“When you get into something and you do it right, then you respect it. You don’t take advantage of it, you don’t abuse that knowledge. To me—coffee, cacao, tea—is a ceremonial item.
I was working in Guatemala and living there, just enjoying everything. Then my goal was, ‘I want to bring a coffee shop to life in LA because it’s a metropolis.’ So little by little my business plan started getting a little bit easier. In 2005 I went off to do my own thing. And it wasn’t easy, it was really hard at least for like the first 8 years. But I somehow made it, never quit, just kept going and going and going.
I bring coffee beans down, and then I do all the roasting too. The whole production: from farm to table, I bring everything. I’m a micro business that does it right and that’s it. I learned to just be very honest and very straightforward. You see people just keep coming in, on and on until one o’clock. Then I close the door and run, I get out of here because they’ll just keep coming.”

- Yancey Quinones, founder of Antigua est. 2005, Los Angeles. Antigua is a high-quality coffee shop in Cypress Park inspired by and honoring Mayan culture, with menu items like Mayan Mocha, Hot Cacao, and more.

“Yo como muchas latinas luchamos día a día para poder salir adelante.
Cuando vinimos acá de Mexico, ellos [sus parentes] abrieron una paletería y allí la familia trabajaron los todos allí. Y ahí es donde aprendí como hacer nieves, paletas, raspados. We had lines out the door, around the corner, we would get packed in the summer. Years later I came back to my roots and started my own offshoot of that.
Con la pandemia, me ha obligado a hacer eso [vender bolis] por que no había ningún eventos y para sobrevivir dijé ‘bueno, que voy hacer? Voy hacer los bolis ahora.’ Por que eso es algo que puedo ir a entregar por que todo el mundo estaban encerrados en las casas y entonces ordenaban comida, ordenaban todo.”

Lauda of Sno Con Amor will be serving up her bolis (sno pops) and raspados (sno cones) at Super Bowl LVI for the official Super Bowl After Party.

“I would guess it’s the first time in history that bolis are gonna be at the Super Bowl. It’s fun, and it brings our roots to this huge event. Lo que quería hacer y lo que he logrado es ofrecer una opción mas saludable. 100% natural, I’m using fresh fruit and berries and herb extracts.
I’m just super excited and proud to bring something that is such a childhood memory or part of my family’s legacy.”

- Lauda Flores, founder of Sno Con Amor est. 2010, Los Angeles. Sno Con Amor is dedicated to offering wholesome sno cones and sno pops, handcrafted from fruit, berries, herbs, and flower infusions free from artificial flavors, colors, or refined sugar. You can find them at the Hollywood Farmers Market and at snoconamor.com.