Kevin Costner Says There Was One Non-Negotiable Flavor He Wanted in His New Green Mountain Coffee Blend (Exclusive)

Though Kevin Costner was a coffee convert later in life, he is serious about his daily cup of joe now.

The Yellowstone actor, 69, tells PEOPLE exclusively about his newest coffee blend with Green Mountain Coffee Roasters — Mountainside Mocha Latte. 

“I don't always drink my coffee black — I like chocolate in it. So, I wanted to just advance it to something I like because I really like having one in the morning,” he tells PEOPLE of his new flavor, which is his second with the brand. 

Costner says he was "never much of a coffee drinker" — until about 15 years ago.

“I just started really making it a part of my morning,” he says. “And then it came about that this was an opportunity. I said, ‘Well, I'd like to make my own kind of drink.’ So that's how it came down."

Launching June 17, the Mountainside Mocha Latte contains dark chocolate notes that “evoke the spirit of the American West,” per a press release. The K-cups provide a cup teeming with flavor – which is all Costner needs in the morning. He only drinks “one big tall” cup of coffee per day, he says.

Mountainside Mocha Latte is sold exclusively on Keurig.com for $11.50 for a 10 count.

While he admits he wasn’t too controlling over the name and marketing of the brew, he was particular about the taste. “I said, ‘I want some chocolate in this thing.’ I said, ‘I'm going to decide how much,’“ he recalls. 

“[The Green Mountain Team] came to me three or four different times in different places. That's the way I knew they were sincere. They came to Colorado two times. They came to Santa Barbara. They came out to St. George, and I was real serious that I had to like it," says Costner, referencing St. George, Utah where he shoots the Horizon franchise. "So, they've been really very good partners."

While he’s not “addicted to the stuff,” Costner says drinking coffee is his special morning “habit” — not to be confused with a “ritual.”

“I don't have any ritual. In fact, I'm begging people for five more minutes, leave me alone,” he quips. “I have no ritual. I wish I was more disciplined that way.”

For his first collaboration with Green Mountain in December, the Oscar-winning actor and director created the Horizon Blend.

Costner’s busy schedule definitely lends itself to the need for a bit of caffeine. On May 19, he brought five of his seven kids to the Cannes Film Festival premiere of his film Horizon: An American Saga. Sons Hayes, 15, and Cayden, 17, as well as daughters Annie, 40, Lily, 37, and Grace, 13, all posed on the red carpet.

"I wanted them to see me work. I brought five of them and got them tuxedos. I bought them dresses," Costner said on Jimmy Kimmel Live! the following Tuesday. "I wanted to know how worried they were, that they were going to stick with me and support me."

"And the minute they got there, my two sons went fishing. Got a boat, went fishing. My three daughters ended up on a boat and said they would see me around 3 or 4 o'clock — me working. And then made a call and they were drinking drinks at this point," he added.

"So they cruised in around 8 o'clock at night. I've been working. I said, 'We came to France to be as a family and they go, ‘It’s working great, Dad.'"

Costner wrote, directed and stars in Horizon, which made its world premiere at Cannes. As GQ reported, Costner first wrote the initial story in 1988, passed on producing the film with Disney in 2003 over a budget dispute and later revamped the story into a four-part tale in 2012 with his co-writer Jon Baird.