VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — To celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we're highlighting the owner of a brand new business who's celebrating her heritage through coffee.
Erene Henninger first had her business idea while working from home in 2020.
"I was thinking, 'I hope someone would deliver coffee to me,'" said Henninger. "So I was like, 'Why don't I do it?'"
From that idea, Henninger's Project Seed Coffee was born.
"We specifically have Filipino-inspired pastries, coffee, and different flavors that will remind Filipinos of home," she said.
The coffee shop is in the 1886 Kemps Landing Manor House, located in the Kempsville section of Virginia Beach. It's an area with a large Filipino population.
"I wanted to share something that is close to home, something that people would be able to taste the Philippines in their cup and the pastries that they eat," she said.
What sets Project Seed Coffee apart from other coffee shops is its variety of Filipino flavor choices, including ube.
"Ube is purple yam. So think of it as a sweet potato, but yam and purple. It has an earthy chocolaty taste to it, so it's very good with coffee," she explains.
The shop also offers coffee flavored with pandan.
"Pandan is a lemongrass, that's why it's green, but it has a taste that's vanilla," she explains.
Henninger says this coffee shop has been a dream of hers.
"It is a dream to plant a seed in people's hearts. To not just serve coffee, but to serve smile, to give joy, to give hope and love in maybe a person that needs something, not just a cup of coffee but a cup of joy," she said.
Project Seed Coffee sources its beans from Guatemala and Bolivia at above fair trade, according to their website.
For more info on Project Seed Coffee, click here.
