OUR STORY

Company was started in January 1994 in Heidenheimer, Texas. A town with a Post Office and a convenience store, a few houses and a fairly busy highway to Houston running within ten feet of our front door.

We purchased an old 1911 State Bank Building that closed its doors in 1945 and had been abandoned for some years. Then the big investment of three glass jars and a $50 grinder, a home coffee pot and some commercially sold gourmet coffee, I believe about twenty pounds.

Service and quality was so poor that within four months I decided to buy a used 1910 roaster (now in Ft. Worth, Texas with a very nice lady at Four Star Coffee) and burn some beans. We did that, but we found then, folks wanted good coffee even from a not so good roaster.

We purchased a bigger, better, and "new" batch roaster that we still use today about a year after the 1910 Royal and business seemed to be moving right along. I was asked by a very nice fellow if I would be interested in buying a much larger building with seating for over 100, and that was the best laugh of that day, but with some creative financing we moved into our new building in Belton, Texas just after Christmas 1995.

The building was slightly older than the last, around 1880, but had great possibilities with a lot of borrowed money and closed out retirement and IRA savings. We bought and remodeled the building, a professional espresso machine and grinder, set the place up for food and hired some very wonderful employees.

After about a year in the coffee-restaurant business, I decided to make coffee the main theme again with an espresso bar, desserts, and misc. retail items. We (my wife and I) are just about as busy as we can handle. She now has the kitchen at least three days per week for baking cookies, muffins, pies and cakes, our own biscotti, cinnamon rolls, cheesecakes, and whatever else she comes up with. I roast whenever I need from daily at Christmas time, to one or two times per week in our 105 degree summers.

Business this last year did not fall off as it usually does in June…it grew all year long. My wife says it's because she's here.

We now ship to many states and some countries, have friends all over that buy and love our coffee, and that is very rewarding. Our teas business is growing and we import 100# chests of quality tea and sell wholesale to customers and businesses by the pound. We still are working on tomorrow's money, but our stock is more solid and our machines a little nicer and we manage our inventories much better.

I consider myself a fair and honest business person, a roaster-store owner with hopes of a better machine in the near future and increased manageable growth. I roast the best quality I can afford to bring in, take great care in bringing out a quality taste and package with the best available packaging to keep the product fresh. We try to "turn" each pound daily, but no more than each week. We roast often enough that you can smell it outside most any day and it is not unusual to buy still warm beans.

We are very proud of our facilities, our products, but especially our friends and past employees. We guarantee everything we sell to be fresh and acceptable to your standards. We roast slightly darker than some of our East Coast friends because we feel that it brings out a special flavor and essence that "grassy" roasted beans just do not produce.

Our espresso roast is a blend of Sumatra, Guatemalan, and other varieties to produce, we feel, the best anywhere. I French Roast Sumatras, Mexican Altura, Colombians, Hawaiian's or any special orders over 7 pounds. Take a look at our basic stock on the other pages, it changes some, but it will give you an idea of what we have to offer.

If you are ever in town, our college, built in 1845, the court house in 1880, nice museum and a train station across the street are all places of interest. We are a quiet town of 15,000 and I believe we are the oldest rodeo town in Texas, just off I35 between Austin and Dallas-Ft. Worth. We have good people, good coffee (and desserts), and the best customers and friends, join us and please sign our web-book, you're appreciated.

James & Donna Ernst