Mochas & Javas is a Texas original and they’re tapping in to seasonal specials to help you warm your spirits.
Get the rundown on food and drinks, how to earn your nickname (hint: choose your drink wisely), giving back, and how they’re tapping in to Texas culture.
SHOW NOTES:
[00:29] Seasonal samples at Mochas & Javas[03:20] Mochas & Javas Locations
[04:00] Outcome of the marketing study with Wakeland High School
[05:40] Mochas & Javas expansion plans for Frisco
[06:00] Things to be on the lookout for from Mochas & Javas
[07:27] Tapping into Texas Culture
[08:46] More seasonal specialties
[10:15] The warm and welcoming environment
[11:20] Get to know the coffee & Frisco staff
[17:21] Crossover business in Frisco
LINKS & RESOURCES:
- Mochas & Javas on Lifestyle Frisco
- Mochas & Javas Website
- Mochas & Javas on Instagram
- Mochas & Javas on Facebook
- Tumbleweed TexStyles
- Jungle Joe’s
Connect with Lifestyle Frisco on:
Transcript
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Welcome to the Frisco podcast. I’m your host, Scott Ellis. And today we have Kevin Carswell from Mochas and Javas back in the studio. Kevin, thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me. I really enjoy coming up to Frisco. I always love talking to you because we get to talk about yummy stuff, coffee, food, all kinds of good things going on at Mochas and Javas. And you brought us some, some snacks today and we’re going to dig into those in a little bit. But uh, tell us what are some of the, let’s just talk about some of the seasonal stuff that’s going on. Cause TIS the season for the coffee shop rate. Definitely the season for coffee shop. Um, Christmas time. We’ve had some, I always do some features for that are one of the samples that I brought today was our maple pecan scone made with real pecans of course, and a real maple syrup.
It has a maypole delays on top. It’s got my name all over it. Oh that’s fantastic. We started doing scones in San Marcus about two months ago and they’re flying off the shelves. Prod you a few other sweets and then all smart use of our savior Adam’s that have done really well here in Frisco. One of those you said is a, um, it’s a gluten free blueberry muffin that is a gluten free. It looks like pumpkin. Okay. So we have, we do one different, we do a different flavor and gluten free. Um, as we sell them, we do about six to 10 a day. Um, the gluten free muffins have sold really well and then just picking up steam cause they’re so good. If you don’t tell people they’re gluten free, they’ll eat it without even knowing it’s gluten free. You guys are so good form that recipe over several years and it does really well.
So we change out that flavor, um, almost daily. Okay. Good to know. And then there was also a vegan zucchini bread, is that what that and zucchini bread. So it has no egg or dairy in it. Okay. So does really well. It has really good, it’s really good flavor. Very Nice. There are some good items you can add to vegan items to make it for the eggs. Okay. Well, it all smells and looks delicious, so I can’t wait to dig in a little bit, but I’m not going to be chewing it, you know, chewing and everybody’s here right now, so we’ll have to wait. But you guys, that’s something that you guys pay a lot of attention to, I’ve noticed over the years is you’re always refining and perfecting your recipes for different things. So kind of what does that process look like for you guys? How do you go about figuring out what things to either keep around or take the next step with?
So menu mix wise, we do, we do have a menu mix, but as far as ingredients go, we’re always looking at ingredients and trying to make sure we keep the best ingredients and we make as many items and almost everything in house from scratch. So we know what we’re putting into everything. And we’re not 100% but most everything you have in our stores we make from scratch. Um, and by doing that, there’s five or six ingredients there. You can read the name of all of them. It just makes me feel good. And I prepare food at our stores the way I eat too. So, uh, my ended our stores all the time. And you’re still nice and lean. I still look fit. And Iceland lane, yes. Always say the coffee helps too. Coffee probably does help and, and I just have to give a plug for the chicken salad sandwich cause my wife is a fiend for chicken salad.
She absolutely loves it. And yours is hands down her favorite. So yeah, it’s it, it does really well here. It’s been really picked up. Wells people are trying it. And then the San Marcus is one of our staples in San Marcus. Okay. So right now, um, what locations do you guys still have? We still have all four in San Marcus and then we have the one here in Frisco. We have five currently. Um, we’ve been in Frisco two years, August, so those past two years. Congratulations. Thank you very much. So we’ll actually celebrate our 17 years in business in February. Wow, that’s awesome. Well you guys are hitting some milestones and we love having you here in Frisco. So if anybody doesn’t know, it’s right on the Southeast corner of Eldorado and legacy. So can’t miss it. Great location, super targets there in the parking lot. So most lot of people seem to shop at target.
