Last month I interviewed Michael Rideout and Taylor Prater, co-founders of St. Pete’s own Made Coffee, for the latest issue of St. Pete Life Magazine.

Here’s an excerpt from the article:

Every morning millions of people can’t (and won’t) start their day until they’ve had their routine cup of coffee. No matter if it’s straight black, with cream and sugar, or milk, as soon as the drink hits their taste buds, their blood starts pumping and adrenaline starts racing. Here’s something else to think about though: it’s great to drink a hot cup of joe when temperatures are almost unbearably freezing but doesn’t it feel somewhat uncomfortable drinking a cup when it’s hot, sticky, and humid outside?

St. Petersburg is known for its beaches, eccentricity, and sunshine…not coffee. The city’s Made Coffee drink is the brainchild of founder Michael Rideout, the “Brew Guru”, and Co-founder Taylor Prater, the “Marketing Maven”. They met back in 2014 while working together at St. Petersburg bar Mandarin Hide. In fact, the same bar is where they came up with the idea for Made Coffee.  

“We were trying to find a concentrated coffee that we could use in cocktails at Mandarin. We just started tinkering around at the house and came up with a couple ways to make the product, which is basically cold-brewing it. We started off utilizing these ingredients at the bar and it took off fast from there,” explains Rideout.

“Our first couple of events were coffee cocktail events where we’d set up in different bars. I’d say it came from us just trying to make cocktails initially,” Prater says.

Learn more about Made Coffee and its statewide popularity in the article “Cold-brewed coffee in a can enjoys widespread buzz across Florida”.

Photos courtesy of Made Coffee