We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Rachel Casstevens. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Rachel below.
Rachel, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?
Courtney and I have seen the effects of the foster care and adoption systems first hand through foster siblings, group homes, and connections with foster and orphans stateside and internationally. When we were thinking of the ways we wanted to serve our community outside of just serving stellar coffee, the faces of the kids and teens we know personally that were in adoption and foster care systems came to mind immediately. Each month, we partner with a different organization that supports families and kids effected by foster care and adoption. The goal each month is to come alongside these organizations in any way they need it, whether it’s monetarily, a donation of goods like socks or school supplies, or even through donated coffee service for fundraisers and events.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers?
Courtney and I have been friends for about 7 years and business partners for 3 of those years. After working several jobs in Austin, Texas and surrounding areas that just didn’t fit the bill, we found ourselves managing and operating a grilled cheese food truck called Savery for a friend in Austin, Texas. After about a year slinging grilled cheese for Austinites, we thought about what it may look like to bring the mobile food concept to something they loved – coffee. With a few years of industry experience (both in mobile food and the specialty beverage industry), we put together a business plan for a mobile coffee concept. A year later, the Treetop Coffee truck was serving specialty coffee on the streets of Knoxville, Tennessee.
Since day one, we’ve kept quality of what we serve at the top of our minds, serving only specialty roasters and making almost all of our syrups in-house. We booked any event we could get our hands on in the first year in an attempt to get folks acquainted with our brand and what we were about. After a year of public events, we got into the private catering space, serving specialty coffee at weddings, corporate caterings, birthday parties, etc., all while continuing to set a side a portion of profits to our monthly partner organizations. The mindset was that with every step of growth in the company, we’d be able to contribute more to the cause of foster care and adoption support.
Two years after our first mobile event, we opened our first brick and mortar shop. This was a huge step for us and a long time dream realized. Even in writing the business plan for a mobile concept back in 2018, our sights were set on a physical location where people could come together, enjoy fantastic coffee, and contribute to a cause we’re passionate about. We’ve had our doors open for a little over a year now, are still booking mobile events with our truck, and are constantly looking for ways to grow, improve, and really contribute something positive to the specialty coffee scene in Knoxville, Tennessee.
We’d love to hear about how’d you met your business partner.
Courtney and I were working at a Summer camp in Spicewood, Texas as college juniors when they met for the first time. I distinctly remember a mutual friend of ours introducing us and saying “I think you guys will get along really well.” We went to schools on opposite ends of the state but kept up throughout the rest of school, and after graduation I moved to Austin while Courtney did a discipleship program at that same camp in New Braunfels. After about a year of working a desk job I no longer enjoyed, I filled in for a friend on her grilled cheese food truck and ended up managing that truck for a few months. I somehow convinced Courtney to move to Austin and work on the truck with me, and about 3 months later we were coming up with a mobile concept of our own. The rest is history!
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
I feel like everyone’s resilience story has to do with COVID-19 and we’re no different. Luckily, at the height of the shutdown, our brick and mortar was still just a dream and we only had our mobile coffee truck. With all of our booked events canceled, we had to figure out a way to get our coffee in people’s hands. We decided to do iced mason jar lattes that people could store in their fridges and self-serve, and we delivered them to people’s doorstep. This totally took off, we got to serve people safely, and we recouped the losses from those cancelled events.
Contact Info:
- Website: treetopcoffeeshop.com
- Instagram: @treetopcoffeeshop
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TreetopcoffeeshopTN
Image Credits
Robyn Lyndsey Photo