From Farm to Cup: Tulsa roastery creates coffee pods that 'brew like a barista'

A family-owned roastery in Tulsa is brewing up its own single-serve coffee pods. Topeca Coffee was founded in 2002 by Margarita and John Gaberino.

Since then, the business has grown to include three cafés in downtown Tulsa, a roastery, two Cirque Coffee locations, and ships its coffee nationwide.

Family History

Margarita is the daughter of a sixth-generation coffee grower in El Salvador. She met John, a native Tulsan, in college, and they started Topeca after the global coffee market crash in the early 2000s. The farmer plant and grows the coffee on the slopes of the Santa Ana volcano in El Salvador, then export it to Tulsa.

Farm-to-Cup Process

Topeca Sales Director Sam Miers said a coffee plant starts fruiting after four years, but tastes its best when it is grown for 6 or 7 years. Many hands are involved in the farm-to-cup process, and each step is crafted with care.

"Coffee does not just easily come out of the fruit, so you have to ferment it and then dry it," said Miers. "It is very easy to mess that part up."

Once the coffee beans arrive in Tulsa, the team roasts them, checks the color, packages the beans, and tastes a little of each batch to test the quality.

Single-Serve Coffee Pods

For decades, Topeca has focused on hand-brewed coffee, but as consumer habits change, they have tried to adapt. Miers said, "The reality is the grocery store section of coffee is more convenient than it is whole bean coffee."

To make coffee pods that brew like a barista, the roastery partnered with BestCup. "All of the pods have Santa Anna, Breakfast Blend, Italian Roast, and Signature Espresso," said Miers. "So, all of that is the same coffee that we put into the bags."

Taking great care not to sacrifice taste for convenience. "We are not snobs, we want people to be able to brew great coffee, but we are insistent that it has to be good," he continued saying, "It is very difficult to produce coffee, so we want to make sure that we do not mess it up just because it is convenient."

The coffee pods can be found in Reasor's grocery stores, inside any of the Topeca or Cirque cafés, and on their website.