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Voyager Craft Coffee Cruises Into Cupertino with Largest Shop Yet

Howard Bryman | June 29, 2022

The new Voyager Craft Coffee shop in Cupertino, California. All images courtesy of Voyager Craft Coffee.

The journey continues into a new California town for San Jose-based Voyager Craft Coffee with the opening of its first Cupertino cafe, the company’s largest shop to date.

Doors opened earlier this month to what is Voyager’s fourth retail location overall. Beneath the high ceilings of the 1,900-square-foot space, mid-century modern shelving and gem-shaped pendant lights descend over a curvy and colorfully tiled bar.

The bright blue powder coat of a 3-group La Marzocco Strada AV machine echoes the bright blue paint of the building’s exterior.

Voyager Craft Coffee Owner Sameer Shah told Daily Coffee News the design sought to create a lively community space where conversations also remain in motion.

“We built this out in the midst of the pandemic when most coffee shops were downsizing and embracing spaces with ‘takeaway friendly’ square footage,” Shah told Daily Coffee News. “We wanted to buck that trend in a big way since we believe strongly in the power of, and need for, community spaces where our neighbors can meet and feel welcome.”

While each Voyager cafe design emphasizes coffee craft at the bar, each maintain their own specific look and feel. In Cupertino, the shop boasts copper and concrete surfaces along with steel and hickory wood, with accents of midnight blue, blush pink and mauve.

Forty-nine seats inside and another 50 outside offer ample opportunity for guests to enjoy drinks crafted from beans roasted on the company’s 15-kilo-capacity Giesen machine in its Palo Alto roastery.

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In its green coffee sourcing program, Shah said Voyager has adopted a benchmark of paying an average of roughly three times the commodity price of arabica coffee, a.k.a. the “C price.”

“Not every coffee is three times C-market, since Brazil is such a prolific mechanized coffee producing country,” said Shah. “But we average out to three times, across the board.”

Voyager was founded in 2015 as a mobile coffee bar prior to opening its first cafe the following year in Santa Clara. Its second shop came three years later in downtown San Jose, followed by a third shop in 2020 , located on The Alameda near Santa Clara University.

Cakes, cookies, croissants and other goods have also begun flowing from a bakery that launched at the Alameda SCU location. The four-person baking team led by Cordon Bleu graduate Stephanie Browne supplies 100% of the company’s demand, and at the end of every day, all unused baked goods are donating as part of the company’s push for zero food waste.

“We sell over 12,000 pastries each month,” said Shah. “Our plans for baking are big. Once we expand capacity by eight times what we currently have, we’ll be able to really showcase the talent of our team, and put Voyager as a bakery — independent of our brand as a roaster and cafe — on the map.”

That uptick in capacity is slated to happen later this year when the company relocates its roasting and baking operations into an expansive 4,000-square-foot facility in midtown San Jose with a training lab, office space, and a walk-up coffee bar for retail coffee and pastry service for the neighborhood.

The new Voyager Craft Coffee shop is located at 20807 Stevens Creek Blvd, Suite 200, in Cupertino . Tell DCN’s editors about your new coffee shop or cafe here . 

Howard Bryman Howard Bryman is the associate editor of Daily Coffee News by Roast Magazine. He is based in Portland, Oregon.

• Business Operations
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• California/Pacific

Tags: California , Cupertino , Palo Alto , Sameer Shah , San Jose , Santa Clara , Stephanie Browne , Voyager Craft Coffee

• FOOTHILL-DE ANZA DISTRICT
• FOOTHILL COLLEGE
• DE ANZA COLLEGE

De ANza Alumni Serves Community...Coffee!

For Voyager Craft Coffee, everything starts with community.  

Voyager was founded in 2016 by Sameer Shah, a De Anza College   alumnus, and his wife Lauren Burns. It began with the hope of bringing a passion for travel and coffee to Santa Clara County.  

“Back then we didn't know what we were doing. We had a good team and good support though, even at that point, from our community,” Sameer said.  

Standing under the arches in the new Cupertino location, he happily realized that his design mimics the arches at De Anza and reflected on the impact De Anza had on his life “it was the best instruction I ever experienced.”  

The team is excited about the success of their newest location, just down the street from De Anza College on Steven’s Creek Boulevard which opened in June of 2022. Sameer still can’t believe how busy the store is saying, “we really have the community to thank for that.”  

After graduating from De Anza, Sameer transferred to USC. He continues to give back to De Anza through Voyager by employing students and providing a welcoming space for students to study or meet for group projects.  

Sameer and Lauren are now about to open their fifth location, a warehouse where they will have a centralized roasting and baking facility, with an additional small café.  

“We always knew we wanted to roast our own coffee. Once we figured out the basics of running our shops, we wanted to learn more about the whole roasting process and start to build some relationships at the farm level and make things a little more equitable for the farmers and co-ops where the coffee came from,” said Sameer.  

Although Voyager has been roasting and selling coffee since its second year in operation, this new warehouse will expand opportunities for current staff to learn new skills.  

“I think that's going to be good for our team. Many of them are interested in expanding their skill set, getting into roasting, or getting into baking, and the new space will let them do that. We’re just really excited for it,” said Sameer.  

When asked what he was most proud of, Sameer said, “maintaining a good team culture. Building something that people are happy and proud to be part of.”  

A quote from their website sums up the Voyager mission and highlights the value they bring to Santa Clara County. “We've grown a lot over the years, but who we are at our core hasn't changed one bit. We wake up every day with the goal of spreading as much love and kindness within our community as possible.”  

Until April 10, 2023 get 15% off your online order by using the code FHDA! Go to https://www.voyagercraftcoffeeorders.com/

Voyager Craft Coffee

Bringing new, intense and unique flavors to coffee + from-scratch pastries

Located inside San Pedro Square Market.

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Episode #18 Sam Shah – Co-founder Voyager Craft Coffee

Sam and his partner Lauren Burns have gone from a pop-up coffee trailing to three cafés. The most recent location (on The Alameda near Santa Clara University) opened right at the beginning of the Shelter-in-Place order for Santa Clara County because fo COVID-19.

In our conversation, Sam tells us about the Voyager journey from the first shop to the recent location, the adjustments that had to take place because of the launch timing, and the mission and future plans for Voyager.

Follow Voyager on Instagram at @voyagercraftcoffee (https://www.instagram.com/voyagercraftcoffee/) Read our interview from issue 10.5 “Dine” on our issuu page. (https://bit.ly/VoyagerCC105)

Locations: Voyager O.G. Location (7am – 7pm) 3985 Stevens Creek Blvd Santa Clara, CA 95051 669.241.8835 Voyager @ SCU (8am – 2pm) 2221 The Alameda Santa Clara, CA 95050 408.217.8599 Voyager San Pedro Square (8am – 3 pm) 87 N. San Pedro St San Jose, CA 95110 408.239.3484

Written by Esther Young (https://bit.ly/EstherPodcast) Photography by Arabela Espinoza (https://instagram.com/arabelaespinoza) Music “Muddy Water” by Socorra (https://bit.ly/MuddyWaterSocorra)

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