That’s a part of their destination too. Sure is. So one of the things we were talking about before we kicked off the recording was you guys did a marketing study with Wakeland high school, which is right down legacy from you guys. Correct. And you actually did it like the students did a class project and it was a marketing study for Mochas and Javas, which is kinda cool. It’s nice to see that you guys are getting engaged with the students locally. But what was the, uh, tell us about that process and then what the outcome was. So I recall them talking to us about it, but our general manager, Megan’s the one they interviewed for the marketing and they sent it, they did a really good job on this report. I mean, it looks, it’s professionally done or great insights on it. So my brother and I’ve read through it, sent it to our marketing director.
So we’re going to take some information now there. Fortunately some of the things that they recommend that we do, we’ve already are working on one of those things as online ordering. So we’re going to launch online ordering for our LBJ location 1st of January or the first week of January. Work the details out and once we get everything ironed out we’ll launch it all five locations and a mother that has just continued doing more community give back now Wakeland I think approach us cause we’ve done some community get backed with Wakeland with their band or orchestra. We’ve done some profit share days and just some off advertisement and some of their pamphlets. And then we’ve done some stuff with ed Gator Griffin band. As far as the gift card promotion goes, they help them raise funds for their band as well. There’s other organizations we’ve donated coffee to or we’re giving money back or funds to also we donate coffee 20 gallons coffee this morning to the um, all the bus drivers.
Oh that’s nice. I bet they appreciated that. So cold morning this morning too. So, but the report from [inaudible] Lake home in early, well at a good insight and they recommend we open a location near the, the new Alfresco UNT campus. That seems like a very savvy thing to think about. Do you have plans to expand in Frisco? We do. We like we moved to North Texas for a reason. We like to grow at the fair. My brother’s been up here for about 25 years in North Texas. We, we just happened to find this location in Frisco and really liked fresco in the North Texas area. So our plan currently is, is get through the rest of this year, get through the first half of next year and our goal is be looking for something by a fourth quarter of next year. Okay. Very good. Well I love to see you guys expand in Frisco and any way we can help make sure we’re getting the word out.
We will definitely do so. Thanks for a much greatly appreciate it. Yeah. So what are some of the other things you guys have coming up? I know your, your, your brain’s always spinning, you’re always coming up with new ideas and, and different ways of promoting the business and in getting the word out there. So what are some of the things you guys have coming up that we should be looking for? So right now we’re, we’re working on a mailer that will give customers a dollar value in a gift card if they bring it into the store here in Frisco. So one we’re, we’re working out and if we’re going to do that ourselves, partner with somebody on those flyers. Um, work with the HOA is, or some of the apartment complex is here. Okay. It’s uh, and there’s no catch. So if you receive on the flyers, you just bring it in and we’ll give you that value.
And spray gets value. I’m not going to say what it is today, but it’s a nice thing. I know we talked about it. It’s a nice value. It’s entices people to come in and once they get their gift card, if they only use it once for that one purchase, they’ll have value left on it for another purchase. They could use the entire thing at that time though, either way. But we feel like they, if we can capture the customer to come to our store two to three times though, there’ll become a regular of ours. Absolutely. We love, I mean, we encourage people as much as possible. Please support the local businesses and businesses like mocha is and Javas and you know, we’re not going to go out and like bash the big box guys, but we’re all about local. We’re all about Frisco. So you know, if we’re going to go get coffee, we want to send them your way.
Yeah. We changed some of our marketing. We change our, um, gift card design this past, uh, this past year, this year, um, our sleeves that will be in production again next year. We changed it to the Texas theme. People in Texas love Texas. So we’re based, we’re based in, formed in Texas. My brother and I grew up in, were born in Texas. So we are promoting that Texas theme and I think it will do really well for us. Also, I think people in Texas, like supporting local businesses, uh, other ones that were, um, created here in Texas. Like I always tell people our profits stay here in Texas. Have you ever had a chance to sit down and chat with the guys from tumbleweed textiles? I have not. They are, I mean their whole brand is kind of Texas culture. Um, and so yeah, I mean that, that really resonates with people around here.
