ENTERTAINMENT

Rocker Zakk Wylde partners with Death Wish Coffee Company

Alex Biese
@ABieseAPP

Zakk Wylde is known for his merciless, heavier-than-thou sound, currently found on the guitarist and singer’s latest Black Label Society album, “Catacombs of the Black Vatican.” But these days, the Jackson native is also proudly presenting a knock-out new coffee: since last fall, Wylde has partnered with the Death Wish Coffee Company to release the mighty Valhalla Java Odinforce Blend.

The coffee, Wylde said, is the culmination of a long process of trying to find the right brew to give his seal of approval.

“We were trying to launch one for the longest time, and everything we were drinking ... was terrible, like the worst truck stop coffee I’d ever had,” said Wylde. “If I’m going to put ‘Valhalla Java’ on it and call it a Black Label coffee, it would be cool that I actually drink it.”

Wylde, who will perform Friday, May 9 at Sayreville’s Starland Ballroom, is known for his endorsements, from Gibson’s Epiphone guitars to Marshall amplifiers and Dunlop guitar strings. “I always laugh when guys endorse whatever and they never use the equipment they’re endorsing,” said Wylde. “I play Epiphones, I play my Gibsons, I use Marshalls and I use all of the Dunlop stuff. That’s what I use, man. All of the stuff I use, I could walk into a music store, pick it up and do a gig.”

In his search for just the right coffee, Wylde eventually approached Death Wish, based in the village of Round Lake in New York’s Saratoga County. Their namesake brew is the self-proclaimed world’s strongest coffee. Wylde and his crew then sampled some Death Wish coffee at his Los Angeles-area home studio, the Black Vatican.

“When we had the Death Wish, immediately I said, ‘This is really good,’ ” Wylde recalled. “With the caffine intake, I cleaned the Vatican about five times, lifted and then cleaned the dog run, all before brunch. It was great. I was like, ‘I could definitely get used to drinking this stuff.’ ”

After nearly a year of working together to formulate the perfect brew, Wylde and Death Wish released Valhalla Java last fall.

Meghan Lanci, Death Wish marking manager, explained the differences between Valhalla Java and the company’s flagship product. “Valhalla is different than Death Wish in a few ways,” she said. “Death Wish is more of a dark chocolate, cherry, dark roast, and Valhalla Java is also a dark roast, but the tones in the coffee are a little more earthy. It’s considered a craft roast, so it’s different in those ways. Death Wish is a little bit stronger than the Valhalla, but the Valhalla is a lot stronger than normal coffee by far.”

Death Wish utilizes beans from regions around Indonesia and Peru, while Valhalla is a six-bean varietal drawing from regions around Indonesia, India, Central America and South America, and both types are available in whole bean, ground and K-cup form through the Death Wish website.

A guiding principle for Death Wish, which launched in 2011, is to create coffee in defiance of the rule stating that, in general, darker-roasted coffees have lower amounts of caffeine. This core value, Lanci said, comes from Death Wish owner Mike Brown’s days as the owner of a Saratoga Springs, N.Y. coffee shop.

“People would always come in asking for the strongest, darkest roast, and he had to explain that it’s not really possible that way, because usually the light roasts have more caffeine,” Lanci said. “So, he had to pretty much go on a mission and figure out how he could make that possible, and so that’s how Death Wish was born. He found different varieties of beans from all over.’’

VALAHALLA JAVA ODINFORCE BLEND

WHAT:

The new coffee from Jackson-native Black Label Society guitarist Zakk Wylde and Death Wish Coffee Company

ON THE WEB:

For more information, visit deathwishcoffee.com.

LIVE:

Black Label Society, headlining the Revolver Golden Gods Tour, 6:30 p.m. Friday, May 9 at Starland Ballroom,

570 Jernee Mill Road, Sayreville

TICKETS:

$35 in advance, $38 at the door

INFO:

starlandballroom.com