At the time, Prosper didn’t have a single coffee shop.
To fill this gap in the local market, the Flatterys wanted to create a destination where people could gather with friends to enjoy a cup of good coffee. However, Eric said creating good coffee requires precision and an understanding of chemistry.
“The thing most people don’t realize about coffee is that at the end of the day, it’s science,” Eric said. “It’s a relationship of ... the amount of coffee, the particle size of the coffee (grind), the amount of water, the temperature of water, the contact time of the water with the coffee to get a resulting impact for a smooth tasting cup of coffee.
“Over 460 chemical reactions take place in brewing a cup of coffee,” he said.
Without that attention to detail, coffee ends up tasting burnt or loses its flavor or dries out the tongue, Eric said. People compensate by dumping cream and sugar into their coffee to make them salivate, he added.
“A properly executed cup of coffee will actually be buttery on your tongue and will actually help you create saliva, if you do it the right way,” he said.
Honeylu’s, which the couple opened in Prosper in 2017 and McKinney in February 2019, sells this “buttery” coffee, ground in-house but sourced from abroad. The shop gets its coffee from farms across East Africa, South America, and Central America—but they keep their blends from a single source instead of mixing beans from different farms.
They also make all their own syrups in-house, from lavender to vanilla, maple bourbon, mocha and more.
Prior to opening Honeylu’s, neither of the Flatterys had a background in the coffee business. Jennifer worked in finance, and Eric worked in real estate development. However, they believed the risk of leaving their daily corporate grind to bring better, single-source coffee grinds to their community was worth it.
“We’re filling a need out here,” Flattery said.
Honeylu’s
7910 Collin McKinney Parkway, McKinney
214-383-1080
www.honeylus.com
Hours: Mon.-Sat. 8 a.m.-2 p.m., closed Sun.
