DoubleShot Coffee Company
DoubleShot Coffee Company is a café and roastery in Tulsa, Oklahoma, founded in 2004 by Brian Franklin, who is its founder, owner and roastmaster.1 It operates a café, a wholesale business and an online shop from 1633 South Boulder Avenue — a site in Tulsa’s Rookery building it moved into in 2019.1
Not the same company as Doubleshot of Prague
The Czech roastery Doubleshot, founded in Prague in 2010, is an entirely separate business. The names collide; nothing else does.
Two things make this small operation worth a note. It fought a trademark dispute with Starbucks and kept its name, and its founder has since gone from buying green coffee to growing it.
The company
| Attribute | Detail |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2004, Tulsa, Oklahoma1 |
| Founder / owner / roastmaster | Brian Franklin1 |
| Address | 1633 S. Boulder Ave., Tulsa, OK 74119 — the Rookery, occupied from 20191 |
| Business | Café, roastery, wholesale, online retail1 |
| Farm | Dos Manzanas, Nicaragua — established 2022; 5,800 H3 trees planted 20231 |
| Other farm interests | Investments in two Nicaraguan farms called Finca Massif1 |
The Starbucks name dispute, 2006
In 2006, Starbucks alleged infringement over the DoubleShot name, on the strength of its own Doubleshot canned espresso drink line. Franklin refused to change his company’s name.1 The standoff was filmed by documentary maker Amy Ferraris and appears in her film The Perfect Cappuccino.1
The company still trades as DoubleShot twenty years on, which is the practical outcome. What it means legally is less clear than the retelling suggests — see the flag below.
To verify — was there a court case, and who won it?
A trade interview is reported to describe this as Franklin’s “successful legal battle with Starbucks over the name DoubleShot.” DoubleShot’s own account does not describe a court victory — it describes an allegation of infringement and a refusal to change the name.1 No court name, case number, filing date or judgment was located for this note. A trademark claim that is asserted and then dropped, or settled, leaves the smaller party still using its name without any ruling ever being issued, and that is equally consistent with the facts on record. Do not state that DoubleShot beat Starbucks in court without a docket reference.
Growing its own coffee
Franklin’s farm venture is recent and specific. Dos Manzanas in Nicaragua was established in 2022, and 5,800 trees of the H3 variety went in the ground in 2023; he also holds stakes in two Nicaraguan farms named Finca Massif.1
H3 is an F1 hybrid — a first-generation cross between two genetically distant parents, bred for vigour and disease resistance and propagated as seedlings from a controlled cross rather than from saved seed. Planting a hybrid rather than an heirloom is a bet on yield and rust resistance over the traditional cultivar’s reputation; see F1 hybrid and Coffee leaf rust for what that trade-off involves.
To verify — the farm's specifics and the roaster's lots
No altitude, hectarage, processing method or production volume is documented for Dos Manzanas in anything consulted, and the ownership share in Finca Massif is not stated.1 Separately, no competition placement, cupping score or auction purchase — Cup of Excellence, Best of Panama, CQI or otherwise — was found tied to DoubleShot Coffee Company. Its public record is biographical, not measured.
Related
- Doubleshot — the unrelated Prague roastery with nearly the same name
- Starbucks — the other party to the 2006 name dispute
- Nicaragua · F1 hybrid · Coffee leaf rust — where its farm is and what it planted
- Direct trade · Green coffee buying — the sourcing model a roaster-turned-grower sits at the far end of
- Onyx Coffee Lab · PERC Coffee Roasters · Brandywine Coffee Roasters — other independent American roasteries in this wiki