Today we’d like to introduce you to Jonathan Ghebreamlak.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Jonathan. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Roasting coffee has been a huge part of our culture for thousands of years and something performed in our house on a weekly basis. During my 2nd year at Texas Tech University, I was learning about some of the different industries and was amazed when I learned that over 2.25 billion cups of coffee are consumed daily. When I came back from school for summer break, I was waking up at 6 am to get to my internship, so I was drinking coffee about 2-3 times each day and that’s when the idea to start a coffee business hit me. Therefore, I studied the industry and connected with coffee professionals in order to soak up as much information as I could.
Upon graduating in May 2019, I got a chance to go back to my parent’s home country of Eritrea after ten long years. While there, I got the chance to visit Bar Tre Stelle, my father’s favorite cafe during his adolescent years. It was a very sentimental and inspirational moment to be able to see the cafe still withstanding after all this time, which ultimately gave us inspiration for the name of the business. The country of Eritrea has plenty of Italian influence. Even the name Tre Stelle translates to “Three Stars” in the Italian language.
Has it been a smooth road?
We started the business in late December 2019 and didn’t really get rolling until the beginning of February 2020, so we practically started the business as soon as COVID-19 became a pandemic. The pandemic greatly affected the wholesale side of our business as restaurants and stores that were purchasing our coffee either closed or ordered smaller quantities. Even though we have taken somewhat of a toll given the fact that we are in the midst of the pandemic, we decided to expand our e-commerce and social media presence as well as join farmers’ markets around the Metroplex that follow safety protocols.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Our company is a family-owned coffee roastery, cold brew and wholesale business. Originally, we strictly specialized in roasting coffee, but as summer approached, we realized that less people were drinking hot coffee. Therefore, we decided to start making our own cold brew coffee, which has been what people have been a huge hit for us. We began selling our bottled cold brew coffee in early July at the Farmers Market that we attend every weekend and sold out within two hours. We have a goal of being health conscious and made our flavored cold brews dairy-free. We only use cold brew coffee, non-dairy creamer and do not use any added sugars.
I am most proud of the fact that I actually started the business that I thought of when I was just 20. I feel like I could have easily decided to go another route or even forget about that idea over the years. Also, the fact that I was able to make this a family business with my dad is very heartwarming since we always said we wanted to go into business together. I believe our company story sets us apart since we are a dynamic father-son duo that made sure our company commemorates the birthplace of my father.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
I feel like Dallas is a great place for a coffee business as the city is growing each year and people are always looking for new coffee. Even though there are some great coffee businesses across the Metroplex, it is not as competitive as a place like New York, where there are over a thousand coffee roasters within just NYC. I would highly recommend someone interested in starting a coffee business to look into starting their business in Dallas or any of the surrounding cities.
Pricing:
- Cold Brew – $5/bottle
- 12oz Ethiopian Yirgacheffe – $14/bag
- 12oz Colombian Excelso – $13/bag
Contact Info:
- Address: 13663 Jupiter Road
Dallas, Texas 75238
Suite 412 - Website: https://trestellecoffeeco.com/
- Phone: 972-523-3616
- Email: contact@trestellecoffeeco.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/trestellecoffee/
Image Credit:
Alex Martin
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