But after unrest upended the trade relationship with the region in 2015, Mostra partnered with another Filipino-owned roaster that shared similar values, Kalsada Coffee. ![]() Early on, Mostra purchased coffee from farmers in Mindanao, the country’s second-largest island. There, in suburbia, they continued to roast coffee beans sourced from all over the world, including the Philippines. ![]() We needed to start planning for a bigger roaster, a legit facility.”Ī few months after they started roasting in the Magtanongs’ garage, Mostra moved to a Carmel Mountain Ranch warehouse - a nondescript roasting facility in an office park. “And that was kinda the thing - we couldn’t continue roasting all that coffee on a one-pound roaster. It’s still around here in San Diego, and we still work with them.” “One of them was Tender Greens, which was our first multi-location partnership. “We actually started closing more accounts,” Beverly says. They had small accounts here and there, but nothing earth-shattering. “When we started, we did everything,” Malone recalls. The foursome launched the business in the summer of 2013 with $15,000 - “$5,000 for beans and $10,000 for a one-pound roaster,” Beverly says. Mostra started in the Magtanongs’ garage in 4S Ranch. When she told me that story, I was, ‘OK, I’m all in.” Humble beginnings It just made sense to me for us to connect back to the land, connect back to our cultural heritage and to uplift people who had been excluded from opportunity. “Coffee is usually grown by those who are in the mountains and are not a part of the economic table. “So it’s got all this history, and it’s got everything that’s conducive to growing coffee,” Sam says. At some point, Sam says, “due to politics, due to disease,” it moved down the list “and has never been able to get back to that level.” Today, it’s ranked 125th. The Philippines once was the fourth-largest producer of coffee in the world. “The Philippines has the climate, the soil, the farming culture - everything that’s conducive to producing great coffee. “When you look at … all the coffee-producing countries - Brazil, Guatemala Ethiopia - the Philippines isn’t on that list,” he says. Arquines, then just a casual acquaintance, introduced them to the world of high-quality coffee. Problem was, “we didn’t really know what that was.”Įnter Arquines, a classically trained chef whose Instagram feed was full of “fancy coffee stuff - espresso machines, pour-overs, that kind of stuff,” Beverly says. “Because coffee is a lifeline for these nurses and doctors and family members, we wanted to do really great, high-quality coffee.” “We wanted to provide coffee, but we didn’t want to do Keurig coffee or anything like that,” Beverly recalls. In 2012, Sam Magtanong, then working at a San Diego healthcare facility, told his wife that there was space for a cafe at the nursing home and wondered if she would be interested in opening one that would serve pastries and coffee. We came back from that trip wondering what we could do to provide sustainable living for people in the Philippines.”įor several years after that trip, the duo tossed around business ideas, but nothing really felt right. ![]() We were there to learn about social enterprise and social entrepreneurship, so we saw everything from the slums to the beautiful countryside. “It started because (Jelynn) and I were doing a lot of work in the Filipino community here,” Beverly, 37, says, “and we were fortunate to take a trip out to the Philippines in 2009. Mostra became a reality in 2013, but it really began four years before when Beverly Magtanong and Malone traveled to the Philippines on a goodwill trip, helping build homes for local families. … So to win this now is a dream come true.” ![]() “This award,” Malone, 36, says, “was this far-fetched, huge down-the-road kind of award to receive. Mostra won in the micro category, while Coffee by Design out of Portland, Maine, won in the macro category. The award, administered by Portland, Ore.-based Roast Magazine, names top roasters in two categories: micro, roasters who roast less than 100,000 pounds per year and macro, roasters who roast more than 100,000 pounds per year. It’s the first time a San Diego roaster has won the prestigious award since Bird Rock Roasters nabbed the title in 2012. So much so that Mostra Coffee - owned by Beverly Magtanong, her husband Sam Magtanong, Jelynn Malone and Mike Arquines - has captured the coveted Roaster of the Year title, besting roasters from all over the world. It’s a bit of a puzzle then that Mostra Coffee, started in the summer of 2013 in Magtanong’s 4S Ranch garage, has not only weathered the bumps that a new business encounters during its first few years, it has actually thrived.
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