Seven years ago, four friends decided to come together to bring high-quality coffee beans from the Philippines to San Diego. This month, the beloved San Diego brand, Mostra Coffee, will expand to a second location amid the new coronavirus pandemic and the recession.
Mostra Coffee, which was founded by Jelynn Malone, Beverly Magtanong, Sam Magtanong and Mike Arquines, began with the hope of improving the lives of Filipino farmers.
“The irony for us when we first started this company was with the exception of Mike, none of us were coffee drinkers/lovers,” Malone, a former Hollywood actor, said. “The inspiration for developing our coffee came from the dream to help improve the livelihoods of the Philippine farmers. My partner Mike is a fine dining chef, who became our head roaster. His experience in the culinary space translated to all of the products we developed from the roasting profiles for each of our coffee offerings and all the drinks we offer on our menu.”
The company, which has its flagship store in Carmel Mountain, has been successful because of the lack of independently-owned and craft coffee found in the area, Malone said. It’s why the company will continue to expand to 4S Ranch.
But, the quality of the coffee beans is what keeps customers coming back.
“Mostra is unique because we have taken something very familiar and traditional like coffee and pushed the envelope with innovation of what we can do with it,” Malone said. “We offer traditional drinks, but have developed things like barrel aged coffee, collaborated with craft breweries all over the country who put our coffee into their beers and we have fun, delicious lattes and cold brew offerings that use ingredients like coconut, vanilla bean, cacao nibs to name a few.”
Although it might come as a shock to some for a company in the food industry to further expand amid a recession, Beverly Magtanong said it was crazy to start a business back in 2013.
“At that time, someone with a Starbucks punch card would have had more experience than us,” Magtanong said. “But here is the important truth: Dreams realized aren’t often given to the most qualified, but to the most brave. You have to pursue what lights you up — not what makes sense, not what anybody else thinks is a great idea, but it is that deep voice inside that is telling you, that above all reason, this is the thing you are supposed to do.”
After the opening of its 4S Ranch location, the owners said they will further expand to Mira Mesa and to locations outside of the region thereafter.
For more information, go to mostracoffee.com/.
