Chris and Brittany Stier of Imperial, who own and operate Noctua Coffee, a small-batch coffee roastery and mobile coffee cart, recently introduced giant-sized “latte buckets,” bringing the business some national attention.
“We were recently featured in the New York Times and have another opportunity in the works with a national magazine,” Chris said.
At Noctua Coffee, which is based in Imperial, the Stiers roast beans and then sell them, along with ground coffee, online. They also sell those products, as well as coffee and specialty drinks made from their beans, from a mobile cart set up every week at farmers markets.
The cart is at the De Soto Farmers Market from 8 a.m. to noon on Saturdays at 520 N. Main St., and recently the Stiers began taking their coffee cart to the Crystal City Farmers Market, which is open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sundays in the Huxco Construction parking lot, 102 N. Truman Blvd.
About a month ago, Chris, 31, and Brittany, 32, added the latte buckets to their menu. The 34-ounce buckets are more than double the size of their typical 16-ounce lattes. The bucket include whole or oat milk, flavored syrups and four shots of espresso, adding up to about 240 mg of caffeine, or about the same amount as two and a half cups of coffee.
“Espresso has less caffeine than if you would have a cup of coffee because (a typical espresso) is a smaller amount, and then the way that we brew it, not as much caffeine is extracted,” Chris Stier said. “But it will still definitely give you an energy boost.”
The 34-ounce buckets are more than double the size of Noctura Coffee's typical 16-ounce lattes.
Stier said the latte buckets come in a variety of flavors, such as blueberry muffin, campfire, Dubai chocolate, caramelized banana, honey lavender, peanut butter banana and turtle.
He said most of the latte buckets include between 500- and 800 calories, but they also offer sugar-free options for those who are sugar or calorie conscious.
“You can do a sugar-free latte, and then really it’s just the calories of your milk. So it can be under 300 calories,” Stier said.
He said most of the latte buckets cost about $12, while 16-ounce lattes typically cost about $6.
The latte buckets come with a carrying handle so shoppers can easily carry their drinks while on the go.
Stier said the couple got the idea to offer latte buckets from social media.
“Whenever we started seeing it, we saw people doing dirty sodas and lemonades in the buckets, and I’m sure we saw other people doing coffee too. It gave us the idea to try it out,” he said. “We tried it at home first, and I don’t think I was able to finish one. We thought it was a lot of fun.”
Stier said you don’t necessarily need to drink the entire 34-ounce latte to make the bucket a good purchase, pointing out that it is great for sharing, which is what he and his wife do.
“Before we started Noctua, when we would go to a coffee shop, we would both get the exact same thing. We were wishing we could have gotten a little bit bigger of a size so we could have just shared it. So we thought with the latte buckets, if you and your partner got a coffee, you could share a bucket together, rather than having two separate cups,” he said. “We wanted to make it affordable that way.”
Stier said the giant lattes have been a big hit. “The latte buckets have brought a lot of excitement and new faces, and it’s been amazing to see the response from our community,” he said.
Stier said he and his wife both work full-time jobs, with Brittany working in billing analysis and him working as a software engineer.
He said a health scare prompted the couple to try out a new passion.
“In 2024, I actually had brain surgery to remove a tumor. It has always been a dream of ours to have a coffee shop one day, but we’ve always put it on the back burner. After both of us went through all that, we just decided we needed to stop waiting on that.”
Stier said the couple started roasting their own coffee beans and selling them at the De Soto Farmers’ Market during the 2024 season. Customers started asking Noctua to sell cups of coffee so they could see what it tasted like before buying the beans, so when the couple returned for this year’s farmers’ market, the two transitioned to a coffee cart. The change also allowed them to offer iced drinks.
Stier said the couple hopes to one day open a brick-and-mortar shop, particularly one with late hours to allow students to come there and study.
“Noctua is Athena’s owl, and we really liked the wisdom part of that name, and we liked how it kind of sounded nocturnal,” he said.
Stier said their goal is not only to make really good coffee, but also to make a positive impact in the world. “We’re really community based. We always try to give back whenever we can, just because we feel really grateful that we’re at this point right now coming out from brain surgeries and being able to chase after our dream.”
For more information, visit Noctua’s website at noctuacoffee.com or their social media accounts.