They’ve done very well and um, we got to introduce you to those guys are probably be some nice crossover stuff. It’d be great to do. They’re fun. They’re really fun guys, sharp guys as well. So I’m tapping into that. Texas culture is, that’s, that’s a good move. Yeah. People want, people love, they’re very proud of Texas. It’s online. And I think for good reason, even for those of us that aren’t originally from here, um, that it’s hard for that Texas culture, not to, uh, kind of just through osmosis seep into your veins over time. And next thing you know, you’re, you’re a Texan whether you meant to be or not. Yeah, I agree. So, uh, what else is happening in the store? So we talked a little bit about some of the snacks you brought today, but what are some of the other things that, uh, we might look forward to on the shelves there or not that we, we just finished our pumpkin spice latte.
Um, we still, it’s no longer available here in Frisco, but we made that recipe from scratch. We use pumpkin spice from scratch, but right now we’re doing a peppermint bark, which is really good. It seemed like anything seasonal we do sells really well. We’re working on a new gingerbread latte. So Megan, our, our general manager is working on a recipe to make the, uh, seasoning from scratch. So she’s tweaking it and as we speak, and she made these, she bake some many gingerbread cookies. And so we’re going to decorate those cookies. And so we’re going to give out one of these little mini gingerbread cookies with every gingerbread latte baking those herself. Yeah. Oh that’s fantastic. They look fantastic. So it’s like great idea. So she’s super nice. I see her most of the time when we do come in there and she’s a, I was bright and friendly.
Then we’ve done some gift boxes that we’ve done some really good values on. So we’ve got three different sizes of small, am I saying small, medium, large. But there it’s like a single and a double than a, and then like a couples, um, gift package though it’s a good value. It has a variety of things in it. So it’s uh, if you buy coffee or gift cards or tumblers, it’s, I look for it on our shelves. So stop into the Mochas and Javas in checkout. The gift boxes, gift boxes and no, actually they’re already discounted, but we’re going to do a discount the last three days before Christmas also. Okay. Sounds good. Yeah, I’ll definitely try to stop in and check those out. Okay. And you know, another one of the things I love that you guys have is it’s a very comfortable atmosphere. Uh, you have their mochas and Javas.
It’s very inviting so people can stop in and if they need to hang out and do some wifi and all that stuff, there’s that as well. Correct. Most definitely you looking at are our clientele mix. It’s during the day. We have a really good professional clientele. Um, lot of business meetings going on there every day. I think they feel comfortable coming into the business. Uh, it’s relaxing. It’s um, there’s no pressure to buy. You can come in and just enjoy the internet and the space and meet people there. Um, most people do purchase. A lot of moms come there I think after dropping off kids and, and just meet and talk about the day, then we have a couple of knitting groups that meet there as well. Find a really good mix. Uh, we’re getting more of the younger clientele. We continue to grow our footprint up here.
Also, the more that we, Marco think with the high schools and do some community give back. We’re getting some of those students who had done the daytime. We have a really strong professional client that do business there every day. It’s really good to see. No, that’s good. I’m glad you guys are doing so well. And again, we love having you here in Frisco. So let’s chat about coffee itself cause we’ve kind of glazed over that and you are a coffee shop. Um, I know you guys do your own roast, correct? We do. So the roast that I brought to you this morning is the a I brought you like, I know you like Americanos. We brought you a four shot Americano. He are awake to help pass 10 tonight. You know, why give me wired up. But yeah, that’s really good. So we do, we’ve been doing the mochas and Javas blend with Texas coffee traders now for over 16 years.
So we um, RC and myself, uh, put this, uh, Rose together for our expresso roast. It’s very good. Very smooth. It is. Yeah. So that is our signature roast and we do a light roast of the month. All the stores stay about the same schedule. Right now we’re doing Mexican for our light roast for um, December and they won’t start a rotation again in January. You can go to our website and see what our light Rose to the month is and it shows you where the region is. And talk a little bit about the coffee also. So if you’re a light roast person, you can try a different one every month. Um, then you can also try the mochas cause and Javas win. So the express Rose is formulated and we designed it to be our espresso, but we also use it for our drip, a dark roast as well.
