POPUP
In a nutshell
A richly branded coffee-and-vinyl lounge, rather than a capsule table, this SoHo takeover transforms a Nespresso boutique into an Ethiopian-inspired listening room, where limited-edition machines, coffee, and a coffee-pressed Weeknd vinyl anchor a surprisingly thoughtful, circular, and cultural story.
In their words
Brand Background
Samra Origins is Nespresso’s collaboration with Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye, named after his mother, Samra, and built around a Togetherness Blend that celebrates Ethiopian coffee culture and the role of coffee in community and creativity.
Following earlier campaign films and product launches, Nespresso selected its SoHo boutique as a deeper, physical expression of the partnership, running from early September to mid-October 2025. The boutique is fully re-themed as the Samra Origins Vinyl Café, featuring a palette of Metad Green and Buna Yellow, with the Samra logo in Amharic repeated throughout, explicitly tying the space to Ethiopian heritage and The Weeknd’s personal story.
The pop‑up serves several functions at once. It acts as the launchpad for a co‑designed Vertuo Pop+ Samra Origins machine collection, available in limited colours and bundled with the Samra Togetherness capsules. It also debuts an exclusive limited‑edition vinyl, pressed using Nespresso coffee grounds, featuring “Give Me Mercy” from The Weeknd’s 2025 album Hurry Up Tomorrow plus an instrumental version that has soundtracked the Samra campaign; the first 200 customers to purchase the Vertuo Pop+ Samra bundle receive the record as a collectible. A companion playlist curated by The Weeknd is made available via Amazon Music, extending the in‑store experience into guests’ daily listening habits.
Visit Field notes
Spatially, the 579 Broadway boutique is reconfigured as a café‑cum‑listening room. An interactive tasting bar with five listening stations, each equipped with headphones and a Nespresso machine for sampling Samra Origins drinks, including “The Weeknd’s Iced Samra Latte” with oat milk, honey and cinnamon.
Walls showcase Abel’s handpicked vinyl records and Horn of Africa‑inspired sleeves, while a dedicated DJ booth hosts live sets every Saturday from 12:00 to 16:00, turning the store into a weekly micro‑venue.
From a brand strategy perspective, Marketing Dive frames Samra Origins and the Vinyl Café as part of a broader Nespresso push to “blend culture, family and coffee” through an Amazon-driven multichannel campaign. Alfonso Gonzalez Loeschen, CEO of Nespresso North America, summarises the intent: “At Nespresso, we are deeply committed to the craft of coffee and the moments it creates. Our collaboration with Abel and Samra Origins allows us to turn those moments into an experience you can taste and hear, right in SoHo.”
The pop‑up is a compact illustration of how a mature appliance and capsule brand can use a temporary store transformation to test a more culture‑forward positioning, sell higher‑ticket machine bundles with a strong collectible hook, and prototype a more sensorial, music‑driven café format that could be rolled into future boutiques.
Checkout
- The zoning of the store (which is essentially a long tunnel) into a welcoming arch series, DJ area, vinyl, The Weekend partnership display and tasting bar
- the prominence of collectible vinyl is a generation-spanning hook for GenZ and GenX
Other Reading
- Nespresso press release “Nespresso and The Weeknd Bring a Samra Origins Vinyl Café Pop‑Up to Soho,” with full concept description, dates and quotes:
- Average Socialite event page for the Nespresso x The Weeknd pop‑up, mentioning the vinyl, Vertuo Pop+ bundle and listening stations
- Comunicaffe review
- Nespresso Samra Origins campaign and product page for context on the collaboration and Togetherness Blend
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