![\"(Maria](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0128-Whiskey-Morning-Coffee-MC-02--1024x683.jpg\")
Garrett Becker talks with attendees at the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo about Whiskey Morning Coffee on Jan. 28, 2026. (Maria Crane | Fort Worth Report\/CatchLight Local\/Report for America)<\/p>\nThis isn\u2019t Whiskey Morning Coffee\u2019s first rodeo \u2014 literally.<\/p>\n
But five years of selling at the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo is a long way from the TCU classroom where the small business was first sparked in 2018.<\/p>\n
It began when one of the owners, Evan Sledge, was enrolled in a course at Texas Christian University that required students to pitch business ideas and work to get them off the ground.<\/p>\n
He wondered how used whiskey barrels from his family\u2019s business, Sledge Distillery, could be utilized to age other products. Then, he read an article about how coffee beans can take on the flavor of burlap sacks they\u2019re stored in.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He pitched the business idea.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said, \u2018I don\u2019t know if it\u2019ll work or not, but I know we got a little 5-gallon barrel; we can get beans for about $100 to put in it; and we can roast it as simply as in a cast-iron pan on our stove in the apartment to try it,\u2019\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n
The idea worked \u2014 and the beans sold, too. By the end of the class, Sledge and his groupmates had turned a profit.<\/p>\n
Sledge was the only one from his group in class who wanted to go all in on trying to make the business work as a full-time gig, so he recruited high school friends from outside TCU to help.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That\u2019s how TJ Ryan and Carson Becker became involved. They knew each other from Granbury High School and were all working seasonally as guides in Alaska or Montana.<\/p>\n
They later brought in Becker\u2019s brother Garrett to help as well.<\/p>\n
Garrett Becker talks with attendees at the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo about Whiskey Morning Coffee on Jan. 28, 2026. (Maria Crane | Fort Worth Report\/CatchLight Local\/Report for America)<\/p>\n
One thing that sets Whiskey Morning Coffee apart from other companies is the strength of the flavors, Becker said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt says bourbon coffee and it tastes like bourbon coffee,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Other flavors they sell include smoked, spiced rum, pumpkin spice and even dill pickle.<\/p>\n
The company mostly sells online, but also in-person at markets like the State Fair of Texas and stock shows, Ryan said.<\/p>\n
He described stock shows as \u201ca natural fit.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOutside of our business \u2026 we do a lot of hunting and fishing and like being outside and taking care of our animals and that sort of stuff. So we found the stock shows, we fit really well,\u201d Ryan said.<\/p>\n
![\"(Maria](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0128-Whiskey-Morning-Coffee-MC-03--1024x683.jpg\")
A variety of coffee syrups sit on a table for Whiskey Morning Coffee at the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo Jan. 28. (Maria Crane | Fort Worth Report\/CatchLight Local\/Report for America)<\/p>\n
Earlier on, they were excited to see an order a day come through online, Sledge said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Currently, they are averaging about 450 orders per week.<\/p>\n
Sledge credits events like the stock show, where Whiskey Morning Coffee can interact with thousands of potential customers every day for weeks in a row, for boosting a company that did not have a marketing budget.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t know it at the time, but that\u2019s what kick-started the business,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
McKinnon Rice is the higher education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at mckinnon.rice@fortworthreport.org<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Fort Worth Report partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.<\/p>\n