Daniel Ting Chong and Jordan Metcalf layer celebration into CAKE’s brand

In Lisbon’s speciality coffee scene, where most brands emphasise bean origins and roasting techniques, CAKE takes a different approach. The ready-to-drink coffee company centres its story around something simpler: the act of sharing coffee with someone else. ‘Getting coffee’ is shorthand for wanting to meet, talk and connect, and CAKE wants to facilitate those moments rather than lecture about growth altitudes. The brand was founded by Andy Fenner, who sees kindness as more than philosophy. “Kindness is a deliberate and strong strategy, not only as a philosophy but also as a business and brand driver,” he explains. “Unlike other marketing words like love and compassion, this one requires action, not just intent.” The coolest thing about kindness, he notes, is how both the giver and receiver benefit. “In other words, it is amplified and it gains momentum, when shared. Coffee, for me, offers a vehicle to piggyback these intentions onto.” When Fenner reached out to Daniel Ting Chong in November 2023 about developing the brand identity, he arrived with the name CAKE and its acronym ‘Coffee And Kindness Everyday’ already in place. Feeling creatively fatigued from working independently, Ting Chong brought in his former studio mate, Jordan Metcalf. The name gave them direction straight away. “That simple but meaningful name became the foundation for everything that followed,” Ting Chong shares.