Today we’d like to introduce you to Marta and Kevin Sprague.
Marta and Kevin, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Kevin started roasting coffee in 2003, when I gave him a home roaster as a birthday present. His passion (i.e. obsession) grew until we decided to take the leap and open our own roastery, Noble Coyote Coffee Roasters, in 2011. We purchased our first commercial roaster and moved into our first location in a warehouse off of Garland Rd. Shortly thereafter we started selling our coffee on Saturdays at the White Rock Good Local Market. We started meeting wonderful customers and developing wholesale relationships with local businesses. For the first few years it was just the two of us doing the roasting, production, deliveries, bookkeeping, sampling, working markets, etc. We thankfully grew steadily and comfortably and ended up outgrowing the warehouse. In 2014 we purchased a larger roaster and moved our operation over to 819 Exposition Ave, in Expo Park. We hired employees, and have a truly amazing team. The current Noble Coyote Coffee Roastery & Lab consists of a front retail space and our production area in the back. We are open to the public Tuesday – Saturday, from 9:00am – 2:00pm. People can come in and sample our products, purchase fresh roasted bags of coffee and brewing gear, and see how our coffee operation works. We have started holding First Saturday Public Cuppings and Third Saturday “Brew Better Coffee” Brewing Classes. These sessions are free and open to the public. Thankfully, we continue to grow steadily and comfortably and love being able to talk coffee and engage with the public at our roastery. We also continue to have a booth at the White Rock Good Local Markets on Saturdays.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Starting and running your own business is never totally smooth. We’ve been lucky to have a strong community support system along with great friends and family. One of the biggest struggles is to remember to not continually bring work home. It’s inevitable and unavoidable sometimes, but Kevin and I are striving to be better about not talking business when we have an opportunity to take a break.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
We roast specialty grade coffee. Ethical trade and sustainability are very important to us. In the coffee world, a “coyote” is a middleman who purchases coffee from farmers. In a commodity market, coyotes buy low and sell high, to the detriment of the farmers who grow the coffee. We try to purchase coffee from importers who not only compensate farmers fairly, but invest in those farmers in order to improve their lives. We also pursue noble practices in our day-to-day business and operations. We support environmental sustainability through donating our roasting by-products to local farmers (i.e. coffee grounds for compost, bean chaff, and burlap bags). We use 100% wind energy at the roastery. Participating in community organizations and events is also important to us. We are thankful to have the opportunity to work closely with amazing local programs that invest in people, such as Cafe Momentum and Meat Fight. Giving back to the community that helps support our efforts completes a circle for us.
Contact Info:
- Address: 819 Exposition Ave
- Website: noblecoyotecoffee.com
- Phone: 214-321-4321
- Email: marta@noblecoyotecoffee.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/noblecoyotecoffee/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/noblecoyotecoffeeroasters
- Twitter: twitter.com/noblecoyote
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/noble-coyote-coffee-roasters-dallas
Image Credit:
Kathy Tran
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