And then we do the ice toddy with that as well. Do you know what the, the, uh, the coffee in January that you’re gonna be going to is ya? Uh, not yet. My daughter’s actually going to be devising up our schedule for next year. A lot of, we have to get with our roasting cause the coffees do change as far as a plantations and what their crop looks like. Uh, we had some light roasts last year that we had to change the light roast schedule just because they weren’t available. So as seasons change a weather, either too much rain or droughts can affect, uh, some of that light roast schedule. So we’ll have to change our schedule on occasion, even though we do try to put out for 12 months. Okay. So do you actually, do you go and do the coffee tasting? Do you do the whole spooning thing?
And we do some of that testing wise and we do it also for training. And so we send our baristas to concentrators actually for coffee training. So they do some of the cupping and the helping. Thank you. Yup. And then they’ll do a barista skills as far as pulling shots, understanding the shots, the amount that express would per shot, the time that it takes them through the shots, um, what the colors should look like, how it should smell. That’s fantastic. That’s good training. And where do they go for that? They go to our roaster in Austin. Okay. Let’s agree. I mean, if you’re a barista, I mean that’s a fantastic opportunity to really kind of go a little deeper and learn. The nice thing about going to the roaster is you get to tour the roaster. So we actually see their wit, they tourist the entire warehouse.
So we actually get their work roast or March, the roast coffee and they, they roast a lot of coffee for a lot of companies. But we roast several hundred pounds a week for us. So wow. Fantastic. But it’s good education. It really gives the staff a little bit more involvement and knowledge of what we are serving and what we’re doing and where our coffee comes from and how fresh it is. Most people don’t realize that we get our coffee roasted every week for everything. They’re drinking our stores. So we keep about a 10 to 14 days supply in our, you know, on shells at all time. That’s about it though. Okay. And yeah, people can buy the coffee as well off the shelf or you sell it by day? We sell a pound bags. Yeah. Good to know. And you guys, I’ve noticed, it seems like you have, and correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems like you have fairly low turnover in terms of staff relative to what I’m used to in, in like a retail type establishment.
Um, is that true or am I just happened to be seeing the same people all the time? Maybe just your schedule, but uh, we have since mid summer we’ve had a good, we’ve had a good core staff. We did Turner, Maine in the restaurant industry. We are a lot of students. They graduate, move on and they should, we had three of our um, holdouts from the, a former business that all three graduated, all got career jobs where some of the basketball, like great bright people. Um, that’s usually what our turn looks like and that’s kind of where reselling back down. And so we’ve hired, uh, the last 12 months more more staff and most of them are staying with us. And it’s nice to build that education and knowledge and history with our staff. Cause a coffee is definitely a daily routine. So that routine and the, uh, rapport building with your customer is very important.
So when you get to see the same faces every time, get to know you by name, get to know you by your drink or both. I gotta admit, I was impressed that you knew like that I liked an Americano walking in and that was, that was good. So yeah, we try to reach, do to try to remember those things. But um, the first goes bigger than San Marcus of course. Uh, I don’t see our clientele out in public as much as I do in San Marcus cause it’s just a smaller town. But your, our baristas will say, I saw cappuccino at the HEB, you’re named after your coffee. People choose wisely. So it’s like, yeah, that’s Tom. That’s not kept Gino. But yeah, but it’s funny cause they learn, they know customers buy drinks sometimes. Not by names. That makes sense. But, but you live down in San Marcos, correct?
Correct. But you’re, it seems like you’re here in Frisco at least half the time when I walk into the shop, you’re there, uh, drove up this morning. I was here all last week, Tuesday through Saturday. Drove back Saturday evening, drove back up this morning, left San Mark’s about seven when the store this morning about five and had some coffee and did some paperwork then hit the road. Okay. Be here through Thursday. Good deal. Well, we hope you’re enjoying your time in Frisco while you’re up here and I’m trying to get out more of an I’m here to, um, there’s times that I’m needed behind the, as we’re, um, training staff. There’s this, um, August and September I was doing a lot of shifts at the store, just helping with training. Uh, Megan’s, uh, does a great job, but she can only be so many places at one time. So sometimes helping her, um, just oversee the store, helps, uh, helps her kind of get things in perspective and do what she needs to do for the success of the store and this give her some support.
