MONROE — For years, Matea Moon had a dream, and this summer, she pointed at the moon and took her shot. 

“It started as one of those pipe dreams people talk about, you know?” Moon said. “You have these plans with everybody, but then it started actually happening and people jumped in.” 

Along with help from family and friends, Full Moon Brew Bar, a traveling trailer filled with tasty coffee and other refreshing drinks, hit the streets of Monroe this summer.

“It was one of those things where I was like, ‘She’s still talking about this? She’s serious,’” said Angie Schumacher, co-owner. “This is something she’s always wanted to do, and I was just like, ‘Let’s do it.’ Both of us love coffee. I was in the corporate world for 25 years and decided it was time for a change.”

It’s a family-owned business, Schumacher said. Her mom, her nieces, sisters, her children — everyone chipped in.

“We just wanted to put a smile on people’s faces,” Schumacher said. 

Moon said the mobile stand has seen great support and they have regular customers already, which is very promising.

Each week, they post their schedule to their Facebook page, moving around to different parts of the city. The advantage of using a trailer over a brick-and-mortar location is picking up new customers that might be working nearby.

“We want to bring the experience to people. That’s part of the fun of it,” Schumacher said.

The trailer has been all over Monroe and the surrounding area already, working private events like weddings, farmstands and farmers markets, youth football games and fundraisers. During the week, they’ve parked in empty lots near businesses and schools, which can make for a convenient cup of hot or iced drinks just steps from the front door.

“Teachers have their break period and stuff, so they can come up and grab something,” Schumacher said.

Moon said it helps make the experience a little bit more user-interactive.

“People can track us down on social media and see where we are at today. And I think it brings more parts of the community together to find where we’re at, and then everyone can kind of chit chat while they’re here.”

The traveling coffee shop went with Modest Coffee Roasters out of west Chicago after holding a blind taste test from over 10 different roasters.

“It’s good coffee — it’s really good coffee,” Schumacher said, who added the brand is “fabulous” to work with.

Finding a high-quality coffee roaster was important to Moon.

“We wanted to do this not just for the awesome experience, but we also wanted really good quality in our coffee,” Moon said. “We tested like 10-15 different coffee roasters and did a blind taste test, then we both unanimously landed on the one that we chose.”

They then practiced brewing not just the regular coffee, but a variety of mixtures to create a rolling set of specials.

“We’ve got our coffee, which we can take in a lot of different directions,” Moon said. “We’re also doing some lemonades, ice teas, lotus energy drinks, hot chocolate, cups for our little doggy friends.”

The weekly specialty drinks add a fruity or seasonal twist, like apple cider, caramel apple, pumpkin cheesecake, coconut, lotus flower and other mixtures.

“They are custom crafted drinks,” Schumacher said. 

The trailer doesn’t sit by itself, either. The hauling truck is always right there next to it, using a generator to keep the power running to the coffee stand. 

In fact, it was a lot of the behind-the-scenes dealings with running the business that created the most difficulties to get off the ground and running, Moon said.

“Especially being mobile, you have to set up and take down everything every day. That’s a bit time consuming, and I didn’t anticipate that as much,” Moon said. “We’re learning as we go.”

Schumacher said they planned on running the mobile stand as long as possible, but acknowledged that living in Wisconsin brings some challenges in the winter months.

“Winters are pretty unpredictable, but this trailer has heat and air. Our plan is run it as much as we can. If we can make it out, we’ll be out there serving the community,” Moon said, before switching gears to envisioning longterm possibilities. “I’d like to at some point maybe look at getting another [trailer], maybe a brick-and-mortar. We’ll see what happens.”

Full Moon Brew Bar is already booked out for another couple of months, Moon said. They post their schedule and weekly specials once a week to their Facebook and Instagram pages to stay it on customers’ radar.

“I think everything is going fabulous and we appreciate the Monroe community for the love and support they have shown us,” Schumacher said.

“It’s just awesome to see everyone from all different parts in the community come out and appreciate this. It’s really cool,” Moon said.