KYLE MURPHYStaff Writer

Local residents in search for a nice, fresh cup of coffee can make their way to the newest coffee shop in town: Duck River Coffee.

Tucked away behind Buffalo Wild Wings and Family Practice Center, owners Reginald and Taylor Seay celebrated the grand opening of Duck River Coffee last month with a ribbon cutting ceremony, courtesy of the Tullahoma Area Chamber of Commerce, and welcomed attendees inside to enjoy their coffee, which is made with fresh, locally roasted coffee beans.

Though Duck River Coffee had its grand opening, its doors have been open for business since spring with a main mission: to serve the community fresh coffee.

“We opened at this location in March, basically with the sole purpose to create fresher coffee as much as possible,” Reginald said. “We do roast at this location too.”

Prior to opening the shop, Duck River Coffee was a home-based business where they would pop-ups for events like Taste of Tullahoma Business Expo and Old Timer’s Day in Manchester, which Reginald said he and his wife received positive feedback. As for what was the inspiration behind Duck River Coffee, Reginald said it came down to seeing the current transitional period of the coffee market as while companies like Starbucks have been losing popularity, smaller brands like Black Rifle Coffee have been coming up and being successful.

“There’s kind of a fine line between getting quick coffee and getting good coffee,” he said.

He went on to say the market is still primed for people still wanting coffee, but other industries, like Dutch Bros and Seven Brew, offering coffee alternatives to customers and being successful as well. So, at Duck River Coffee he is merging the quick and go, while serving gourmet coffee, or as he described it the “bean to cup story” around each coffee. He added on each bag of coffee it tells the information about the coffee beans, including where it was grown, where it was from and roast profiles.

“It kind of tells the story of how your coffee got there and when it was roasted, when it’s best roasted by to insure you get the best coffee possible,” he said.

While business has been doing well, Reginald acknowledged that visibility has been a challenge. He said focusing on getting word of mouth, mail marketing, participating in events and being on DoorDash should help mitigate the location lock Duck River Coffee is in.

As for the future, Reginald said he is looking forward to continue to telling the story of the coffee they serve to customers.

“Having that customer interaction and explaining to them this is where the bean came from, this is how you roast it, where we grind it and we put on here this stuff was basically made two days ago, a day ago or it was made this morning and they go ‘Oh, that’s the difference.’”

Duck River Coffee’s business hours are 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday. Anyone who is interested finding some new coffee to taste, or wanting to learn about the process and understand how the coffee gets from bean to the cup can visit their website at duckrivercoffee.com, email dckriver@gmail.com or visit Duck River Coffee’s Facebook page.

“If you are interested or in the market in finding some relatively new coffee that you may have never tasted before, just want to be educated on the coffee process and understand how it is made from bean to your cup or just come in and taste some coffee that you never have before, come check us out,” Reginald said. “We love to talk to about coffee as much as possible.”