Porch Culture

Porch Culture Coffee Company originated while Jonathan Ramm and his family were living in the Dominican Republic. He would be invited in for coffee on people’s porches, even if they were complete strangers, and visit with them for hours, inspiring the company’s namesake.

During their time in the Dominican Republic, Jonathan and his wife worked for a school while their children attended. The students would often take camping trips, and one of the primary destinations was a local coffee farm. While they were there, they were able to see how the coffee was made on the farm and fell in love with the process.

When they moved back to Tyler, they noticed there was a lack of craft coffee roasters in the area. To fill this gap, Jonathan decided to bring part of the Dominican Republic to Tyler – he imported 120 pounds of coffee directly from the Dominican Republic to Tyler.

Jonathan and his family were excited about the opportunity to bring craft coffee to the Tyler area and began roasting the coffee beans in his parent’s garage on a grill roaster. Even in the early stages of their business, people came out to show their support.

When it came to getting the coffee to the people of Tyler, Jonathan would hand- or door-deliver the coffee directly to the customers via bike. Though bike-delivered coffee was more of a necessity than a want, Jonathan found that bike delivery was the easiest way to bring craft coffee to Tyler. Eventually, they were able to begin their wholesale business through connections they made while attending local farmer’s markets.

Later, another opportunity presented itself to Porch Culture. The former manager of The Foundry Coffee House offered some space in their building in downtown Tyler where Jonathan could roast the coffee. He was excited to have his own special nook in the downtown area to roast their coffee and have people be able to watch the roasting process happen.

For Jonathan, “I think it’s really important for us as people to have something that’s kind of an intermediary between us. You know, it’s hard for us, with all of our insecurities and all of our kind of fears, sometimes to just say ‘Hey, do you just want to like spend time together?' You know? It’s so much easier to say ‘Hey, do you want to go get a cup of coffee together?’ That’s huge for us as people.”