “I honor and respect that more than anything because they wake up every day and grinԀ,” he declares. He compares it to his own basketball craft, which entails getting up early, working hard, and making people happy.
Butler desires much more for Big Face, despite the fact that it is a coffee brand. He acknowledges that he is still learning something new about coffee every day, but he intends to inspire coffee producers and educate the public about the crop. He just released a line of products that includes coffee mugs, sweatshirts, caps, and a tennis two-piece. Additionally, he and Ben Van Leeuwen of Van Leeuwen ice cream collaborated on a special batch of affogato-flavored Big Face ice cream.
It seemed obvious to combine the two as ice cream, like coffee, lends itself to being the ideal medium for discourse. The ice cream, which is now sold at Van Leeuwen scoop stores and online, is made with Big Face beans that are imported from Ethiopia and swirled with a foundation of milk custard.
This partnership is only the beginning of Butler’s numerous goals for Big Face. With a longing expression on his face, he continues, “I envision a multitude of cafes all over the world, where people from all different backgrounds and cultures come and enjoy coffee.” “I want people to get together, have life conversations, and learn only positive things about each other.”