February 16, 2017. Photos and Story by Wade Faast
The beginning of spring term 2017 brought with it a new coffee truck, Loretta’s Lattes.
Loretta’s Lattes serves specialty coffee drinks and hot waffles from a pink food cart at CNM main campus, owner Tanya Herrera said.
When the weather gets warmer they serve homemade ice cream and snow cones, she said.
Herrera and her partner Bernadette Chavarria opened their mobile espresso shop in October 2015 she said.
Their first day out was discouraging; they started at the Coronado Mall Park and Ride for Balloon Fiesta and didn’t sell a single drink she said.
“It’s a lot of very hard work, heart break and putting yourself out there” Herrera said.
Operating on Wednesdays and Fridays and arriving at 6:30am she is staying busy going through as much as four pound of coffee a day at CNM she said.
The most popular drinks for CNM students have caramel, caramel lattes or caramel frappes, she said.
“People here are obsessed with their caramel” she said.
Gaining popularity are the drinks she makes with Death Wish beans, a coffee bean that offers as much as three times the caffeine of regular coffee, Herrera said.
Loretta’s Lattes offers a wide variety of flavors and drinks, if it’s not on the menu just ask, and if they don’t have everything to make it, Herrera will get whatever is required, she said.
The “Marie” is a blueberry white chocolate mocha that Herrera whipped up when a customer asked if she had blueberry drinks, she said.
CNM student Marie Robinson makes sure to leave home with enough time to stop and grab a coffee from Loretta’s Lattes, Robinson said.
The coffee beans are sourced from Smokin’ Beans unroasted and she roasts them herself so they are fresh and full of flavor, Herrera said.
The cost for having a food truck at CNM is very affordable at only $35 a semester, compared to some places that charge upwards of $100 a day, she said.
You can find Loretta’s Lattes around town at events and static locations including high schools and the upcoming Food Truck Festival of America, she said.
