Why Coffee Became Part of the Not Stationary Ritual

We’ve been thinking a lot about the small things we do every day without really noticing them.

Coffee is one of those things.

For many of us, it’s already built into the rhythm of the day. We make it in the morning, grab one between meetings, have one before training, on the school run, at our desks or in that brief window before the next thing begins. It is familiar, automatic and, most of the time, almost completely habitual.

That is exactly why we became interested in it.

The idea for the 1% Blend was never about putting the Not Stationary name on a bag of coffee or creating another product for the sake of it. We wanted there to be a reason for the collaboration, and for that reason to connect back to the way we think about behaviour, intention and the small choices that shape the way we live.

What interested us was not how to create another habit.

It was how to use one that already exists.

A lot of behaviour change becomes difficult because we assume we need to add more. A better morning routine. Another reminder. Another system. Another thing to remember to do. But often the most sustainable shifts happen when we attach a new behaviour to something that is already part of our day.

The existing habit becomes the cue.

In this case, coffee.

Instead of asking ourselves to remember to pause, reflect or reset at some random point in the day, we can use the act of making a coffee as the reminder. The moment already exists. We are simply giving it a little more intention.

That doesn’t mean every cup needs to become a mindfulness exercise, or that drinking coffee suddenly needs to become another item on a self-improvement checklist. Sometimes a coffee is just a coffee.

But there is something powerful about attaching meaning to something we already do.

It might be the few minutes in the morning when you think about what actually matters that day before everything begins competing for your attention. It might be when you open your planner, decide where your energy needs to go or simply sit without immediately reaching for your phone.

It might be the pause between two demanding parts of the day, when you ask yourself how you want to show up for what comes next.

Those moments can seem insignificant.

We don’t think they are.

So much of the thinking behind Not Stationary has always been about closing the gap between what we say matters and the way we actually live.

Most of us know what is important to us. We know we want to be more present, look after ourselves, spend our time well, stay connected to the people around us and give proper attention to the things that matter.

The challenge usually isn’t knowing.

It’s remembering in the middle of an ordinary day.

That is why we believe so strongly in creating physical cues, rituals and systems around the things we value. Our priorities shouldn’t live somewhere abstract, waiting for life to become quieter. They should influence how we spend a Tuesday morning, how we organise our time, the way we respond under pressure and the habits we repeat without thinking.

That is also where the idea of the 1% came from.

For us, one percent is not about relentless optimisation or constantly trying to squeeze more productivity out of ourselves.

It is about recognising that meaningful change is often much smaller than we imagine.

A slightly better decision. A conversation handled with more presence. A boundary we actually keep. Ten minutes spent on the thing we said mattered. A pause before reacting. A choice to put the phone down. A small shift in how we approach something we already do every day.

Individually, those things may not feel significant.

Repeated over time, they become the way we live.

When we began talking with King Carlos, that philosophy felt naturally aligned with the way they approach coffee. There is a level of care behind what they do, from the quality of the beans and the sourcing through to the roasting process and the attention given to the final product.

We loved that.

There was something about taking such an everyday ritual and treating it with that much thought and craftsmanship that felt completely aligned with the idea behind Not Stationary.

There was also something in the ritual of good coffee itself that we kept coming back to.

So much of modern life is built around speed. We move from one thing to the next, often without noticing the transitions between them. Coffee has become part of that too. We drink it in the car, take it into meetings, make one while answering emails or discover two hours later that we never finished it.

We do all of that as well.

But sometimes the opportunity isn’t to create more space in our lives.

It is to use the space that is already there.

The coffee before everyone else wakes up. The one after training. The five minutes between calls. The conversation you have while making one. The cup you sit down with instead of carrying straight back to your desk.

These are ordinary moments.

And that is exactly the point.

We don’t believe intentional living has to be dramatic. It doesn’t always require a new routine, a major reset or a complete overhaul of the way you live.

Often, it is simply about paying more attention to what is already there.

That is what we wanted the 1% Blend to represent.

A really good coffee, created with people who care deeply about their craft, but also a small cue woven into something many of us already do every day.

A reminder to pause for a moment, reconnect with what matters and be deliberate about what comes next.

Because when we think about the way a life is actually built, it is rarely one enormous decision that defines it.

More often, it is the accumulation of small ones.

The moments we notice. The choices we repeat. The things we return to.

One percent at a time.