A company that began offering concealed weapon permit classes has now evolved to include coffee from around the world.
VTA Coffee Co. is now available at SuperValu in Warren. Principals in the company are Wayne and Diane Wesson, and Anthony and Autumn Gallegos.
Anthony Gallegos said the company began in 2018 as Venom Tactical, with concealed carry classes taught by his father-in-law, Wayne Wesson, who is now the Bradley County chief deputy.
In 2020, ammunition and guns started getting scarce in the area, so Gallegos started making bullets as Venom Tactical Arms (hence the name VTA in the coffee market).
Afterwards VTA branched out into the coffee business in 2021 after a year of research and development, sending out test samples. The company buys unroasted beans from Guatemala, Costa Rica, Brazil, Colombia, Sumatra, Burundi, Rwanda and Ethiopia.
“The thing with coffee is fair trade,” Gallegos said. The company deals with one distributor.
“Coffee only likes a certain elevation,” he added.
His company selects a certain size of beans and tries to get similar beans to ensure its quality. The beans are roasted first. One pound of green beans is ground through a professional grinder to produce 12 ounces of ground coffee. The ground product is placed in bags and sealed.
Dark, medium and breakfast blend (70 percent medium and 30 percent light) are available. “The longer you roast coffee, the less caffeine it has in it,” Gallegos explained.
The coffee has been advertised through Facebook, Instagram and by word of mouth.
“I want to get a food truck as a mobile coffee shop,” Gallegos said.
He described the company as a Christian-based mission, as the sign of the trinity is in the company logo. Gallegos also serves as youth pastor at Trinity United Methodist Church, where Wayne Wesson is pastor.
For more information on VTA Coffee Co., call (870) 820-2905.
I will preface this by saying that I love coffee and I’m rather picky about the coffee I drink. VTA’s coffee is really good. The coffee is roasted to perfection, unlike other local coffee companies like West Rock or that one they sell in Walmart with a rocket on it, who roast their beans to death. I brought it as a hostess gift to my MIL last year and my in-laws loved it! I’m going to bring them more this year and I’m definitely going to have it for them during Thanksgiving week because I want them to have the good stuff. I really hope they do get a coffee truck. Yum!
Thank you so much! We love hearing feedback from happy customers!
This is awesome, Wayne. Do cousins get discounts on coffee, lol.