a Texas-Sized Cup of Coffee

Bringing Summer Moon Coffee to Lubbock

In September 2023, Taylor and Jenny Timmons and Hunter and Kelti Haley brought Summer Moon Coffee to Lubbock. The Lone Star State-based coffee shop is Texas to its roots and is most notably known for its Texas oak wood-fired roasted coffee and Moon Milk, the signature sweet cream (more on that below!). Our team sat down with them to discuss all things Summer Moon and the motivation to open in Lubbock.

What was the motivation behind bringing Summer Moon to Lubbock? 

Long before we dreamt of building walls of our own, Summer Moon Coffee shops held our date nights, gatherings with friends, birthday celebrations, and regular day coffee stops. We were drawn to the warm, welcoming, and safe environment cultivated by the faces that greeted us. It felt like home. We took every chance to enjoy Summer Moon Coffee in cities across the state of Texas (Austin, DFW, Houston, Abilene, etc.) and felt its absence in our hometown of Lubbock. We knew it was time Summer Moon Coffee met our favorite piece of West Texas and had faith that the unique and delicious oak-roasted coffee would be welcomed and appreciated by the people of Lubbock.

What makes your coffee unique?

 Summer Moon is not just a cup of coffee but a culture. Our doors welcome the community into a warm and inviting place to gather, work, study, enjoy a moment of stillness, or swing by on the go. At Summer Moon, we use sight, sound, and smell to roast our coffee beans over an open flame built with Texas post oak in our beautiful brick roasters in Driftwood, TX. Moon Milk is our signature sweet cream – a proprietary blend of 7 secret ingredients that complement the rich flavor of our oak-roasted coffee. The combination of our oak-roasted coffee and Moon Milk makes our drink offerings unlike any other. 

Why did opening in Lubbock make sense? What role does community play in your business?

We consider it an honor and a joy to join the Summer Moon Coffee family and share this piece of comfort with our hometown. To us, the people of Lubbock are the very definition of Texas hospitality – a humble yet powerful community of people who show up and support their own. We chose to plant our roots on the South side of town at 111th and Slide to serve the community in the heart of Lubbock’s most rapid growth. We had no doubt our hometown would appreciate the craft and comfort that Summer Moon Coffee embodies. We are so grateful to invite the Lubbock community into the warm and welcoming Texas coffee culture that drew us to Summer Moon in the first place.

How do you train and support your employees, and what qualities do you look for in a team member?

Leading up to our Grand Opening, our barista staff attended an intensive training week hosted by the Summer Moon corporate training team as well as our local ownership team here in our Lubbock store. It was an incredibly fun way for them to learn all things Summer Moon Coffee and grow as a team. We may have introduced our baristas to Summer Moon Coffee’s unique recipes, but they quickly outshined us with their latte art skills! We believe it is important that our baristas see that no job is too big or too small in our Summer Moon family, which is why you’ll often see one or more of our owners behind the bar working alongside our staff. As a new business, we are so proud of the way our baristas have stepped up to the plate, encouraged and supported one another, and helped us come up with ways to improve our processes. With all hands on deck and open communication between the ownership team and staff, we can better understand how to support one another and make our coffee shop a space where we love to spend time – whether we are working or not. Since our grand opening, our new baristas receive approximately two weeks of hands-on training with an owner and our lead baristas. When building our team, we look for character over talent always. Of course, the barista experience is the cherry on top of a good interview, but we know that we can train a person of good character in the art of craft coffee. We believe we have built – and seek to maintain – a servant-hearted culture that promotes kind and exceptional customer service, celebrates and supports one another, and exemplifies the highest quality work ethic.

Can you share your background and ties to Texas Tech University/Lubbock?

Our ownership team consists of the Haley and Timmons families. Taylor and Jenny Timmons as well as Hunter Haley grew up in Lubbock and have been best friends since elementary school. Each of their families have deep roots in the community and goes back many generations in the Lubbock area. Taylor Timmons attended Texas Tech University to obtain his degree in Petroleum Engineering. Kelti Haley grew up in Austin, which is where she first fell in love with Summer Moon Coffee, and later obtained her Master of Science in Nursing at Texas Tech Health Sciences Center in Lubbock.

Visit Summer Moon Coffee today!