The CCH philosophy dates back to 1963, when one of the founders, known to her closest friends as “Coco from Costa Rica”, looked at the beautiful blue horizon, early at sunrise, one beautiful clear sunny day, and promised herself that one day, she will realize the dream of her grandmother, Lomalita, and serve great tasting coffee, healthy fruit juice and shakes, mouth watering desserts and ice cream, in addition to healthy sandwiches and salads to her closest of friends, in their own little coffee shop, in a happy and positive atmosphere; the same way her beloved Grand-Ma, Lomalita, would serve her friends and guests when they visited her at home.
Coco Loved her Grand-Ma Lomalita the most.
After all, it was Grand-Ma Lomalita who raised her & taught Coco everything she knew after her parents and two sisters died in mysterious circumstances, when Coco was only 2 years old.
Coco was also deeply impressed by the attitude & mood Grand-Ma "Lomalita” showed to her loved ones, her family and friends, her neighbors and guests, and by the way she served them the quality food and drinks that she loved to prepare.
Coco used to call it the "Aroma Cha-cha-cha" mood.
Coco could never forget the words of her beloved "Lomalita", her grandmother, always communicated with a great smile.
“Coco, my dear”, she always said, “You are from Costa Rica. You are a Latina.
Latinas and Latinos have always a positive look on life.
Life is short, & you know that very well, so you must live life happy; And to be happy, you must at least taste the taste of the happy life in your mouth.
Coco my darling,” -she always said, “forget disappointments. Focus on the positive issues of life.
Good food will help you think of the good and forget the bad.
So Coco, live the good taste and you will taste the good life, live the Latin taste and taste the Latin life!!!”
Coco loved her grandmother the most.
Coco also wanted to open her own coffee shop where she would share with others, friends & guests, what Grand-Ma Lomalita was preaching her to do.
So She tried her luck to find investors and bankers who would believe in her. But no one would!!
Her friends loved her food and her drinks but no one would believe enough in Coco to help her start her own business.
Coco didn’t have the money to go out on her own. So she simply kept doing what she knew how to do best.
She kept serving great tasting food & drinks to her friends and guests with love, in a happy and positive atmosphere, out of her own little humble kitchen at home, and while doing so, she kept working hard, hard, and hard, constantly improving on the products she created.
Though Coco never gave up on her dream to open her own business, she simply was too poor and too scared to do it alone.
But as she continued to serve the best food and drinks to her friends at home, her reputation for serving quality food and drinks within a quality atmosphere grew stronger.
More and more residents from surrounding villages started coming to visit Coco and share the “Coco” experience.
As Coco’s fame grew in her village, her dream that, one day, she may actually succeed in making her dream a reality grew even stronger.
Coco loved her dream, and she finally had a name for it, if and when her own coffee shop would ever open.
She decided to call it: Coco’s coffee shop.
One summer day, Coco was wandering in the prairies surrounding her village when she noticed how a group of ants were helping each other stash the food for winter season.
Coco suddenly realized that she could not make her dream a reality alone. She needed to rely on her friends, on those who loved her.
So Coco contacted her closest of friends, from her old school days.
They had all moved to the BIG city & had all grown to become fairly successful in their field of specialty.
She shared her dream with them & convinced them to combine their collective knowledge & know how into a team of excellent food & beverages advisors, consultants and technicians.
She wanted them to help her lay the foundations of a successful business operation.
She still had no money to pay them, but she promised to give them all her eternal love and gratitude plus a share in the business, if they helped her make her dream come true.
They all loved Coco and agreed to help her for free.
With Grand-Ma Lomalita as their guiding light, the team worked hard to develop the highest operation standards for eventual application in Coco's future coffee shop. They all loved Coco and she loved them back.
They all worked out of Coco’s house & soon they all started feeling like family, rather than just good friends
Coco too felt that they became her family, so she decided to call her coffee shop, if and when it would ever open: Coco’s coffee house!!!
After all, it’s at the house where family and friends meet.
Years and years passed until all involved were finally satisfied that they have developed the best combination of coffee based drinks, hot and cold, fruit based blended and crushed iced drinks and shakes, appetizing pastries, desserts and ice cream, fantastic sandwiches and salads. They were now ready to share the goods with others.
So Coco and her "Family" embarked on inviting everyone they knew to Coco’s house in order to share the taste and feel of their newly upgraded products.
They invited all their individual friends from the village and from the surrounding villages, as well as those close friends from the city who were willing to come to Coco’s village.
