4,000 cans for a launch the whole country was watching.
When Adidas and Molly-Mae needed a drinks moment to match one of the most-hyped trainer launches of the year, Mr Flavour produced 4,000 fully branded iced latte and iced matcha cans, colour-matched to the shoes, deployed nationwide and built to a hard retail deadline.
Iced matcha and iced latte, colour-matched to the two signature trainer colourways behind the campaign.
Two drinks. Two colourways. One launch.
The commission came through experiential agency Hessian Events, working on the Adidas x Molly-Mae trainer launch. The creative idea behind the collaboration was simple and sharp: you're either an iced matcha kind of girl, or an iced latte kind of girl. Two trainers, two personalities, two distinct colourways, and the drinks had to carry that same split.
That made colour the first job. The deep green of an iced matcha and the soft cream of an iced latte were the shorthand for the whole campaign, and the cans had to read as the shoes at a glance, on a shelf, in a story, in a photograph.
The volume was the other half of the brief. Adidas needed 4,000 cans produced and delivered into a spread of retail destinations for the launch: flagship Adidas in London, Selfridges at the Trafford Centre, and JD Sports in both Manchester and London. That meant four stores in two cities, a fixed launch date, and a perishable product that could not be made too early.
Make the cans too far ahead and they spoil. Make them too late and they miss the launch. The whole job lived inside that window, and it is where our branded drinks production work is built.
Iced matcha and iced latte, built for real guests.
The two recipes were fixed by the campaign concept, but developing them for canned production at scale is a different discipline to pouring them fresh. A serve that tastes right from a barista station has to hold its flavour, colour and texture sealed in a can, chilled, transported, and opened hours or days later.
Dietary variants were planned from the start. Both the iced matcha and iced latte were produced with oat-milk substitute variants alongside the dairy recipes, so the cans worked for lactose-intolerant and dairy-free guests picking one up at a launch. The matcha recipe, for instance, was kept clean and honest: water, oat milk and matcha green tea powder, clearly labelled for the oat allergen. That decision multiplied the number of recipe variants in production and, as it turned out, the number of label variants too.
Every can was a fresh product. The labels said shake well, keep refrigerated, consume within five days, and a five-day shelf life leaves no room to make stock early.
The matcha and lattes were brewed in batches in 20-litre containers and chilled before filling, so every can poured from a consistent, temperature-controlled base rather than being mixed on the fly.
A drinks factory, built for two days.
Using its five-star hygiene-rated kitchen, Mr Flavour stood up a temporary production factory: brewing, chilling, labelling, pouring, sealing, boxing and refrigeration, every stage sequenced so a perishable product moved from base to cold storage in the shortest possible time.
The line that made it possible.
The production floor ran as a sequence of dedicated stations, each one solving for consistency and speed. Bases were brewed and chilled in 20-litre containers. Labels were applied by hand to the front and back of every can. A pouring station filled the 250ml cans to identical levels, the detail that makes a wall of cans look uniform in a photograph. A canning station then sealed and boxed them, and finished stock went straight into refrigeration for storage until dispatch.
The whole run was completed over two days with 12-hour rotation shifts, staffed by a six-strong production team. Rotating shifts kept the line moving and kept fresh hands on the labelling station, where a mistake on a can bound for a flagship store cannot be recovered.
Once produced, the cans were packaged and shipped in temperature-regulated vans to London and Manchester. On a drink with a five day life, this is the part of large-scale event delivery that had to hold all the way to the store: it decides whether a product lands as intended or spoils in transit.
Brew & chill
Matcha and latte bases brewed in 20L batches and chilled before filling for a consistent, temperature-controlled base.
Label & pour
Front-and-back labels applied by hand; 250ml cans filled to identical levels at a dedicated pouring station.
Seal & chill
Cans sealed, boxed and moved into refrigeration immediately, then dispatched in temperature-regulated vans.
Inside the production run.
Footage from the floor: the canning line in motion, recipes sealed one at a time, and the finished branded cans built up colour by colour. The clip is shot the way these jobs actually look: operational, fast, and exacting.
Where a branded can becomes the brand.
A branded drink only works if the branding is right, and on this job the branding was the most manually intensive part of the entire process. The stickers had to be applied to both the front and back of every can, and the artwork wasn't uniform across the run. Labels varied by destination and by recipe: Adidas London versus Adidas Manchester, four different ingredient variants, dairy versus oat-milk. Every combination needed its own label.
