Not everyone can move to Hawaii, but Amber Andrada found the next best thing. Her coffee stand, Aloha Coffee Grindz, sits in the Goodwill parking lot off Bridgeport and Mountlake in Lakewood, and it’s been bringing genuine Ohana energy to the PNW for a year and a half. We sat down with Amber to talk island inspiration, her customer community, the drink that literally got her a husband, and why supporting a small business like this one goes a lot further than you might think.
Tell us a little about Aloha Coffee Grindz and how it got started.
We are located in Lakewood off of Bridgeport and Mountlake in the Goodwill parking lot. We’ve been here for a year and a half, and we’re just building away over here, trying to bring all of the island vibes to Lakewood to share what we love most about Hawaii.
Our inspiration came from the significant amount of time we spend in Hawaii. It’s a place where we go to decompress and relax. In Hawaii, it’s all about Ohana, everybody’s family, and the vibes are just so welcoming. That’s what we wanted to bring to Lakewood. Whether it’s just being the family that’s not really family, you know? As baristas, we know when people are pregnant before their families know, or about engagements, or first dates. We typically know about everybody’s everything before their families and friends do. So we just want to make everybody that comes through here part of our family.
It’s never really been about building up and being a big corporation. We always want to stay small because we want to keep it family oriented.
What’s the Hawaii connection for you personally?
My husband went from the Philippines to Alaska to Hawaii and spent all his time there in his teenage years and early 20s. And then once we went there together, it was like, this was second home. I was born and raised in Washington, but Hawaii has always felt like home. One day it probably will be, but for now we’ll stick to keeping all of the island flavors and bringing the island vibes to the PNW.
What can you tell us about your customers?
We actually have the best customers. I did coffee for probably 15 years before I stepped away and came back, and by far the customers we get here are the best. They’re always happy for the most part. We have everybody, our bankers and our doctors and our therapists, and then we have our families. A lot of families. And you figure out pretty quick that the world is so small, because this person comes in and then, oh my gosh, their cousin comes in and they didn’t even know. We also have a big military presence, which, being close to the base, we get to know people and then they move. It’s hard!
What should a first-time customer order?
When you’re a first-time customer, you’ll probably stop at our menu, it has all of our barista favorites. I would say the Ube Bae Latte is very popular, and the Toasted Local is probably runner-up.
My personal favorite is the Hapa Haole. We joke that it’s the drink that got me a husband, he came through a coffee shop and ordered it without the coconut, and I said, how about you add coconut? I was stuck with him for life after that. The name comes from him being Filipino and me being white, so Hapa Haole is where that drink name came from.
And then we have our energy drinks, which we use plant-based energy for. My favorite is the Mana Passion. It’s just Hawaii in a cup. It’s refreshing, it has guava and lychee and we top it off with guava nectar.
We’ll always have a seasonal menu too. Right now we have our March menu up, and then we have a spring menu and a summer menu. Everything rotates through, so there’s always something fun and exciting happening here. Whether it’s something I came up with or something my daughter Marley came up with when she was looking for something sour. All of our baristas were fresh new baristas that I got to train, so they’re all just as creative, and trained with my habits.
Our drink quality is always going to be up there. I’m not someone who will serve bad shots, I will throw shots away before I let that happen. If a bad shot’s pulling, you’re not getting it.
Why does it matter to spend money at a small business like yours?
I gave up a career with an income to take the leap and follow my dream. And when you’re spending your money with a small business, you’re not only supporting my dream of making a coffee shop happen, which was like a 30-year-old dream that randomly came true after some corporate burnout, you’re supporting my family. Everybody knows Marley who comes through because she’s my sidekick. But it’s supporting us, and then we get to support our employees, because they’re paid by us. So it’s supporting other families too.
We tend to love big corporations, but the small guys are the ones really putting the heart and the passion behind every drink that’s made.
What does giving back to the community look like for Aloha Coffee Grindz?
We do try to give back to the community because, like I said, we’re all about family, and the community here is the family we’re taking on. At Christmas time, we do a toy drive with Namsayin, which is a car club. We fill up the whole parking lot because we do cars and coffee, which we try to do a couple times a year. They bring toys to donate and we donate them to Tacoma Rescue Mission, which does not only Christmas but back to school, birthdays, Easter baskets. So the toys that we donate at Christmas might get picked up throughout the year too.
Last year we also donated to the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation in March. That one hits home.
Our goal for next year would ideally be not only giving back to our local community but having a portion go back to Hawaii, because there are plenty of families there that need support too. I think a lot of people’s first question is, are you even Hawaiian? We’re not, but we have deep roots there. We love the people, and they’ve been so welcoming. We’ve made friends there, so now when we go, it’s not that we’re going on vacation, we’re going to see our friends.
Any local businesses you love to shout out?
Taco Burger Family Food Truck is located just off of 100th. And then we love Maresol’s Restaurant, which is a Filipino restaurant, family owned, they’ve been there forever, so good, and they’re right down the street on Bridgeport from us. We also love Associated Espresso in Sumner. They’re family owned and the owner is amazing, and they always get our coffee right, which, as a barista and coffee shop owner, that’s really important. And then there’s Family Blend, which is a food truck that started around the same time as us. We love watching them grow because we started at the same time. I love seeing another small business’s dream come to life.
You can find more information about Aloha Coffee Grindz here, and visit her shop at 6000 Mt Tacoma Dr SW, Lakewood, WA, 98499.
