I like origin stories. Tales of how things began.
When I was little, I adored the story of how my parents met. Even though I knew the ending ~ my parents married and will celebrate their 37th wedding anniversary this year ~ the story never grew old or boring.
This is the charm of origin stories. They satisfy a deep curiosity ~ that itch to know how we got here, in this moment. But even as they comfort us, explaining our history, they open us to an infinite sense of wonder, to our more ambitious emotions. To hope itself.
The origin story of ProStar services ~ and ultimately Parks Coffee ~ is no exception.
If you visited ProStar Services today, you would find a Dallas campus of buildings including our corporate offices, inventory warehousing and parking lots for our fleet of trucks, and the roaster where over 50,000 pounds of Parks Coffee are roasted each month. But all this began in a single home. In a garage. With one driver and a used truck that didn’t have air conditioning. The year was 1986, and even Randy Parks (president and CEO) will tell you he had a lot to learn when he began this company. He had to grow into his stride not only as a businessman, but also into the knowledge of his product, into the pure romance of it. The love of coffee.
Yesterday, Randy told me, “You know, coffee is more than a hot, black liquid. It’s about lifestyle and relaxation and relationships. It’s about meditation.” I could hear the respect for his product in his voice. But he didn’t begin roasting his own beans until 2003. And like countless decisions he made over the years, the choice to roast his own coffee was as much about business as anything else, based on product sustainability.
Now, however, Randy says that the roaster and those countless pounds of beans serve as the very “heart and soul” of the company.
I think I know what he means. Every time I visit the roaster, walking past the burlap sacks full of raw, green beans, standing in the steamy heat, watching the hopper circulating and listening to the crackles and pops, I can feel it. The warm center. It’s like visiting a hearth.
Eventually in this blog, we wish to share that heart and soul with you. The process of selecting coffee beans from all over the world. The science that goes into a perfect roast. The elegance of coffee tastings. But before we get there, the truth is, ProStar Services began with a few basic ingredients that had nothing to do with coffee beans.
There was this guy with an entrepreneurial spirit. He bought a used truck and began selling office product out of this garage. And with the help of a lot of great people along the way.…
Next week on Behind the Bean: OCS Stands for Office Coffee Service!