Fort Worth’s Cherry Coffee Goes Nationwide With Its Beans, While Keeping Its Coffee Shop Very Local and Unique

Cherry Coffee is a staple hangout on Fort Worth’s Magnolia Avenue, and that’s by design. Earlier this year it acquired Novel Coffee and now this upstart coffee roastery is ready to launch nationwide. According to Cherry Coffee owner Katherine Morris, her burgeoning coffee roastery is just the next step.

“I was always on the operations side with Craftwork,” Katherine Morris tells PaperCity Fort Worth. “I had no intentions of buying a coffee shop. But I saw an opportunity to lead and it was something I knew I’d be good at.”

Morris started Cherry Coffee in April of 2021 ― so named because coffee beans are part of the cherry species.

She acquired Novel Coffee Roasters along with all its equipment in February. Growing further fits right into Morris’ wheelhouse as she’s already built a staff. Cherry Coffee just launched an upgraded website and is now shipping its beans nationwide where there’s demand.

Cherry Coffee Remains a Unique Hang

Novel Coffee currently boasts 15 wholesale clients and plans call for Cherry Coffee to expand into the wholesale market as well. While Morris plans to expand her coffee roasting enterprise far and wide, her Cherry Coffee Shop on Fort Worth’s Magnolia Avenue will most definitely remain a oneoff.

“I’m a very hyper local person,” Morris says. “The coffee shop is intentionally one of one.”

She doesn’t want to lose unique the vibe she’s created. Cherry Coffee is “a place I’d want to hang out in,” Morris says. “Right now, I’m just focused on making the best coffees we can.”

The Cherry Coffee team, which now includes head roaster Marisa Zapata, sources its green beans from Brazil, Costa Rica and Columbia primarily, but other spots around the world are potentially in play too.

Cherry Coffee’s new lineup includes an espresso dubbed Hang Around. That is one of the mottos of the company and what Morris set out to achieve at her one and only Fort Worth coffee shop. Morris notes that Hang Around’s been roasted “to bring out natural sweetness of this nutty and chocolatey espresso”.

Cherry Coffee’s drip coffee is a 100 percent Colombian coffee called Laboyano, named for the valley the beans were grown in. The sugar cane processed decaf is roaster Zapata and Morris’ preferred process. It utilizes a fermented sugar cane soak to pull out caffeine, avoiding all the heat and pressure involved in other processes.

Cherry Coffee is also launching a special limited-time Ethiopian single origin brew dubbed Wush Wush. This is a more expensive and rare bean, what Morris dubs “a fruit bomb” with the Ardi bringing natural sweetness from its yeast fermentation. Morris hopes all these unique offerings set Cherry Coffees apart. The beans are available in two and five pound bags and smaller 3.5 ounce and 10 ounce bags in both the Cherry Coffee Shop and online.

Morris plans to push Cherry’s private label roasting service for other brands in 2024, and teases that Novel Coffee will be expanding its H-E-B grocery store footprint and well. She envisions cupping workshops returning to Cherry Coffee Shop and might even add tastings and roastery tours of the roastery located at 2800 Shamrock in the future.

There is a lot brewing with Cherry Coffee.