Five months later, Katï Coffee has collaborated with Southwestern University and local fire departments to create the:
- Scholarly Pirates blend with Southwestern University
- 3991 Hook & Ladder blend with the Georgetown Association of Professional Firefighters, IAFF Local 3991
- 3082 First Due blend with Round Rock Fire Fighters Association, IAFF Local 3082
The impact
Katï Coffee makes a donation to each partnering organization and also donates a percentage of proceeds from the collaborating blends' sales, Diop said in an email.
“It is our way of meeting a personal goal to give back,” Diop wrote.
Diving in deeper
The business’ vision is to be the supplier of choice for specialty roasted coffee in Williamson County.
Diop sources coffee beans from around the world and prepares them for customers using a Probat roasting machine.
Katï Coffee uses specialty beans, meaning they’re farmed to a higher standard, Diop said. Customers can purchase beans from:
- Brazil
- Colombia
- Costa Rica
- Ethiopia
- Guatemala
- Indonesia
- Kenya
- Nicaragua
- Tanzania
About the owner
Diop moved to the United States from Ghana in 2005 for school. She received her bachelor’s in chemical engineering at Tufts University and a doctorate in chemical engineering at Northwestern University.
After falling in love with Georgetown, Diop and her husband, Dave, settled nearby. In February, Diop said she left her career of 10 years at ExxonMobil to try something new.
“I always knew that I wanted to build something that was community integrated,” Diop said.
Once Diop began roasting her own coffee at home, she realized how much she enjoyed using software to analyze changes in the beans’ temperature while roasting, she said.
“Coffee is an art, but it’s also a science,” Diop said. “I’m a scientist at heart.”
In a nod to her native country, Diop named her company Katï, which means "knowledge" in Lelemi, the language of a village in Ghana. Knowledge applied well is wisdom, Diop said, which is also why she chose an owl as the company’s logo.
“I wanted to call it Katï because I wanted to bring back the idea of knowing what it is you’re drinking and knowing the elements behind what it is you’re drinking,” Diop said.
Looking ahead
In 2024, Diop also helped establish the Katï Educational Scholarship Fund at Southwestern University for women in STEM.
In the future, Diop said she hopes to create an internship program with students at Southwestern University in Georgetown and create a coffee blend with the Georgetown Police Department.
“I would love to engage with students around research with respect to coffee,” Diop said.
