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Spicewood · United States

Cuvée Coffee

Since 1998 · Mike McKim

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Overview

Cuvée was founded in 1998 by Mike McKim — a former Navy enlistee turned telecom-fiber salesman — after a 1997 winter ski trip to visit his uncle Carl Staub at Agtron, where Staub introduced him and friend Patrick Savarese to coffee roasting and sold them his old roaster. McKim shipped it back to a Dallas warehouse he was using to store telecom cable, started roasting on weekends, and gradually built one of the oldest specialty roasters in Texas. In 2011 Cuvée first served nitro cold brew at the Slow Food Quiz Bowl in Austin, and in 2014 became the first company in the world to can nitro cold brew, popularising a category Starbucks would later imitate.

Known for

  • First company to commercialize canned nitro cold brew, in 2014
  • Pioneered nitro cold brew on tap at the 2011 Slow Food Quiz Bowl in Austin
  • One of the oldest specialty roasters in Texas, founded 1998
  • Roastery in Spicewood (Lake Travis) plus East 6th Street cafe in Austin opened August 2014
  • Founder Mike McKim served as US Navy enlistee and is mentored by his uncle Carl Staub of Agtron Inc.

Why it matters

The roaster that wrote the early playbook for nitro cold brew — first on tap, then in cans — and one of the few Texas-rooted specialty operators to scale into national grocery (Whole Foods, HEB, Central Market, Target) without losing the original cafe culture.

Production

destoning
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head roaster
Logan Allender
color sorting
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roaster machine
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filter equipment
Curtis Seraphim batch brewer; Kalita Wave on Baratza Forte grinders
cupping frequency
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roastery location
Spicewood, TX (Lake Travis area)
espresso equipment
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annual volume tonnes
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Café

2000 E 6th Street, Austin, TX 78702

Sources

More roasters