Today we’d like to introduce you to Tam and Sivin Duong.
Tam and Sivin, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
My brother and I have always dreamed of opening a coffee shop of our own. Our passion stemmed from our traveling hobby to always be on the hunt for local specialty coffee shops wherever we travel to. We started in 2017 on our business plan, on the hunt for numerous locations, getting ourselves emerged into the coffee industry while taking trips around the world from Asia to Europe to collect ideas and inspirations from different coffee shops from vintage to luxurious designs.
Through endless failure and tribulations, we never gave up our dream. We have always been determined and set on this goal. Our dream seems to be stronger than our will. We never gave up on trying. We tried and failed and keep on trying until we make it.
“Try and fail, but don’t fail to try.” – President John Quincy Adams
Here we are in 2019, this summer marked a HUGE accomplishment for our coffee shop journey as we found a location in City of Jersey Village in Texas. We are beyond EXCITED finally launch our dream. The Cuppo Coffee & Tea is the name of our shop, which is simply inspired by the saying “a cup of joe!” If you say it fast enough, it’ll be a Cuppo. To us, coffee doesn’t discriminate. Our target customers come from all ages who love coffee & tea.
We soft-opened in July with a tremendous amount of support from new customers and the community. After a successful three weeks soft opening, we grand opened our shop on August 17, 2019.
We are so thankful and grateful for on the ongoing support and encouragement from our friends and family. Our goals are to simply serve you freshly brewed coffee & tea while bringing you a place to connect with the local community.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Definitely, it has not been a smooth road. Like I said, we started this journey two years ago with lots of struggles.
As the Cuppo Coffee is our 1st startup business, there were many things we just did not know or anticipated. Lessons were learned from mistakes. Knowing that this was our 1st startup, we did not rush into executing our idea immediately. It took us two years to do our homework and research our options.
Our strong passion and determinations were the main driver to where we are now. We did not choose to give up and kept pushing through regardless of mistakes and errors.
The Cuppo Coffee & Tea – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Our shop serves specialty coffee and tea. As a huge supporter for local businesses, all of our products are sourced locally in Houston. Our specialty coffee beans were from Greenway Coffee Company, one of Houston’s best local roasters. Our specialty loose leaf tea selections were sourced from Camelia Tea, another Houston’s local favorite. Our pastries are from Kraftsmen Bakery, another popular bakery in town. Our goal is to bring the inner city’s coffee house’s vibe out to the suburb and create the same atmosphere for coffee/tea drinkers from all ages to have the exact same experience without driving a far distance to the city.
What sets us apart from our competitions is our focus on the quality of our coffee and tea. As we are a small scaled business and a local mom & pop shop, we also focus on a personalized customer services. Our baristas are trained to be friendly and approachable with attentive intentions to each customer’s requests.
Our goals are to create an at-home & cozy ambiance for our customers to enjoy their cup of coffee/tea or staying to get work done.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Our proudest moment has been that we finally made our dream come true after two years of planning. Seeing our shop opening up every day serving repeated customers is our reward. Both my brother and I know that we still have a long road ahead being that we’ve been opened for nearly six months, we are striving every day to improve our quality of drinks, our services, and bringing more newness to the shop for our customers.
Contact Info:
- Address: 8805 Jones Road
- Website: www.cuppocoffee.com
- Phone: 8328694799
- Email: info@cuppocoffee.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecuppocoffeeandtea/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecuppocoffeeandtea/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-cuppo-coffee-and-tea-jersey-village
Image Credit:
Cassie Morrison photography
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