Compounding the pressure, there were last-minute changes to the artwork and a tight turnaround on the printed stickers. Print lead time, not production, was the constraint that defined the schedule. To stop the variants colliding, labelling was handled meticulously in dedicated slots, with each variant labelled in its own controlled batch so no London can carried a Manchester label and no dairy can carried an oat-milk one.
On bespoke branded drinks the recipe is half the job. The label, the colour-match and the per-destination accuracy are the other half.
From the kitchen to the shop floor.
On launch, the sets were built by stand builders and Mr Flavour staff handed out the iced drink cans as part of a nationwide activation campaign, a branded drink in every customer's hand at the moment they encountered the shoes.
The hard parts, and how they were solved.
Three constraints defined this job.
The timing window was the first. A perishable canned product can't be made early or it spoils, and can't be made late or it misses the launch. The answer was a sequenced production line that compressed the time between brewing a base and getting a sealed can into refrigeration: speed without sacrificing the cold chain. Then an unexpected heatwave arrived across the two days. The cans were made and stored in a temperature controlled environment, and the coffee was iced before canning so it did not go off, the matcha likewise.
The artwork was the second. Last-minute changes and a tight print turnaround on a label set that varied by location and recipe created real risk of mismatched cans. The answer was batch labelling in dedicated slots, one variant at a time.
Volume and consistency was the third. Four thousand cans that all need to look and taste identical is a systems problem. The answer was the line itself: 20-litre brewed bases, fixed-level pouring, six staff on 12-hour rotation and immediate refrigeration, plus temperature-regulated transport to hold the standard all the way to the shelf.
The launch that landed.
The collaboration drew huge impressions nationwide. Adidas reported that search demand increased by 51% following the Molly-Mae collaboration, and the trainers reportedly sold out rapidly after launch, with retailers reporting exceptionally high demand. The partnership has been described as one of Adidas' most impactful UK influencer collaborations.
Mr Flavour's part was 4,000 branded iced latte and iced matcha cans inspired by the campaign's signature trainer colourways, filled in two days and handed out by our staff across flagship retail in London and Manchester, a branded drink in every customer's hand at the moment they met the shoes.
What we would tell the next brand.
Lock the artwork early: print turnaround set this schedule, not the line. Count the label variants before the cans, because destination, recipe and milk multiplied them here. Then work back from the shelf life to the day filling starts.
Smaller runs work the same way. We fill and label branded cans in house, from a minimum of 100 cans.
What clients ask us.
Can Mr Flavour produce branded cans for a product launch?
Mr Flavour produces fully branded canned drinks to order, with bespoke recipes and custom front-and-back labels, in 250ml sealed cans from a five-star hygiene-rated kitchen. For the Adidas x Molly-Mae launch that was 4,000 cans of iced latte and iced matcha.
How many branded cans can Mr Flavour produce?
4,000 branded 250ml cans were produced in two days for this launch, running 12-hour rotation shifts with a six-strong production team. Volume scales with lead time, and on this job print turnaround and refrigeration capacity were the limits.
Can the drinks be tailored to dietary requirements?
This run included oat-milk variants alongside the dairy recipes, so the cans worked for lactose-intolerant and dairy-free guests. Recipe variants are built into the production schedule and labelled in separate batches.
Can Mr Flavour deliver branded drinks nationwide?
Finished cans were chilled, boxed and shipped in temperature-regulated vans to retail destinations in London and Manchester, including flagship Adidas London, Selfridges at the Trafford Centre and JD Sports.
Can the can artwork match a specific brand or campaign?
Here the iced matcha and iced latte recipes were colour-matched to the two signature trainer colourways, with front-and-back labels produced per destination. Artwork should be locked as early as possible, because print turnaround is the tightest part of the schedule.
Did Mr Flavour create the Adidas x Molly-Mae drinks?
Mr Flavour produced 4,000 fully branded iced latte and iced matcha cans for the Adidas x Molly-Mae trainer launch, colour-matched to the two signature trainer colourways and deployed across flagship retail in London and Manchester.
What is a branded drinks activation?
A branded drinks activation is a drink designed as part of a brand's marketing: bespoke recipes, custom packaging and colours that tell the brand story in the guest's hand. Mr Flavour delivers them as canned products, event drinks and full cocktail bars.
Can you produce branded drinks for an influencer or product launch?
From influencer collaborations to corporate launches, we develop bespoke recipes and branded packaging at volume, with dietary variants built in and nationwide cold-chain delivery.
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Your brand, your campaign, our flavour.
Mr Flavour designs and produces branded drinks activations for product launches, brand campaigns and experiential moments, from bespoke recipe development to fully branded cans, deployed wherever your audience is.