Childhood friends Suzan Sevengil Serez, a PR professional, and Ebru Döşekçi, a sculptor, found third-wave coffee on an exhibition trip to England. A British roaster they hoped to franchise told them to build their own, so they trained abroad and opened a 14 square metre shop in Bebek's Yasemin Pasajı in March 2013.
In 2017 the pair became partners in Kimma Coffee Roasters in Kağıthane, run by 2014 World Brewers Cup third-placer Aslı Yaman, and since March 2018 every Cup of Joy coffee has been roasted there on a 10kg Probat. Döşekçi and Yaman travelled to Nyeri in Kenya in 2021 to meet producers. Tırtıl Kids took a majority stake in 2024, and the first London shop, on Blandford Street in Marylebone, serves in cups made by its owner, Gökçe Kalyoncu.
