How a Tesla Cybertruck Became a Mobile Coffee Roaster

Ming Wood, a former Tesla engineer, and his wife Mabel Yeung, who worked at Meta, run Moonwake Coffee Roasters from a Tesla Cybertruck parked at the Cupertino Farmers' Market. They placed an espresso machine in the back seat and use the pickup's power to make drinks on site. The couple founded the roasting brand in early 2020 and opened a market shop last July.

Wood started roasting because he could not find beans that suited his taste, and the couple first sold small batches to family and friends. The market does not allow generators, so the electric pickup solves the power problem while serving as the stand. The setup suggests a route for coffee beans for commercial use, letting a roaster sell drinks directly without a fixed shop.

A futuristic Tesla electric pickup truck, parked in a farmers' market, has turned into a mobile coffee shop. The owners are a Chinese couple—the husband is a former Tesla engineer, and the wife once worked at Meta. They installed an espresso machine in the back seat, using the pickup's power to make coffee on the spot, running their own coffee roasting brand. From a hobby that relieved workplace stress, to quitting their jobs to go all in, to using an electric pickup to solve the farmers' market's power problem, this couple's coffee journey is full of highlights, and it makes one wonder whether this trendy model can go even further.

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In 2019, Tesla unveiled its first electric pickup, the Cybertruck, and its unconventional exterior design immediately captured the eyes of countless people around the world. By the end of last year, this futuristic pickup was finally delivered to consumers. Some people rushed to drive it on the road after taking delivery to turn heads, while others completely transformed it into a mobile coffee stall that can travel anywhere.

According to a May 23 report by Kron4 News, a Tesla electric pickup is parked in the Cupertino Farmers' Market. The owners are a couple—Ming Wood and Mabel Yeung—who use the vehicle as the power source for their coffee company, Moonwake Coffee Roasters, placing an espresso machine in the back seat and making drinks on site to sell to passersby.

As it happens, Wood was originally an engineer at Tesla. During his time at the company, he often felt a great deal of pressure, so he set up a club in the office and pooled money with colleagues to buy coffee equipment, using coffee-making to relieve his stress.

Because he could never find coffee beans that suited his taste, Wood simply started trying to roast beans himself. In early 2020, he and his wife, who was then working at Meta, founded Moonwake Coffee Roasters, roasting small batches of coffee beans and selling them to family and friends around them. By July of last year, the two had opened a coffee shop in the farmers' market, officially selling coffee drinks to the public.

But as business at the farmers' market improved day by day and demand rose, new troubles followed. What troubled them most was that the farmers' market did not allow the use of generators. To keep all kinds of equipment running normally, Wood had to fully charge the mobile battery pack a day in advance, then drive a fuel-powered pickup to transport the equipment, battery pack, and other items to the farmers' market, so that the coffee shop could operate normally that day.

To completely solve the equipment power problem, Wood thought of Tesla's electric pickup. "It's very suitable for the power equipment we want, and the electric pickup itself also has many technical advantages that other trucks don't have."

Specifically, the electric pickup can output the 240 volts needed by most commercial espresso machines. Second, compared with traditional food trucks, the electric pickup lets customers directly see the entire coffee-making process, without separating customers from baristas. And most crucially, the electric pickup itself is an especially eye-catching signboard—as soon as it appears at the farmers' market, it can attract more customers to the coffee shop.

Wood mentioned that someone previously saw another person's post on Ins and traveled all the way from Sacramento just to see it in person and have a cup of coffee.

Of course, the mobile coffee shop on the electric pickup also has quite a few shortcomings: it cannot provide indoor seating space, and business depends heavily on the weather. In addition, although the Tesla electric pickup has first-class attention-grabbing power, it also carries a certain controversy, and some people therefore have a poor impression of it and, by extension, are unwilling to buy their coffee.

At present, both husband and wife have quit their original jobs and are putting all their energy into the coffee business. They have begun thinking about using the electric pickup's mobility to open a pop-up shop in Yosemite, and they also plan to open a coffee roasting workshop in West San Jose by the end of this year.

Image source: Internet

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