Cold Sugar started with dessert. Sourdough had other plans.
The bread that was supposed to get Cold Sugar into a farmers market ended up changing the entire business.
Cold Sugar first began as Cold Sugar Desserts in 2020. During COVID, before Barry and Christian had met, Barry started baking from home in Dallas. The menu was cookies, cakes, pies, and whatever dessert idea he wanted to try next.
After Barry and Christian met, they moved to Florida and began building a life together. Cold Sugar went quiet for a while—not because the idea was gone, but because the timing was not right yet.
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In March 2024, they moved into their home in Georgetown, Texas. Barry left his full-time job and gave Cold Sugar another real chance, with Christian helping build the business around it while still working full time at a software company.
When they began applying to local markets, they hit an unexpected problem: there were already plenty of dessert vendors. What the markets needed was bread.
So Barry added sourdough to the menu simply to get Cold Sugar through the door.
Then people tasted it. The loaves began selling, customers returned week after week, and the product that was supposed to be a practical addition became the center of the business.
Cold Sugar Desserts had grown into Cold Sugar Bakehouse.
“We added sourdough to get into the market. We had no idea it was about to change the entire business.”
Inside the kitchen
Barry is usually thinking about the next thing before the current thing is finished.
Barry is Cold Sugar’s baker, chef, recipe developer, and creative engine.
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After serving in the U.S. Air Force, he studied Baking and Pastry at the Art Institute of Charleston. Artisan breads were his favorite class, which feels less like a coincidence now and more like a preview.
He notices how a loaf sounds when the crust is cut. He studies the crumb, texture, flavor balance, and whether an idea actually improves the bread. He researches, tests, changes percentages, tries again, and occasionally becomes fixated on a flavor until it exists in real life.
“If I know something can be better, I’m going to keep working on it.”
Questions about products or baking? Texting is usually fastest.
Christian thinks about everything that happens around the food.
Christian builds the systems that turn Barry’s ideas into a business customers can actually experience.
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He handles operations, finances, markets, communication, fulfillment, Shopify, and the Cold Sugar website. He thinks about what customers see before they order, how they find the right pickup location, and whether the entire experience feels as thoughtful as the food.
He earned a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry with a mathematics track and spent years working full time at a software company. From May 2024 through April 2026, he balanced that job with Cold Sugar—working markets, handling operations, building the website, and helping grow the business at night and on weekends.
In April 2026, Christian left his corporate role and joined Cold Sugar full time while also growing Sites by Christian.
“If something is making the customer stop and wonder what to do next, we need to fix it.”
Questions about orders, markets, or the business? Texting is usually fastest.
One of us is thinking about the next flavor. The other is thinking about how you will find it.
Most of the time, Barry and Christian are looking at the same business from different sides.
Barry is thinking about how it tastes and what he wants to create next. Christian is thinking about how it will be produced, sold, ordered, and experienced.
A great product needs a thoughtful way to reach people. A polished experience means little if the food is forgettable.
Different brains. Shared standards.
The people behind the markets
Cold Sugar is growing beyond the two of us.
The experience at the tent depends on people who care about customers, know the products, and make the market feel unmistakably like Cold Sugar.
Meet Jocelyn
The familiar face at Arboretum.
Arboretum Market Lead
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By late 2025, Christian had spent more than a year balancing his full-time job with markets, operations, and the rest of Cold Sugar. He was burned out and needed room to breathe.
Jocelyn stepped in that December to help cover Arboretum. She ended up loving it—and becoming an important part of the business.
Today, Arboretum is essentially Jocelyn’s market. She runs it regularly, gets to know the customers who return, and gives Barry and Christian confidence that the Cold Sugar experience is being cared for even when they cannot both be behind the table.
What you do not always see
The market table is the polished part.
Before the tent goes up, there are ideas, dough bins, test batches, inventory counts, website updates, labels, boxes, late nights, early mornings, and the constant question of whether everything will fit in the car.
What happens before the marketShow less
There are recipes that work immediately and recipes that absolutely do not.
There are long production days when the business feels exciting, exhausting, unpredictable, and slightly unreasonable all at once.
It has not been one smooth, inspirational rise. It has been a series of experiments, risks, adjustments, and decisions to keep going.
Why it matters
The moment it felt real was not one big breakthrough.
It was a customer saying, “This is the best bread I’ve ever had.”
Then coming back the next week. And the week after that.
Cold Sugar has grown through returning faces, conversations across the table, Porch Pickup regulars, people bringing friends, and customers asking what Barry is making next.
“The food may bring you to the table. The way you feel there is what we hope you remember.”
Still becoming
We want Cold Sugar to reach farther without feeling farther away.
We hope the next several years bring more people, more places, and more ways to experience Cold Sugar. But growth only matters if we protect what made people care: the welcome at the tent, the attention to detail, and the feeling that the people behind the business are still paying attention.
More people. More places. The same care.
Come say hello
You are welcome at the table.
Whether this is your first loaf or you already know what sells out fastest, we are glad you found us.