They invited all those they knew would love to enjoy quality food and drinks with a quality” be-happy” mood, the "Aroma Cha-cha-cha" mood of Grand-Ma Lomalita.
More and more people came, More and more people experienced the Good food & the good mood, and more and more grew Coco’s fame.
But One day, suddenly, Grand-Ma Lomalita grew too old and decided she could no longer wait to receive her family, guests and friends in their own little coffee shop!!!
It was time for her to leave & let Coco continue on her own.
Coco could never forget the words of Grand-Ma Lomalita on her deathbed.
“Coco-my dearest,” she said, “ think of your grandmamma who will always love you.
“You are from Costa Rica. You are a Latina.
Latinas and Latinos have always a positive look on life.
Life is short, & you know that very well, so you must live life happy; And to be happy, you must at least taste the taste of the happy life in your mouth.
Coco my darling, forget disappointments. Focus on the positive issues of life.
Good food will help you think of the good and forget the bad.
So Coco, live the good taste and you will taste the good life, live the Latin taste and taste the Latin life!!
Coco loved her grandmother the most.
When she died, Coco promised to promote the message of Lomalita wherever she could.
She promised herself (and her Grand-Ma) that if she would ever be able to open her coffee shop, she would call it Coloma’s coffee house, to commemorate for eternity her name, Coco, and the name of the person who left the most impact on her life, Lomalita.
But Coco still did not have the money, and nobody believed enough in her business sense to invest with her until one day, one man, changed her life.
Coco met Fabiano, a 50 something, wise, Italian gentleman with a long history of success in the restaurant and food business.
He was driving through Coco’s village when three of his car tires suddenly went flat, unexpectedly.
While waiting for the tires to be repaired, he heard from the people about Coco and Coco’s quality food and drinks. He decided to experience the "Aroma Cha-cha-cha" himself and went to visit Coco at her house.
One look into Coco’s eyes, one sip of her fruit frescatas, one bite of her great pastries, and Fabiano was hooked on Coco.
So he finally did what Coco needed most. He finally helped arrange for her the needed seed money to start her own business.
Fabiano never asked for anything in return.
He simply had fallen in love with Coco but was too shy to show it. He thought he was too old for her.
Coco never revealed her feelings to Fabiano either and to this day, no one knows that she loved Fabiano back.
She too was too shy to show it. She thought she was too young for Fabiano.
Fabiano helped Coco move to the city, developed for her the operational and financial systems & procedures to make her business a success and arranged for her to open her first shop, Coloma Coffee House!!
It was a huge success! Coco finally realized that her dream was coming true.
She was grateful to her Grand-Ma, she was grateful to her friends, her family, but she was mostly grateful to Fabiano, the man she secretly loved.
She decided to finally share her secret with him.
It was exactly nine months to the day the first Coloma Coffee House opened.
But Fabiano loved sailing!
One day, exactly nine months to the day the first Coloma Coffee House opened, Fabiano went sailing alone in rough seas and never came back.
His sailboat was never found and no one ever saw Fabiano again.
Fabiano’s closest friends thought he simply ran away from Coco because he could not handle to remain so close to her yet so deeply in love & so secretly so.
Fabiano knew he loved her, but he thought she could never love him back.
Coco knew she loved him, but life was indeed too short & she was never allowed to let him know that she truly love him back.
But Coco did one thing to show her gratitude and love to Fabiano.
Exactly eighteen months to the day after Fabiano’s disappearance, when Coco gave up on ever seeing Fabiano again, she changed the name of her first shop.
Instead of Coloma Coffee House, she called it: CoLomBiano Coffee House!!!
Coco-Lomalita- Fabiano coffee house.
She believed it was the best way for her to commemorate for eternity the names of the two people she loved the most, Lomalita and Fabiano.
She also realized that she should develop her business into a world wide franchise to best promote the names of the two people she loved the most.
As time went by, Coco went on to create a very efficient and pro-active company and developed a highly professional operation, with a team of Food & beverage experts & professionals, to whom she defined clear values, a clear vision, a clear mission and more, to help them make her dream, & that of her grandmother and Fabiano, become a reality.
To this day, we, at Colombiano coffee house, believe that the spirit of Coco, like what she did in 1963, but together with the spirits of Lomalita and Fabiano, meet early at sunrise, each beautiful clear sunny day, & look at the beautiful blue horizon, with pride that their dream continues to become a reality.
