Dear fellow Elder Millennials, are you ready to feel old? Like, old old? Give Up turns 20 this year.
That’s right, The Postal Service’s seminal 2003 album that got you through all those high school and/or college breakups, the album that taught you that twee electronicism in music could be sad—and actually really good?—hits the two decade threshold this year. And to make matters worse, Transatlanticism, the magnum opus for frontman Ben Gibbard’s other/main band Death Cab For Cutie is 20 now too.
The Weight of Time is often too much to bear and so one must turn to drowning their sorrows. But seeing how these two iconic albums are not yet of drinking age, the next best possible consumable is of course coffee. Luckily, there are brews for just such an occasion. Bellingham, Washington’s Camber Coffee has once again teamed up with Death Cab—and for the first time with The Postal Service—to create custom coffees to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Give Up and Transatlanticism.
As with the previous Death Cab collaboration, these two were orchestrated by Ryan Russell, a Marketing Specialist at Camber who prior to coming into coffee spent time as a band photographer; Russell began working with Death Cab back in 2006 and has continued to do so in a coffee context.
For this dual collab, both coffees were “personally tasted and approved by the band(s).” The more straight forward of the two is The Postal Service’s single origin Ethiopia Riripa, a washed heirloom variety coffee grown between 1,900 and 2,200 MASL in the Sidama region, having flavors of pineapple, orange zest, and honeydew. Death Cab, on the other hand, opted to go with a blend this time around. A mix of washed and natural processed coffees from Guatemala Sierra Las Minas, Honduras, Capucas, and the Guji Zone in Ethiopia combine for “sweet notes of dark chocolate, plum, and molasses, with a full, honey-like body.”
“When approaching how each coffee would taste, I took into account a few of the preferences I knew about the band members and sent out some of our favorite coffees during the tour for everyone to brew together,” Russell tells Sprudge. “Death Cab landed on a sweet and chocolatey blend of coffees from Latin America. The Postal Service went with a singingly bright and tropical Ethiopia.”
Currently on pre-order, both coffees are available exclusively via each band’s website, with 12oz whole-bean bags retailing for $27. Orders are expected to begin shipping out later this month.
And as is Sprudge tradition for music and coffee collaborations, please enjoy these reimaginings of coffee-themed song names from The Postal Service’s Give Up and Death Cab for Cutie’s Transatlanticism.
D(e)C(af) Sleeps… Alone Tonight
Such Great Elevation
Recycled Convention Center Air
Natural (Processed) Anthem
Transatlanticism (of the coffee supply chain)
SCA Expo ‘86
Lightness of Roast
Tiny Vessels for Espresso
We Looked Like Maragogipe
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
