TL;DR
Kris Carlson says Coffeekris, the Kansas City green coffee sourcing business she launched in 2025, sold the equivalent of more than 10 containers in its first year, exceeding her initial hope of one. Its model connects roasters with 11 importing partners, with importers compensating Carlson and roasters paying the importers’ direct prices.
Kris Carlson says Coffeekris sold the equivalent of more than 10 containers of green coffee during its first year, exceeding the Kansas City business founder’s cautious launch goal of one container. The model connects coffee roasters with 11 importing partners through Carlson, who describes her role as a sourcing curator rather than a conventional importer.
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In an interview published October 21 by Daily Coffee News, Carlson said Coffeekris works with a network of specialized importers and helps roasters find coffees from their portfolios through one point of contact. The importers pay Carlson for the connection, she said, while roaster clients pay the same prices they would when buying directly from those importers. The report did not independently verify the sales figure or describe the business’s revenue.
Carlson said she has built the business around relationships with importers, exporters, producers and roasters developed over more than a decade in cafes, roasting, wholesale, green coffee sales and sourcing. Among the partners named in the report are Swift Coffee Sourcing, founded by Emily McIntyre; Optimist Coffee Traders, founded by former Mighty Peace Coffee co-founder Jim Ngokwey; and Benchmark Coffee Traders, founded by Vikram Patel.
Carlson said she seeks partners led by women and people from historically underrepresented groups, while keeping a portfolio broad enough to serve customers with different purchasing needs. She said the business can work with roasters buying from a few bags to commercial volumes, and that ethical practices and respect for participants in the trading system are conditions she will not compromise.
A Brokerage Model for Green Coffee
Coffeekris presents an alternative way for roasters to reach coffees from multiple importers without treating Carlson as the importer of record. For customers, the arrangement may offer a single contact across a network of suppliers; according to Carlson, it does not add a markup to the importer’s price. The report does not provide independent price comparisons or customer accounts, so the practical cost and service advantages remain unverified.
The reported first-year sales also offer an early measure of demand for Carlson’s approach. Her figure—more than 10 containers’ equivalent—substantially exceeded the one-container target she said she had set. It is a business-reported result, not an audited measure, and the source does not specify how sales were distributed among coffees, customers or transaction sizes.
For the coffee trade, Carlson’s emphasis on women and other underrepresented leaders is part of how she chooses business partners, not only a statement of personal values. She argues that exclusion can limit access to people, ideas and coffee. The interview records that perspective, but provides no industry-wide data measuring its scale or impact.
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From Cafe Work to Sourcing
Carlson began in coffee as a barista at Take Five Coffee + Bar in Overland Park, Kansas, then joined Revocup Coffee Roasters, a Kansas City-area company founded by Ethiopians. She later moved through cafe management, roasting and wholesale before taking on green coffee work. Carlson said learning about coffee’s origins and the people behind it prompted her interest in the global trading system.
Her subsequent roles included working with Mighty Peace Coffee, an importer focused on the Democratic Republic of Congo that has since ceased operations, and later Anthem Coffee Imports. Carlson said those experiences took her to coffee origins across Latin America, East Africa and Asia, where she cupped and selected lots and built relationships with producers and exporters. She launched Coffeekris in 2025, drawing on that network.
In the interview, Carlson also described the personal support she received from Revocup colleagues after her mother died by suicide, six months after Carlson began working there. She said the experience affected her personally as well as professionally. Her account gives background on the community ties that shaped her career, while the business development at issue is Coffeekris’s first-year sales and sourcing model.
“Unlike most brokers, I’m transparent. You know exactly who I’m working with, why, and where the coffee is coming from. There’s no gatekeeping knowledge.”
— Kris Carlson, speaking to Daily Coffee News
Sales Figures and Model Details
The sales total and operating details in the report come from Carlson. No audited figures, transaction breakdown or independent confirmation are provided, and it is not clear how Coffeekris defines a container equivalent across different purchases. The report also does not identify the business’s total revenue, profit or costs.
Further details about the arrangement remain limited: the source does not specify the commission or payment structure between Carlson and each importer, how orders and logistics are handled, or whether roasters have reported savings or other measurable benefits. Carlson’s stated commitment to ethical sourcing and diverse partners is described, but the interview does not set out a formal standard or independent assessment for evaluating those claims.
The supplied interview text ends during Carlson’s answer about what troubles her in coffee, after she begins discussing how women may be treated when they speak about mistreatment. The full remarks are not available in the source material here, so her complete response should not be inferred.
Building the Importer Network
Carlson said Coffeekris’s current portfolio includes 11 importing partners, but the report does not announce a new partnership, expansion plan or sales target. The immediate next development is whether the business can sustain its first-year pace as it serves buyers ranging from small roasters to customers seeking commercial volumes.
No timeline for future milestones was given. Further reporting could clarify how Coffeekris measures sales, how the importer-paid arrangement works in practice, and whether customers see the price and sourcing benefits Carlson describes. Until then, the first-year total remains Carlson’s account of the company’s performance.
Key Questions
What is Coffeekris?
Coffeekris is a Kansas City green coffee sourcing business launched by Kris Carlson in 2025. It connects roasters with a network of importing companies through Carlson.
How does Coffeekris make money?
Carlson told Daily Coffee News that importers compensate her for making connections. She said roasters pay the same prices they would when purchasing directly from the importers. The report did not provide commission amounts or other financial details.
How much coffee did Coffeekris sell in its first year?
Carlson said sales exceeded the equivalent of 10 containers, against an initial hope of one container. The figure comes from Carlson and was not independently verified in the report.
How many importers are in the Coffeekris portfolio?
The report says Coffeekris’s portfolio currently includes 11 importing partners, including Swift Coffee Sourcing, Optimist Coffee Traders and Benchmark Coffee Traders.
What remains unknown about the business?
The report does not disclose Coffeekris’s revenue, profits, commissions, sales breakdown or independent verification of the container figure. It also does not provide customer data measuring the model’s effect on prices or sourcing outcomes.
Source: rss
