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A new dawn is breaking for the Ebony Coffee Corporation as they prepare to officially relaunch their signature line of coffee products. Like much of industry over the course of the ten long years of darkness, the Ebony Coffee Corporation had been forced to shutter their business operations completely. Upon the return of the sun, Ebony faced a great deal of challenges that made it seem unlikely that it would ever resume production of its Eos renowned brand.
Ebony Coffee was founded in M.E. 703 by Angelica Ebony, who took her passion for ethically sourced beans and helped to usher in a whole new era of coffee conscious consumers. What began as a single cafe in Insomnia evolved into an international business sensation. Prior to the Fall of Insomnia, it ran twelve standalone cafes in Insomnia, including its flagship location on Citadel Park Boulevard, three in Tenebrae, and even two locations in Niflheim. Ebony also provided coffee for more than four hundred restaurants, cafes and grocers.
Most importantly, however, it revolutionized the concept of canned coffee. Its slogan, “ Coffee whenever, wherever. Big flavor in a small package,” was recognizable across Eos. Slowly brewed over the course of three days for a smooth, aromatic flavor, and sold in vending machines and grocery stores, Ebony’s cans transformed coffee accessibility so that they could be taken with you no matter where you traveled.
“Many people were skeptical when our company first launched canned Ebony,” Martin Ebony, current CEO and third generation owner explained. “But it was the existence of this product that made our company’s return to business possible.”
When we first sat down with Mr. Ebony to discuss the journey of his family’s unlikely return to business, it was a familiar story, filled with the kind of losses we've become all too familiar with over the course of our ten years without the sun.
“I was twelve years old during the Fall of Insomnia. My mother and I were the only members of my family who escaped the destruction of the invasion. I was home sick from school and there wasn’t a babysitter available, so my mother was home with me when the attack began. If I hadn’t been sick that day, it's possible that neither of us would have survived.”
Now at the age of twenty-three, Mr. Ebony recalled how he set about trying to rebuild his family’s legacy from scratch. “I honestly didn’t have a clue what I was doing. The first month after the sun returned was really tough. The written record of our secret family recipe for the blend of coffee beans and the patented roasting formula was lost in the Fall of Insomnia. I was too young to have been involved with the day to day operations of the business at the time. I never learned the secret formula myself. The knowledge died along with my mother and so many countless others over the course of the endless night.”
“It was a nightmare trying to put a crew together. I also never actually drank coffee before, because I was so young when we lost everything. I had no idea how it should taste or what to compare it to. So you can imagine my surprise when an anonymous package arrived in my office containing twenty perfectly preserved and unopened cans of Ebony and an entire notebook filled with detailed tasting notes regarding the flavor, guesses regarding roasting techniques to obtain that flavor, and assumptions of the varieties of coffee beans used in the batch. It was like a miracle!”
Between the precious cans and the notebook, Mr. Ebony and his team were able to reverse engineer the classic Ebony formula over the course of the past year. “I have no idea who to thank,” Mr. Ebony told us during the course of his interview. “But whoever sent that package is the savior of Ebony. We never would have been able to get this off the ground without it.”
That could have been the end of the story. The Ebony Coffee Company would have launched their grand re-opening without the slightest clue to the identity of their mysterious benefactor. It was only through chance that IQ managed to uncover the truth behind Ebony’s savior.
During the course of an interview with Prompto Argentum, a surviving member of King Noctis’ retinue, for an unrelated article, the topic of Ebony’s impending re-opening came up. It was at this point that Mr. Argentum inadvertently spilled the coffee beans, so to speak.
“Oh, yeah. Iggy is really excited that the package he sent to them is paying off.”
Iggy is an informal nickname that Mr. Argentum has a tendency to use when referring to his long time friend and colleague, Ignis Scientia, of whom our special edition is dedicated to. When asked for clarification about his statement, Mr. Argentum elaborated, “When Iggy found out that Ebony was trying to relaunch a little under a year ago he wanted to help. So he sent them a package. He had a small stockpile of Ebony cans that he removed from Noct’s armiger before he passed and we all lost access to it. Iggy was always writing in notebooks before he lost his sight about flavors he enjoyed so that he could try to recreate them in his recipes. He loved Ebony so much he had a whole notebook dedicated to it.”
The information that it was Ignis Scientia who was responsible for the gift that helped the Ebony Coffee Corporation rise from the ashes of the night and usher it into the dawn was a revelation. We immediately reached out to Mr. Scientia for comment. While he initially declined our request for an interview on the matter, given his original intention was for his contribution to remain anonymous, Mr. Scientia reached out to us a week later. “Since it appears that Prompto has already spilled the beans, and my involvement is now known to those involved, I suppose I might as well discuss it with you so that your article will be accurate.”
“Yes, I sent the package,” Mr. Scientia confirmed. I had a small stock of Ebony cans in the armiger. I had a tendency to store perishable items there since the magic kept them fresh and in a state of stasis for however long they were stored. When resources became scarce during the course of the long night, I fell out of the habit of drinking coffee but as a treat I allowed myself to partake in a can once a year on my birthday. When Noct returned to us and explained the nature of his sacrifice, the stock of cans and my old notebooks were among the possessions I removed from the armiger before we lost access to the magical space. When in the course of rebuilding Insomnia, I heard of Martin Ebony’s struggle to rebuild his family business, I sent the cans and my notes in an attempt to assist. It was never my intention to receive any credit for the action.”
While Mr. Scientia may not have intended to have his action in this case become public knowledge, Mr. Ebony was very grateful to learn the identity of his anonymous savior. During a follow-up interview he stated, “I have reached out to Ignis Scientia to thank him personally for his assistance in renewing my family’s legacy. I’ve also extended him a free lifetime supply of Ebony as a token of my gratitude.”
Members of the public are invited to the grand reopening of Ebony’s original Insomnia location on Citadel Park Boulevard one week from the date of publication between the hours of noon to three in the afternoon for a free small cup of coffee with the purchase of a reusable mug.
