Coffee from a V8 anyone? You’ll be after the achingly hip Saturdays only Berlin pop up that is Sucux Coffee, conceived by one of the city’s equally achingly hip creative agencies. It's a tiny hole-in-the-wall with a distinctly motorsport oriented vibe - a vibe now reflected in a range of surprising merchandise.
If you’ve stopped your own V8 outside and happen to catch Sucux Coffee while they’re open, your espresso will be served from the Sucux V8, a high-end chrome-finish La Marzocco maker, significantly embellished with Sucux’s own V8 kit, which attaches to the Linea Classic S 2-Group - we’re going to be Formula One-precise here - with magnets to emulate the exhaust system of a V8. Truly. Parts are 3-D printed, polished, electo-plated and equipped with strong magnets for easy attachment - and if you happen to have the appropriate Linea Classic, Sucux Coffee will happily make one for you. That’ll speed up the espresso kick.
This audacity and originality is the hallmark of the creative agency responsible, Sucuk und Bratwurst, based above the coffee shop. They’re four school friends who’ve made a significant name for themselves supplying 3-D renderings to the likes of Alexander Wang, Nike and Adidas. Their own direct-to-consumer outlet is as off-beat as their near-psychedelic work, so as you’d expect the merch side is hardly conservative.
That package that looks like it wouldn’t be out of place on your local mechanic's parts shelf? That’ll be Sucux Coffee’s coffee beans, which don’t necessarily need a V8 to grind and make your next essential caffeine hit. You’ll be wanting a branded espresso cup, with glossy platinum finish and Sucux logo. Oversize t-shirts are distinctly tongue-in-cheek, like so much here, with familiar motorsport oriented logos reimagined: Marlboro as macchiato, Shell oil logo recast as an espresso cup... you get the picture.
Sucux Coffee: Born in Berlin
Since this is Berlin there’s naturally more that’s off-track, from a range of candles - a bear to provide nightmares - to a “Sucux Kills” scarf which depicts a cigarette. The Sucux team once described what they do with what amounts to a mission statement: "We think the best is to do what you want to do and what you love. Stop trying to define things and start to do things.” And if that means a 3D-printable-at-home barbed-wire hanger, so be it.
You’ll have to provide your own transport to the Sucux Coffee pop-up. Merch pricing is on Sucux Coffee’s Instagram - we went for the coffee beans because we're cheap - but you’ll no doubt want to know what you’d pay for that V8 kit for the La Marzocco. Sucux quote £10,370, coffee machine excluded and though you could get an actual Jaguar V8 installed in a second hand XJ for less than that, we’d guess the Sucux kit will be more reliable. This is seriously witty merchandise, relating to a sport that rarely laughs at itself. We’re fans, naturally.
Next up: Feast your eyes upon this Porsche x La Marzocco espresso machine.
