The most rewarding feeling for Jeni Castro, owner of Coffee Dose in Costa Mesa, is seeing her customers’ faces after handing them coffee inside a cup that reads “anti bitch” and “fuck mornings” garnished with a marijuana leaf stencil or the word ‘drugs’ spelled out in brown cinnamon dust.
“I love cussing and I think the f-word is probably my favorite word,” says Castro. “I thought if I could make money off of this and give people an experience to laugh at and not take themselves so seriously, but also serve a damn-good cup of coffee, I knew that we were going to be okay.”
Her cafe offers guests lattes with attitude, a way to speak like a sailor with class, in a location fashioned in millennial pink. To make her coffee drinks unique, the company has 10 themed stencils used to top off their flavorful beverages and lattes with phrases such as “best bitches,” “babe town” and “lit AF.” Their most popular drinks are the Goldie–which consists of organic turmeric, cinnamon vanilla bean syrup, oat milk and espresso–and the Beauty, which contains collagen, raw almond milk, rose or lavender house-made syrup and espresso.
Coffee Dose also has a bakery selling a variety of treats such as ”anti-bitch” cookies, pastries and a banana bread that Castro says is to die for.
Castro says it was the judgment she would receive when entering most third-wave coffee shops and ordering something sweet or customizing a drink to her liking that inspired her to open a coffee shop of her own. The only problem was Castro and her husband Oscar had no experience in the coffee industry.
Despite their lack of experience, the two entrepreneurs, who own spray tan salons and a Mexican shaved ice company, felt that this was something they could run and operate together. To make this all come to fruition, they teamed up with hair salon East Eighteenth to share retail space.
Jeni and Oscar devised a plan to market a coffee shop that consisted of everything she desired in a cafe including CBD-infused coffee. Unfortunately the shop’s weed-and-caffeine theme was short lived as the Castros came to find out that the California Health Department prohibits the sale of CBD in food and drinks served in retail locations. Coffee Dose is allowed to sell bottled and prepackaged CBD products to customers, and it is up to them if they want to add a dose of cannabidiol to their Mary Matcha green tea latte or other beverages.
Castro, who also has a Coffee Dose in West Hollywood, has been working with the U.S. Hemp Roundtable collection of attorneys to get edible hemp and CBD products that are sold in eateries decriminalized.
“The goal is to get back to where we were,” says Castro.
Coffee Dose and East Eighteenth Salon, 116 E. 18th St., Costa Mesa; www.coffeedose.cafe. Also at 8101 Melrose Ave., West Hollywood.
