Meet Benjamin Westley of Boketto Cold Brews in Downtown LA

Today we’d like to introduce you to Benjamin Westley.

Benjamin, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Boketto Cold Brews was created to fill a necessity, but grown from pure opportunity, hard work, and entrepreneurial passion! It all started with a Craigslist ad for a Concierge  at The Collection Building, a small office building in DTLA. I interviewed for the job even though my work experience was in high-end retail and commercial production because I needed a better work schedule to take care of my newborn daughter while my partner returned to work. I was eventually hired and put to the task of coming up with amenities for the tenants during a time of reconstruction in the building that brought noise, dust, elevator delays… My first amenity was a Barista Service from 7-10am on M-W-F. After calling multiple coffee service companies and getting outrageous prices for a 3hr service I decided to try to find all the pieces I needed to put the service together myself.

This is when everything starts to fall in place almost serendipitously!! I notice a tenant is leaving the building multiple times and coming back with shots of espresso (Starbucks SMH) and I strike up a conversation with him, asking how he felt about a Barista service in the lobby. He says “thats wonderful, I have a small commercial machine and grinder upstairs that I put away years ago, would you want to buy it”. My boss agrees to buy the machine with a discount on the tenants rent then has a welder in the building build out an espresso cart to my specifications. The service went on for about six months then was discontinued after all of the construction was done. My boss decided to give me the espresso service set up and I began renting it out to random people and started making espresso drinks for the commercial production jobs I was working on occasionally in DTLA.

During the construction, my boss was building out his own co-working business on a full floor of the building and wanted the trendy kegerator in his kitchen but did not want beer or sodas on tap. I now had my second task of the job, find beverages for the kegerator!! I had been visiting every new coffee shop as it opened in DTLA and noticed the popularity of Cold Brew coffee and Artisan teas picking up everywhere and immediately start calling cold brew companies for kegs and finding out they are expensive or at least too expensive for my boss!! Researching cold brew companies led me the process of making cold brew, which is not complicated at all. I thought maybe I could do this myself using the beans left over from my Barista service. My partner is from Long Island, one day while walking through her small town I came across a tea shop that had hundreds of tins on the wall and walk in to taste teas and to speak to someone about ordering teas in bulk. The owner turns out to be a friend of my partner from High School and agrees to ship me wholesale teas in L.A. I begin making cold brew coffee and teas in the kitchenette of a vacant office in the building.

As the Co-work space picks up business, the demand for cold brew also goes up, requiring me to take time after work in order to maintain the amount of cold brew needed. I then started to think, “If I am doing this in such large quantities I should just start a business doing this” Since then, three restaurants have opened in the building, one of which was a bar “Brackshop Tavern” that had cold brew on tap! I spoke to the owners and the chef and agreed to supply them with kegs of cold brew in exchange for health board cleared kitchen to start my business in. Boketto Cold Brews were born!! The Brackshop now has three cold brew tea and coffee cocktails on the menu and prepare food for any events that we book. Now that I am making kegs regularly why not offer kegs to other businesses! Once I was an official company I began to come up with ideas to sell my cold brews. I wanted to serve my cold brews from a bike! I floated the idea around the tenants of the building who I had a good relationship with, and an Architect from a firm in the building I worked in volunteered to design and make plans for the cart I wanted to pull behind the bike. He also had a friend who could fabricate it for me, and did!!

The building I work in by this time has filled up with Architecture firms, furniture design showrooms, and a company who owns various music venues in L.A. The office managers of these companies begin to ask me for cold brew for their morning and afternoon meetings. In order to serve them, I purchase 1.5 liter wine pouches to fill by hand with cold brews and deliver to their meetings. Eventually, they became weekly bulk orders which spurred me to start a subscription service. I have now worked in the Collection Bldg for four years and run my business from within it for three years. In that time I have built a cold brew kegerator service, a cold brew bike that travels to events, private parties, and will be on the streets of DTLA this summer, as well as a cold brew subscription service using 1.5L pouches that will soon be sold in grocery stores! Last but not least, Boketto will be opening a pop up in July 2019 on Broadway DTLA!!!!!

Has it been a smooth road?
Although everything has seemingly fallen into place, it has been a lot of work and early mornings. There was a time when Boketto tried to move into building amenities offering hot and cold beverages, sandwiches and donuts. We were not aware of the amount of time and money spent to keep this happening in multiple locations on multiple days. Did I mention I was working full time the whole time?!!

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Boketto Cold Brews LLC – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Boketto Cold Brews LLC makes cold brewed coffee and teas, delivered to our customer via subscription service, keg delivery, cold brew bike, and cold brew tap wall location. I am most proud of our packaging/logos and product. The combo gives us ability to posture as a high-end premium brand. It is this ability to posture that sets us apart from the millions of reclaimed wood, utilitarian cold brew branded companies.

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
The Boketto Cold Brew plans to release a line of streetwear / skateboard-inspired apparel. We are currently sponsoring two skateboarders, pay for their entrance fees to contests, and they are winning them!!!! We also have a new product in the planning stage that is new to the American market and will change cold brew convenience forever!

Pricing:

• Our 1.5L pouch is $16 which is only $2.30 per serving and gets cheaper with a subscription!
• People age 25-34 spend on average $2,008 a year on cold brew thats $5.50 a day. Our subscription saves you $1168 a year
• Boketto 5 Gallon kegs are only $95 each and we will set up the kegerator for you!

Contact Info:

• Address: 527 W. 7th St. 90014
• Website: bokettocoldbrew.com
• Phone: 3104905394
• Email: bokettocoldbrew@gmail.com

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