Located just three miles away from Cambro headquarters, Coffee Whipped proudly serves local favorites like Vietnamese iced coffee and whipped coffee, also known as Dalgona coffee, which you may remember from it’s viral stint on social media during the coronavirus pandemic. Owner My Tran explains how Coffee Whipped has grown despite the challenges they’ve encountered along the way.
What inspired you to get into foodservice?
“Food is a universal language; it brings people together and is crucial for daily life. What inspired me was how much joy it brings others when they eat our foods, especially when they share it with others.”
What do you love about your business?
“I love that we are able to be creative and make a variety of foods and drinks in-house and get feedback on it from customers. I love that since we opened in 2022, the amount of friendships we have made.
We have our brick and mortar as well as our permanent coffee booth at our local swap meet, and we are now on-campus at Golden West College serving faculty and students Monday to Thursday. I love the ability to grow in so many areas of the business and I love the team we have, it feels like family.”
What’s the most interesting thing to happen to your business?
“The most interesting thing to happen to our business was a break-in during 2023. A couple of thieves broke into our cafe and stole our register that only had a very small amount of change in it; replacing the door and register cost way more than what they stole from us. It happened when we felt like so many things were going on, so to overcome that and move forward really gave us a lot of peace looking at new situations.”
What is the biggest challenge you’ve had to overcome?
“The biggest challenge I’ve had to overcome since opening would be payroll and maintaining a solid team. We definitely rely on our team to be amazing at all times. We also want to make sure we can pay them , and we’re always having to find new ways to generate continuous income. I think that’s the biggest challenge, making sure you have enough profitability to continue.”
Which Cambro products help make your business work?
“We use everything from Cambro, especially the bins, the hot box, GoBox, trays, heating components, Camtainers–you name it, we have it. All of Cambro’s products are so reliable. They’ve been abused in many situations, including getting tossed around in the coffee truck or dropped on the floor, and they still work marvelously. For 2 years we dragged the Camcart back and forth from our cafe to the Golden West Swap Meet and it’s always perfect upon arrival.”
About Coffee Whipped
Location: Huntington Beach, Calif.
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