We’ve decided to retire from the Cupertino De Anza Farmers’ Market, after an incredible 2-ish years of growth, learning, and connections.

Looking back on our journey through the market, it feels simultaneously like an eternity and yesterday ago that we first pulled up to the Farmers’ Market with our “illegal” wok-burner, Amazon kettles, Hario switches, Max Chillax, and huge hopes and dreams.

Fast forward ~2 years after doing pop-ups, catering, and a lot of roasting, we now have a place to call home — a place where we can both roast and serve delicious coffees, where we can welcome others to enjoy excellent coffee experiences.

It’s been an exciting but candidly challenging and tiring run. It’s now time for us to shift our focus to other priorities - including time with our families.

We still intend to use the mobile set-up (mObiLe cOfFeE eXpeRienCe pLatForM) for catering services and possibly other coffee experiences such as classes, showcases, latte art throwdowns, etc. So you’ll likely still see the Moontruck around.

It’s just a Farmers’ Market, why are you getting all emotional?

We really wouldn’t be where we’re at today without our experience at the Farmers’ Market.

The Farmers’ Market started off initially as a way to share our coffees with more people. But with each week of service, we adapted and evolved to improve the experience to better serve our customers who have become part of our village.

We took all of these learnings and relationships to set the foundation for our flagship cafe roastery that we have today. And for that, we’re forever thankful for the opportunity we had to vend there.

To our amazing Farmers’ Market (and now Moonwake HQ!) customers

We’re so grateful for each one of you — from the ones who were there since Day One toughing through our first pour-over Farmers’ Market service on that scorching hot day in July 2023, to the newest ones we’ve met this year in 2025. I try my best to remember everyone’s names, but I apologize if I’ve forgotten your name. But I do have a pretty good memory of faces, so I recognize the many of you that have followed us to our new home.

Without customers willing to give our coffees a try, we literally wouldn’t have a reason to do this. I think I’ve mentioned this in my previous blog post, but if Ming and I set out to just make coffee for ourselves or if we were doing this just for the money, we could’ve saved a LOT of heartache, effort, and money by just staying home and with our old jobs. Thanks for sticking with us thus far, and to where we’re headed.

To our friends and family

We’re also so so deeply grateful for our family and friends that supported us throughout this journey — in graciously volunteering their time to help us achieve what still feels like a dream, but is very much reality now. Each week they showed up with enthusiasm and belief in us, and we couldn’t have asked for a better squad in our corner.

To our partners

Huge thank you also to Brian Quan and Voltage Coffee Supply - to Brian for sharing our story from our early cart days and facilitating our joint equipment collaboration with Voltage - to David and the team at Voltage Coffee Supply for standing by us, and providing us the tools and equipment to grow and iterate.

Also thanks to the West Coast Farmers’ Market Association who took a chance with us and supported our many iterations to improve customer service, to the Pacific Coast Farmers’ Market Association for ensuring a smooth transition through the management changes, and our vendor neighbors that shaped the Farmers’ Market vendor Community with their kindness and generosity.

Read on for a recap timeline of our Farmers’ Market journey

Phase 0 (?) - July 2023: Our first ever showing serving coffees and signature drinks through pour-over brewing only

We wanted to highlight our coffee first and foremost - and pour-overs are typically our preferred method to do that.
We served iced pourovers that were flash chilled using “Max Chillax”, a really fun and effective way to brew iced pour-overs without dilution - we would brew pour-overs at an ideal brewing temperature, and then rapidly cool using Max Chillax (a series of graham condensers that had ice water pumping through it), served on atop crystal clear ice balls (we prepped each of them)
However, lesson learned: this took way too long at volume (wait times 20 minutes yikes). We also got yelled at for bringing our propane wok burner to heat up kettles… oops.

Phase 1 - August 2023: Introducing espresso to the menu

We brought out our GS3 to the cart to introduce espresso-based drinks as well as pour-over.
We tried to see if we could get away with not having to serve traditional espresso-based drinks (like lattes, cappuccinos, etc.), but the request from customers was far too great. We eventually caved and added lattes and cappuccinos to the menu, but pour-overs would remain a regular offering.

Phase 1.5 - September 2023: Going full electric (this is important for later)

Our entire set-up was powered with a gas generator, which forced us to set up at the end of the market further away from the other non-agricultural vendors (some weird De Anza College campus rule due to the parking lot’s solar panels). You can see in the photo above, that we didn’t really have any vendor neighbors immediately next to us.
We switched our entire set-up to batteries to allow us to be closer to the other vendors.
- We saw an increase in our volumes as a result of this seemingly small location change

Phase 2 - September to Jan 2024: Increasing our capacity and optimizing efficiency, and testing a more interactive pourover bar experience

Following the location change and the consistent weekly showing at the market, our drink volumes increased significantly. Wait times were increasing at an alarming rate for us, so we felt compelled to make improvements
We increased our capacity by introducing another single group prosumer espresso machine (the first of many collaborations with our friends Brian Quan and Voltage Coffee Supply), but even behind the scenes, we also carefully considered workflow improvements to further optimize our efficiency

Phase 3 - Feb 2024 to Aug 2024: Our final (ish) form with that one big truck

At the end of December 2023, we made the decision to get a Cybertruck to use for our mobile coffee service (we called it a “mobile coffee experience platform” innocuously… though that would eventually blow up)
Before you make any immediate judgments, I’ve written extensively in two other blog posts about this initiative here: Cybertruck and Coffee But Why Though?? and here: Getting Caught and Getting Through.
Long story short, there was extensive careful consideration that went into the decision to get and build out the truck
Our capacity, efficiency, and the overall coffee experience improved significantly — with the ability to deliver cafe-level volumes (200+ drinks on average in a 4 hour service) and efficiency, while still enabling valuable customer engagement with our interactive pour-over bar and open platform
However, throughout this time, we were also deep in the thick of planning and constructing the cafe roastery — so we took a break from the market in the fall to focus on finalizing the shop

Phase 4 - Oct 2024 to March 2024 (now): Scaling down our operations, getting wrecked by sickness, and evaluating our priorities

When we returned to the market in October, we scaled down our operations to only espresso-based drinks on the menu - preparing and setting up for a more extensive menu (i.e. pour-over experience) is not insignificant
On top of that, I was basically sick for the entire month of January through February, with Ming also falling sick for a couple weeks in February
It seemed the universe was telling us that we need to finally rest
Moonwake Cafe Roastery HQ has also grown rapidly in the 6 months since we’ve opened - and we have to return our attention to initiatives that ensure our growth is sustainable

And so, we’re now at this point where it’s time for us to retire from the Farmers’ Market.

The older I get, the more I fully realize how limited our time really is - and the importance of prioritization. In order for us to sustainably build the future of Moonwake — for our partners, customers, staff—we need some time back for us, so we can give it our best shot.

Thanks for being part of this chapter - looking forward to the next chapter together.

Sincerely,
Mabel & Ming

Closing the chapter on the Farmers’ Market