By Paige Johnson
Jacob Hurrel-Zitelman has established himself across campus as the coffee guy. He can be found using his own handheld brewer and beans wherever he is, just to avoid Starbucks. When he’s not brewing coffee, Hurrel-Zitelman stays busy any way he can.
“I get really antsy when I do not have something every single second of the day,” said Hurrel-Zitelman, 20, who studies entrepreneurship and marketing at Trinity. “I’m very ambitious and I want to keep doing something all the time.”
He is the founder and owner of Quick Sip Coffee, a company that sells specialty cold brew across San Antonio.
A San Antonio native, Hurrel-Zitelman spotted a business opportunity—running a bar on North Saint Mary’s strip. He envisioned a daytime coffee shop catering to working people with an appreciation for the art of coffee, and Saint Mary’s lacks a premium coffee shop.
Hurrel-Zitelman gained his appreciation for the art of coffee after a visit to Pulp Coffee, a local shop in the Food Hub. He met the owner, James Mireles, and tasted the coffee that would change his life.
“I remember I had a cappuccino at Pulp Coffee and it was amazing,” he said. “It tasted sweet, and balanced. The passion for it from that one cup of coffee turned into a business which I never thought would have happened.”
For a while, Hurrel-Zitelman and his girlfriend, Selena Davila, a freshman at Trinity, sold Pulp’s Coffee under the private label, Quick Sip, to friends and family out of his dorm room and at
Davila's high school. In his second semester at Trinity, Hurrel-Zitelman created the logo to match the amount of caffeine in his coffee; each bottle contains the same amount of caffeine as 3 cups of coffee.
Eventually, Hurrel-Zitelman started making his own cold brew, at the advice of his business partner. “That day I bought a brewer from San Antonio Coffee Roasters and started brewing in my dorm room,” he said.
Hurrel-Zitelman’s ambition doesn’t stop here. He plans to change the entire culture of coffee. “Coffee is an art and that’s what I want people to understand when they drink our coffee. That’s what I envision Quick Sip doing across definitely the United States, maybe even the globe,” he said.
Last month, Hurrel-Zitelman took Quick Sip to Trinity's entrepreneur competition, the Stumberg Competition, and won $5,000.
Coffee may fuel Hurrel-Zitelman’s day, but his drive and ambition pushes him to the top of his game at many events. “[His drive] is in everything, like actually everything. He would always say, ‘I just want to have a business, I think I’m going to open a bar, or I think I’m going open a clothing store,’” said Davila, his girlfriend. “Every week it was a new idea and then the coffee thing kind of stuck. He’s always been super motivated, he’s always known what he wants.”
As a swimmer, Jacob currently holds the
university records in 1,000 and 1,650-yard freestyle, both of which he set in November of his freshman year, in 201
6. He crushed the previous record for the 1650 by 8 seconds and beat the 1000 freestyle record by 6 seconds, in the same race.
Now with his company and other activities, his swimming lost momentum. This past season, he fell short of qualifying for the Division III National Championship, but that only motivated him to do better. “My focus on swimming is stronger now,” he said.
“Because that feeling of not hitting my goals was more painful than any sort of set or commitment I had to make.”
As Hurrel-Zitelman rounds out his sophomore year, he is approaching the summer with his goals in mind and will do whatever it takes to set himself up for success in the fall. He doesn’t know where Quick Sip will be in the next few years, but he hopes to continue to expand as the cold brew coffee market possibly reaches its peak by 2020, the same year as his graduation.
As a swimmer, Jacob currently holds the
university records in 1,000 and 1,650-yard freestyle, both of which he set in November of his freshman year, in 201
6. He crushed the previous record for the 1650 by 8 seconds and beat the 1000 freestyle record by 6 seconds, in the same race.
Now with his company and other activities, his swimming lost momentum. This past season, he fell short of qualifying for the Division III National Championship, but that only motivated him to do better. “My focus on swimming is stronger now,” he said.
“Because that feeling of not hitting my goals was more painful than any sort of set or commitment I had to make.”
As Hurrel-Zitelman rounds out his sophomore year, he is approaching the summer with his goals in mind and will do whatever it takes to set himself up for success in the fall. He doesn’t know where Quick Sip will be in the next few years, but he hopes to continue to expand as the cold brew coffee market possibly reaches its peak by 2020, the same year as his graduation.
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