{"id":218696,"date":"2023-04-26T09:43:52","date_gmt":"2023-04-26T14:43:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cupsespressocafe.com\/?p=218696"},"modified":"2024-04-01T10:00:21","modified_gmt":"2024-04-01T15:00:21","slug":"celebrating-30-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cupsespressocafe.com\/celebrating-30-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Founder, Janice Cameron, Reflects on 30 Years of Cups!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>

Cups founder Janice Cameron<\/p><\/div>\n

The dream of Cups started in Italy. It was in Italy that Janice and Dennis Cameron\u2019s love for coffee grew into a passion that they wanted to bring home to Mississippi. Now after 30 years, 11 cafes, and countless memories, Cups continues to connect coffee lovers to classic Italian espresso. We spoke with our founder, Janice Cameron, to get the scoop on all things Cups, and celebrate our 30th anniversary.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy husband and I are both Italian, so we both grew up with coffee being an essential part of every meal,\u201d Janice said. \u201cAfter the wedding, we made plans to travel\u2013Italy being first on our list. During our trip, we visited as many espresso shops as we could. And, that\u2019s where our inspiration for Cups comes from\u2013a love of our heritage and of coffee.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Janice and her husband, Dennis, founded Cups on July 31, 1993, in Jackson, Mississippi. At that time, coffee houses weren\u2019t a common occurrence in the city.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe purchased Cups from a small business that had been in town for about a year. We were excited to continue the love of coffee in our own way,\u201d Janice said. \u201cWhen we started Cups, there really weren’t any coffee houses in the area. There were a few coffee franchises, but no coffee houses. We were the first in the region\u2013and we did it because we thought it was a great opportunity to bring espresso to the city.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Cups offered Jacksonians a coffee experience that wasn\u2019t around at the time\u2013 a local connection to Italian espresso, Southern art, and music performed by artists in the area. Being an artist herself, Janice knew the importance of having a creative outlet in the community and incorporated that into Cups through live music and commission-free display options for visual artists.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe hosted live music for the first five years, and that gave young artists a chance to play and get their start,\u201d Janice said. \u201cWhoever wanted to come and play could come and play. It was a wonderful time!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to supporting the unique sound and look of its neighborhood, each cafe was purposefully designed to reflect its surrounding community.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve always allowed the owners or managers of our company stores to be creative when designing their space. Of course, we want all of our cafes to be welcoming and inviting, but the only thing we require is that we serve the best coffee,\u201d Janice said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And the coffee\u2013Cups\u2019 trademark\u2013is also centered on community, especially when it comes to developing new flavored coffees and drinks. Each season brings a new opportunity for Cups\u2019 creative team to come together and talk coffee, flavor, and everything in between. Janice says the process is dynamic, creative, and also a lot of fun:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe come together and talk about what we think might be great for the season\u2013we talk to our managers as well as our owners to hear their ideas. We look to see what people enjoy\u2013what\u2019s going on in the food world. Then, our team will create drinks and bring them to us to try. Then we decide. It\u2019s a process that involves the whole Cups community and is a lot of fun,\u201d Janice said. \u201cThis season, we\u2019re really excited about our Spumoni latte. It was created by one of our managers at Cups in Madison and is absolutely delicious with strawberry, chocolate, and cherry.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, these mouth-watering flavors, designed specifically for your palette, are only made better by Cups\u2019 focus on serving premium locally roasted coffee.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe roast our own beans in small batches every week so that each time you stop by to get a cup of coffee or grab a bag of beans, it\u2019s fresh. We use small-farm coffee beans for the best flavor,\u201d Janice said. \u201cAnd, we work closely with our roaster and supplier to get the best coffee. My roaster has worked with us for over 20 years, so we\u2019re very dedicated to providing the best beans we can source.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Janice said that she looked forward to seeing Cups continue to adapt to the needs of local artists and coffee lovers with each passing year. She also looks forward to enjoying her go-to caf\u00e9 breve or mocha and getting inspired by the local art. Above all, though, she is grateful. Grateful to all the customers, baristas, and coffee lovers that make Cups feel like home. At the end of our chat, she had only this to say:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThank you for 30 years in this community!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Be sure to follow us on <\/span>Facebook<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Instagram<\/span><\/a> for updates and special offers in celebration of our 30th anniversary!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We spoke with our founder, Janice Cameron, to get the scoop on all things Cups, and celebrate our 30th anniversary.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2171,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,64,71],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-218696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-default-category-coffee","category-education","category-newsroom"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cupsespressocafe.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cupsespressocafe.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cupsespressocafe.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cupsespressocafe.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2171"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cupsespressocafe.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218696"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/cupsespressocafe.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":218935,"href":"https:\/\/cupsespressocafe.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218696\/revisions\/218935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cupsespressocafe.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cupsespressocafe.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cupsespressocafe.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}