Today we’d like to introduce you to Lori Green.
Lori, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Mazama Coffee Co. opened in 2012. I began working at Mazama shortly after it opened and stayed on as shift lead / manager for the following 10 years. I had always dreamed of owning a coffee shop but never really saw it happening. What I thought would be a little part time job turned into so much more. When the previous owner approached me and said she wanted me to buy the shop, I wasn’t sure I could make that happen but here we are and I couldn’t be happier. This is a dream come true for me. I love everything about it.
The shop opened in downtown Dripping Springs at a time when there were no other businesses that were thriving in this area. Mazama was the beginning of bringing the downtown area to life again. It has become the “local watering hole”, so to speak. It has become a place where community comes together. It’s more than just good coffee, it’s a place where people connect and work and collaborate. We strive to make it a light in our community. We encourage people to come together and slow down and enjoy good conversation and good coffee.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
We were really fortunate to take over an already thriving business as well as knowing the business and customers so well from working there for so many years. I already had a great rapport with our customers and the community so it made the transition seamless. We have been lucky to have an amazing staff as well. I know it’s a struggle for a lot of small businesses right now so I am very grateful to our staff for their reliability and their hard work.
The challenges for us would be the increasing prices of coffee due to inflation and tariffs as well as all increasing prices in all of our other inventory. We strive to keep our prices as reasonable as possible. I try to stay lower than the prices you see downtown Austin.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
We are tucked in the hill country of downtown Dripping Springs, just southwest of Austin.
We are an artisan micro roaster, which means that we roast in small batches. This gives us the ability to really dial in our roasts, To have more consistency in our flavor profiles. We roast right in house. We put our heart and soul into every batch. You can smell when the roasting is happening as its fragrance fills the air outside. We are proud of the quality we offer the community.
We bake fresh in house daily. Our Bakers arrive early to make sure that everything is hot and fresh and ready. We offer pastries, breakfast croissants, Frittatas, scones and more to get your morning going. We also serve a variety of sandwiches and salads for lunch. We make handcrafted syrups for our drinks and sell to the public and we also make our own homemade Chai. We love offering things with simple ingredients so you know what you are getting. We pay attention to all the details from roasting, to baking, to creating a cozy space for our customers enjoy. Our baristas work hard to craft the perfect drink for you with the perfect latte art on top. We have a great team of knowledgeable friendly baristas that can make you the perfect cup.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
I love how friendly and welcoming our community, Dripping Springs is. People are always willing to step in and lend a hand. We recently did a fundraiser for victims of the Kerrville flood where we sold Texas shaped cookies with all proceeds going to this cause and we reached out to multiple local businesses who agreed to jump in and donate to the cause. We were able to raise almost $25,000 dollars. When we come together as a community we can accomplish so much more than we can on our own.
What I like least is the traffic out here. Dripping Springs is growing so fast that the traffic can be crazy, especially during the school year when there are a lot of people on the road. Growing pains I guess!!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Mazamacoffee.com
- Instagram: mazamacoffee
- Facebook: Mazama Coffee Company
