Today we’d like to introduce you to Marissa Childers.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
When I talk about coffee and how I started, I fell into it when I was working in a design office and I was more interested in the office Chemex than the job I held at the time. I was enamored by the process and the fact that a simple cup could range in complex taste expressions – I so badly wanted to learn more. On the last day of that job, I started work as a barista in a high-volume shop. I fell in love. Over the course of time, I found that coffee was everything I wanted in a design job, it allowed me a space for creativity, systematic thinking, and direct community action. I worked in positions that ranged from Barista to management and even dipped my toes into education and freelance training. Tanbrown Coffee started as a meal around a table.
At the beginning, I started this brand with my friend, Ethan Darla, we both really loved the coffee, community, and wanted to bring Asian coffee to Atlanta. In January of 2022, Tanbrown Coffee was launched as a small e-commerce business out of my apartment and slowly grew. To me, it was important to use all of the skills I had in design and working in hospitality to bring this vision to life. I wanted to show an example of what I wanted to see in the coffee industry and showing up was half of the initial battle. What I am proud of now, is that Tanbrown Coffee has grown in the past year and now I have consistent pop-ups and am able to serve the community in ways that feel authentic to me. It is a great joy and I am immensely happy with the opportunities and space I have been given to do this.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
This road has definitely not been smooth. There have been immense struggles along the way, from just the boring business building and figuring out systems to working with no upfront funding, I feel a lot stronger for dealing with these moments as they come, but I am also just one person navigating this road. I think the biggest struggles have been finding spaces to roast, finances, and setting up systems that can be solid for the future. This is not a new challenge, I know there are many people who have come before me to make this work and I always have community members and leaders I can reach out to. It does not mitigate the fact that this has been one of the most challenging feats I have ever gone through, even thinking about being a solopreneur, it can be overwhelming at times, but it is also one of the most rewarding projects I have ever worked on.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Tanbrown Coffee is a coffee roasting and pop-up business that started to highlight and champion Asian coffees and flavors. Working in the specialty coffee industry, I saw the lack of representation of Asian coffees and I wanted to be able to change that. I am known for bringing inventive drinks and a bright attitude to my pop-ups and am known for using exclusively Asian coffee or coffee that has been sourced from direct connections. I am really proud of building everything from the ground up, having had my hand in everything beverage creation as well as in the design process for retail bags. It makes me feel happy when people resonate with the work I do and the way I share it. The products we offer are not only whole bean Asian specialty coffee, but we offer catering services including full espresso setups and drip, coffee training and education services, and want to continue to be a bridge between coffee and the community in Atlanta.
Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
This is a little cliché, but be yourself and know what you want. When finding a mentor or life coach, find people who want to see you win. I work with Jennifer Chung as a life coach, but I chose to work with her because she helps me set goals, keeps me accountable, and understands what it’s like to navigate the world as a femme-presenting Asian American person. I also think the least productive thing you can do when networking is to treat people like they are disposable. I have found the best connections when genuinely interested in what people are doing, you never know the importance of any interaction you make and we often forget that people are the ones behind small business, so I try to treat everyone with the same respect and dignity I would like to be treated with.
Contact Info:
- Website: tanbrown.coffee
- Instagram: instagram.com/tanbrowncoffee | instagram.com/marzachan
- Facebook: facebook.com/tanbrowncoffee
Image Credits
Dalton Tengelson Nicky Laczko Angela Ferrera Star Chefs
