While Dalgona coffee was enjoying huge popularity at the height of forced lockdowns during the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, young businesswoman Marie Antonette Medina was taking a sip, starting a new local coffee brand, which has grown rapidly to attract attention and become among the recipients of Philippine Finest Business Awards & Outstanding Achievers 2023.
From a small home-based business that started with just 5 kilos of freshly ground coffee from the Cordilleras in June 2020, Mountaintop Coffee Beans is now a fast-growing organic coffee drip brand selling more than 1,000 kilos overall each month.
Medina admits that she did not expect the business to perform this well, but reiterates that since the beginning, she has always been confident of the organic coffee’s potential. “With so many coffee products and brands in the local market, I knew that coffee from the Cordillera mountains will always stand out because of its unique texture and smooth taste,” she said.
Humble beginning
The 29-year-old entrepreneur started the business in their family residence in San Fernando, Pampanga by herself—she ordered coffee beans from some Cordillera-based farmers she met before, did the repacking, and sold and delivered the first batch of packs initially to her friends.
Through word-of-mouth and social media marketing, orders increased until Medina decided to upgrade packaging.
Mountaintop Coffee Beans has the best organic coffee since Day 1, but Medina knew investing in high-grade packaging would further work wonders.
She commissioned a freelance graphics artist to do the logo based on her ideas and found an international supplier to produce the premium product packs in different variations and order sizes.
In no time, Mountaintop Coffee Beans drew market attention.
Coffee lovers can easily choose among fine grind, medium coarse, or wholebeans options in either 250-gram or 500-gram pack.
Though the products are available online through the major e-commerce platforms, corporate clients and coffee shops still account for a greater pie of its monthly sales.
Setting priorities
Medina is also not ruling out the possibility of putting up Mountain Coffee Beans’ own coffee shop but said, “For now, we are focusing on making the brand grow more until we export our products to other countries. I have to be careful in making business decisions because there are many other families that are relying on it, not just mine.”
A single mom since she was just 16, Medina is keeping her staff, some also single moms, with the commitment to help them grow their own careers as well along with the business.
This early, she reveals that she is grooming each member of the team to eventually lead various operations or aspects of the growing business.
“I know how hard life could be especially to single moms. That is why as much as possible, I want everyone in the team to stay and grow with the business as we share the successes of each milestone. They are family,” she says.
Medina is also grateful for having a supportive family “despite the disappointments in the past.”
She recalls that she was a consistent honor student until she became a teenage mom.
While in college, she managed the pressure of finishing studies while thinking of ways to earn for her daughter.
Coffee and success
“My parents continued to support me, but I knew I had to strive harder for my daughter,” she recalled.
That’s when she got into online selling—going to Divisoria in Manila regularly to buy stuff—and eventually putting up her own home-based travel agency.
But just like most entrepreneurs during the start of pandemic lockdowns, Medina lost income opportunities, which gave her stressful days thinking of ways to make ends meet—until the coffee business idea knocked at her door.
Aside from the success of Mountaintop Coffee Beans, Medina gets fulfillment from sincere feedback from its growing fan base.
She was also glad to take another milestone this month as the brand was recognized by the Philippine Finest Business Awards & Outstanding Achievers 2023, which had its formal awarding rites at the Hexagon Events Place in Quezon City last Sept. 8, 2023.
“I am overjoyed and would like to share this milestone with my team and my family, especially my brother in Singapore who has believed in me and backed me up during the trying times. Mountaintop Coffee Beans is proud to bring the best organic coffee fresh from the Cordilleras to the most discerning coffee enthusiasts across the country,” she ends.
