about our name

The name of our company gets its inspiration from the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein. Wittgenstein’s philosophy has had a large influence on our company’s founder (Cal), and when names were getting kicked around the name “duck-rabbit coffee” just could not be shook. And when Cal’s brother Dale created the logo there was no other way to go. We knew that frankensteined, mythical creature was going to be our mascot and we were going to be duck-rabbit coffee. One thing that we really appreciate about our name is that provides a convenient avenue to a reflective conversation about how we (people) see the world. A world, which, of course, contains the coffee that may be in front of you.

So, what is a duck-rabbit and what does it have to do with coffee? In Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations he brings his readers' attention to an image that can be seen as a (head of a) duck or a (head of a) rabbit (see above image). Wittgenstein uses this image to help illuminate a central tenet of his thinking, namely, how we see the world is dependent on how we've learned it to be. A brief thought experiment will heIp flush out his point. Imagine a people totally ignorant of rabbits but familiar with ducks being shown the duck-rabbit image. We assume they would have no problem seeing a duck because they are familiar with ducks, but unable to see a rabbit because they have no idea what a rabbit is. We can then imagine those people being taught about rabbits and shown the duck-rabbit image again. We expect that they could now see a rabbit where before they could not. The important point is that the physical data has remained unchanged. What they know about the world has changed and that is what allows them to see it differently. Carrying this over to coffee and what we do, at duck-rabbit coffee we take coffee as our object. We are deliberate about how we present and talk about coffee. We go through great efforts to source incredible coffees. So in our presentation we want to set the right tone. Our aim is a meaningful and enjoyable experience with our coffees. We want to inform about what makes a coffee unique and special, and at the same time we work to keep out unnecessary information or distracting branding that may lessen one’s experience or detract from the coffee.