The coffee princess ...

I planned to have a Mexican restaurant when I came home because of the obvious reason I came from that country. But I knew that I would struggle establishing that. So when a very dear friend, Vida offered me to be partner for a coffee shop, I immediately said yes. One, it is a venture with other friends I met in the church and I knew that the coffee shop would be a fun adventure with them.

So I am now one of the coffee princesses.  Vida and I attended a barista class.  I don't know if it is because I was in my hiatus after my father's death, I almost failed in our final exam.  Good for our business, I think Vida was the top of the class.  I needed to retake the practical exam of making espresso and reformulated my signature coffee with tequila.  I should have just settled with my initial formula of simple espresso and tequila on the rocks with salt on the rim of the glass.. simple and classic. But I diverged because of pressure from an intern of the school. Lesson of the story, go with your instinct.

Establishing the coffee shop is really an adventure.  We went to different suppliers of coffees, some were our friends and we have to turn them down.  We bought our machines and cups and saucers. We bought some in Divisoria while some from Landmark and more posh areas. The ones in Landmark were more expensive but to my surprise they were durable. Some cups from Divisoria had chips when it reached the shop because of packing from the stores. I always go back to the lesson I learned in Paris when I was pick pocketed... it is better to spend more than buy something cheaper when at the end, it will also give me problem.

We had our Soft Opening which was a hit on the first day.  There was still many people on the second time but succeeding days were slower until a special Friday when I asked my ex officemates in CRIL to come in the shop.

And just like any adventure, we encounter other challenges in the coffee shop. One if it is our different preferences in terms of products to cater. We all agree we should offer a good coffee and the slow brew and the cold brew.  But it is the product that goes with it that we are struggling, specially our pastry supplier. Our other partner was able to find a pastry supplier that makes unique cakes and cookies, except I am starting to notice that we are selling the coffee shop by the pastries we are offering. Also, the pastries are pricey and I wonder if the big chunk of our earnings are from the pastries but our net income is low.

Two partners want to have a coffee shop who aspire for excellence and not mediocracy. I want to aspire for it too. On the other hand, I also don't want to sell expensive products where my target audience cannot afford it. With excellence comes price.  In my own point of view, we established a coffee shop and not a pastry shop. Also like Vida, I also want to empower people around us specially those we know, by selling their products more than having an excellent pastry.  One reason for this is because in my own opinion, my target audience is not really pastry lover and they won't spend a lot for pastry,  But our other partners believe that by having excellent pastry, we will be known and will entice more customers.  I believe that most of our regular customers will be from our circle of friends, families, officemates and church mates. Hence I want a coffee shop that can cater to them and as far as I know them, they are not complicated when it comes to pastry. But that is just my guess because I brought a bunch of ex officemates to the shop who mostly ordered nachos ... maybe a Mexican restaurant will really be indeed more profitable...but that is for the future and not now.