Today we’d like to introduce you to Alisha Crespo.
Alisha, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
When Ray and I (Alisha) got married in 2012 we always knew we wanted to create something together for the good of others. Coffee was something we enjoyed together and certainly loved sharing with our friends and family. We soon decided to invest in a small table-top roaster in the fall of 2014 in attempts to have the freshest coffee possible at home. After we started sharing the coffee, we were roasting we received some amazing feedback that gave us the encouragement we needed to turn our hobby into a business venture.
After getting familiar with our machine we were roasting some pretty good quality coffee and this gave us the confidence we needed to take steps to make Good Manner Coffee come to life.
Coming up with our name was one of the first big tasks on our seemingly endless to-do list. Here’s that story in a little nutshell:
When I was younger, my father would drop me and my brothers off anywhere leaving us with the phrase, “Do Good. Be Good because God is good!” This stuck with me and I believe it is the framework for what we do today. We want to not just roast and serve good coffee but we want to do it well. We also want the people we serve to enjoy our interaction with them and bring some good into their lives. So really our mission, simplified, is to serve our community in a ‘good manner.’ Do you get it?
Things were going well for us as we met some awesome people in the local coffee scene, launched our online store and started serving our coffee at some arts/music events around the city. However, come November 2014, we found out that we were pregnant with our daughter Ella Rae. This was wonderful news but unfortunately, I could no longer stand the smell, taste or thought of the existence of coffee. This brought our brand new business to an abrupt halt. Thankfully, after Ella was born, my tolerance for coffee was back and Good Manner Coffee was able to relaunch.
We are still roasting, packaging, and shipping from our home and serve at creative arts, music, and ministry focused events! The dream is still evolving and fun plans are in the works but the most important piece of our mission stands: we are serving our community and customers something good and we hope that resonates above all else.
Has it been a smooth road?
It’s been more of a long winding road. We started a business while still being new to everything. We had to learn on the go.
It was also a struggle to find our niche and vision for Good Manner at first. At one point, we wanted a coffee shop that doubled as a general store and gallery. It was just too much. The year hiatus we took during the pregnancy was exactly what we needed to refine our vision.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Good Manner Coffee story. Tell us more about the business.
We are a small-batch home roaster. We roast to order to ensure that our customer is getting the freshest coffee.
We also love to support local creatives. We are proud to have served for many different events centered around community building, art, and music. We’ve done curated events alongside other small businesses like Little Parade Music and Festive Collective. We have collaborated with outstanding local artists like Jeremy + Farrah and DeeperStill Music. We currently serve our coffee for free at a monthly music gathering hosted by New Life Arts.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
We think that coffee will always be relevant and whether there are trends and shifts that take place in the future, a good quality product and good service will always be desired. We hope to always ensure the latter.
Pricing:
- 8oz coffee bags, $10
- Minimal GM Logo Tee, $20
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.goodmannercoffee.com
- Email: info@goodmannercoffee.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goodmannercoffee
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/goodmannercoffee/
Image Credit:
Photos from our personal iPhones & Melody Joy Co.
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