With Novel Acquisition, Cherry Coffee Enters Fruitful New Chapter in Texas

Photo by Sarah E, courtesy of Cherry Coffee.

Fort Worth, Texas-based Cherry Coffee Shop has acquired fellow Texas-based wholesale and e-commerce company Novel Coffee Roasters.

Under one business umbrella by the name of Cherry Coffee LLC, both brands will continue to exist side by side, offering different products, services and approaches to coffee sourcing and roasting. 

Both Cherry Coffee and Novel Coffee are now also proudly woman-owned and will focus on women-led production, according to owner Katherine Morris.

The acquisition included a modified 15-kilo-capacity Giesen roaster, a destoner, a commercial reverse osmosis water purification system and other equipment. The parties declined to disclose the financial terms of the deal. 

For Novel, which was founded by Kevin Betts and Ryan Smith in 2013, the acquisition marks a monumental new chapter. Following the deal, Novel’s roasting operations relocated from its 1,800-square-foot Northeast Dallas facility to Cherry Coffee’s new 3,000-square-foot roastery in Fort Worth. 

Novel Coffee bags. Photo by Leslie Monk, courtesy of Cherry Coffee.

Just three miles away from the lone Cherry Coffee Shop cafe, the roastery will soon be overseen by Marisa Zapata, who has been named head roaster for both brands. 

“They’ll be two completely separate and different lines,” Morris recently told Daily Coffee News. “Novel is really known for its lighter roasts, really delicate profiles, clean and washed, and Cherry is more exploring the curiosity and experimental side of coffee. I think that’ll be a really good balance, to have Cherry as the one pushing the curiosity and getting into the weird, funky co-fermented and anaerobics, whereas Novel will kind of stick with our classic line.”

Morris formerly worked for the now-defunct Craftwork Coffee in Fort Worth for three years, managing four retail locations while communicating closely with the roasting operation. She opened Cherry Coffee in a former Craftwork shop on Magnolia Ave in 2021, transforming the stark, minimalist space into something more cozy and welcoming. 

The Cherry Coffee

Morris is now hoping to usher in an even more transformative movement throughout the local specialty coffee landscape. 

“When I was doing my research on roasters in North Texas, I was able to identify 38 different coffee roasters in North Texas and not a single one was female-owned,” she said. “The diversity at the cafe level is really great, but then once you cross over into more vertically integrated sides of the business — the roasting, the equipment, the importing — it’s really heavily male-dominated. This is me putting my foot in the door and saying ‘We’re here, we can do it too, and we have value and perspective that we can provide to this industry.’ It’s important to have that representation.”

Novel Co-Founder Betts is training Zapata and Morris on the ins and outs of roasting and the existing Novel business.

Former Cherry Coffee Barista and now Cherry/Novel Head Roaster Marisa Zapata. Photo by Sarah E, courtesy of Cherry Coffee.

“We have always been ‘product first,’ and we know that Katherine will maintain our high standards, serving our customers with the same passion we have,” fellow Novel Co-Founder Smith said in a recent press release. “With this transition, Katherine is going to take Novel Coffee Roasters to the next level. We can’t wait to see where Novel goes under her leadership.”

[Editor’s note: This story has been updated. The original headline incorrectly referred to Cherry Coffee as Cherry Coffee Roasters.]

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