So there’s times that I’ll do that. Then there’s times that I’ll try it in the market out in the market. And so I’ll be at the chamber, a networking group on Thursdays when I’m here on Thursday to try to go to the networking group. And then I try to go shop at other businesses to have lunch at different places. Just introduce myself and just go find other local places though. Well, if there’s anybody you want to get connected with, let us know and we’ll make every effort to make sure we get you. We certainly don’t know everybody in every business in Frisco, but uh, we’re connected to a lot of them in different capacities. So always happy to, it’s fun to see that kind of crossover happening where businesses get to work. Cause I think, um, in fact, if I’m not mistaken, jungle Joe’s is, you guys work with them, right?
Don’t they have mochas and Javas coffee? Yeah. So Angela and I met at the chamber networking group about a year, maybe a little over a year ago. And as she’s looking to, um, serve our roast in her a coffee shop or in her, um, I guess kind of like a playground. Indoor playground. Yeah. And they serve food and coffee. And so I was excited about that as my daughter had come back from um, Colorado and is our director of training, one of our general managers in San Marcus. And so we came up here last year and actually did a training session with her staff. Uh, Jordan. I had to calibrate their express machines, get them to actually improve properly and test them, run them. Then when we left that day, Angela is pretty excited cause she hadn’t seen her express would make express it like that before. Ah, and steam milk the way my daughter is really skilled in the coffee trade and so she can, she can outdo me when it comes to the latte art.
Um, but uh, she’s very skilled in that area and um, but Andrew was really happy and to see what we did. So we are, it’s great to partner with somebody like that and I think she’s done really well. So she orders our coffee from us, um, as needed in some of our sauces and syrups too. That’s fantastic because I mean, if, if you know, we know her business has done really well, but if people are taking their kids in there to give them a chance to run around and play and blow off a little steam and they decided to have a cup of coffee while they’re, you know, you’re really supporting two businesses at the same time. Right. So we’d love to see that happen. And does your daughter ever come up to the Frisco shop? She’s supposed to be here today with me, but um, she’s working.
We have a plethora, we have most of the students working for us and most of them take off vacations. My daughters are working shifts this week. She’s action. I’m trying to get her more involved into the management side of what I do in the business. I want to grow in and have our business grow and have her grow with our business. Uh, she’s very passionate about moving back to Colorado. So when that happens, I hope that we’re expanding business up there, that we’re here to help oversee and run. Yeah, absolutely. What part of Colorado, if you don’t mind my asking. She went to CCU for Colorado Christian university, so she, um, was in Lakewood about six years and worked at a cafe in golden, Colorado for about three years. So she loves Denver. She likes that area. So she, she’d probably be somewhere is on the West side of Denver if she had her choice.
Gotcha. Well we’re, uh, we’re tied into a couple of businesses up there as well. Obviously we don’t advertise or do things with them on lifestyle Frisco, but, um, certainly if she, uh, winds up back there and you guys start expanding into Colorado, let us know and we’ll get you connected there as well. Okay. Greatly appreciate this. Some good fun crossover businesses actually that I can think of. So, yeah, I think we’re, we’re a couple of years out from that, but that’s a, that’s been a goal with my brother and I used to have stores in Colorado. Just give us an excuse to go snow skiing or climb around the mountains. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. And there’s no shortage of people that need good warm beverages up there. So correct that time of year. So, well Kevin, good deal man. Thanks for coming in today and it’s been good to just sit down and catch up a little bit.
I know usually when I see you in the shop, you’re kind of busy, so get to say hi, but you’re uh, you’re humping it back there. But you know, that’s, that’s what it comes, that’s owning a business is all about. So being involved. Yes, definitely. I don’t think I’ll ever walk away from the business unless we sell it. I enjoy the, I enjoy the day to day routine. Um, they office out of stuffs as part of running a business, but the people side is what really makes the business good. Well, we’re glad to hear that and keep us posted on your Frisco plans and photo. If your daughter ever does come up, please let us know. We’ll, we’ll get people coming in for their own special latte art and things that, that she is so masterful at. So that’s been great to meet her. Okay. Well, thanks again, Kevin, for coming in and thanks to all of you for tuning into the Frisco podcast. Please go out and subscribe. You can find us on iTunes, Google play, Spotify, Stitcher, pretty much any place you’re gonna listen to a podcast. Feel free to subscribe, leave us a comment, give us a rating. All of those things really help us out, and we will talk to you next.