From starting their home-based coffee company in 2022 to bringing their freshly roasted coffee from around the world through a mobile coffee shop, Humble Joe’s Coffee Co. have stayed humble through the success and trials.

During the summer of 2023, business owners Justin and Lauren Earl started brewing the idea of building a coffee trailer.

“As the roasting side of the business proved sustainable, we decided it was time to grow,” he said. “We saw this as the next step in serving our community while growing Humble Joe’s Coffee Co.”

In September, the couple purchased a new cargo trailer — a blank canvas to create their dream mobile coffee house.

“We designed and built the trailer out ourselves with the help of family and friends so that it was exactly what we wanted,” he said. “We have never done anything like this before, so we spent many hours researching the web to get ideas for the trailer.”

Justin said there was a lot of planning that went into every single detail of the coffee trailer, but being small business owners it has been a fun adventure.

“We often ask ourselves, ‘can we do this or can we do that’ and then we laugh together realizing that we can do whatever we want,” he said. “It’s ours and its scary and exciting at the same time.”

When coming up with their brand Humble Joe’s they looked at the meaning of the two words.

According to their website humblejoescoffee.com, the couple embarked on this journey with great humility with the goal of bringing the best coffee experience possible. To accomplish this, it says they are humble enough to know that they must put in the work, learn from their mistakes and grow.

On their packaging is a birds-eye view of two “ram’s horns” butting together meaning that even the strong also must be humble.

Besides having a “cup of joe” being a common nickname for drinking coffee, the couple said it means more than that. For their brand “joe” is an acronym for Jesus Over Everything as a reminder of what is important when stress starts to creep in.

Like many small business owners, Justin and Lauren don’t rely fully on their business for income so on top of managing a growing business they also work full-time jobs.

Justin said the biggest challenge is time.

“We both work full-time jobs, Lauren as a nurse and I work as a teacher,” he said. “As the demand has grown, we have found ourselves having to work later hours to meet our customer’s needs.”

With such time constraints, Justin said he is grateful for the customers who support their business and understand their busy schedules.

Justin said so far, the feedback on the trailer has been positive since they have traveled to several local events over the past month.

“We spent a lot of time making sure that it was aesthetically appealing and creates a unique experience,” he said. “Everyone has noticed and appreciates the details we have put into both the interior and exterior of it. Plus, we receive great feedback on the coffee too.”

At 10 a.m. Saturday, there will be a ribbon cutting with the Jackson County Chamber at the Farmer’s Market where their business began.

“The Farmer’s Market is special to us,” he said. “It is where our fun little coffee journey began two years ago so it seems fitting to have our ‘grand opening’ at the market.”

The mobile coffee shop comes with a full espresso bar including lattes, cappuccinos, americanos, macchiatos, frappes and more.

Justin said for now they plan to stay local, but in the future they would be open to taking their coffee shop across the Midwest.

“We are grateful for our family and friends,” he said. “They have helped and supported us and without them this would not be possible.”

The couple thanked their local partners Kay’s Kafe, Darlage Meat Market, Humble Donuts and Linzy B’s who have committed to supporting their business.

Humble Joe’s coffee trailer will be available for private events and will have a schedule of pop-up events in the near future.