From cap and gown to Sip & Sol, a Sicamous teen graduated into an entrepreneur with the opening of her new coffee truck.<\/p>\n
Emma-Lee Braun, 17, graduated from Salmon Arm Secondary's Sullivan campus in June, and by August long weekend, had percolated into a bona fide business owner with Sip & Sol Café at Bruhn Crossing.<\/p>\n
The inspiration for starting the business came from recent travels to Italy and Spain, where she explored local cafés and saw a lot of "cool ideas" and, after five years working at another coffee shop, decided it was time to open her own.<\/p>\n
"That’s why the name is Sip & Sol, because sol is Spanish for sun. So either coffee’s good for the ‘sol’, or sip and sunshine kind of thing. So it’s like a happy vibe to it,” Braun said. “And I just think travelling’s such a good thing because you get to learn so much about people. And that’s why I also enjoy working at a cafe is because you get to talk to people and hear their story almost.<\/p>\n
"I love talking to people.”<\/p>\n
While international travel inspired the café, the ingredients are all local, with organic Frog Friendly Coffee from Enderby, milk from D Dutchmen Dairy (with oat and almond options as well) and SIMPs Syrups from Kelowna, with Can't Resist Cookies made in Sicamous also sold there. She offers a full menu of coffees, teas and lemonades, and has a secret weapon of affogato coffee.<\/p>\n
Through her travels, Braun encountered the traditional Italian treat, which is ice cream (D Dutch), topped with espresso that has proved to be very popular as it “gives a little bit of sweet with a little bit of bitter… it’s a good mix.”<\/p>\n
The coffee truck itself is also handmade locally by Braun and her dad, who built it together on a flatbed trailer, with some of his friends in the trades doing the electrical and plumbing but the rest was just “me and my dad slaving away.”<\/p>\n
After her mid-summer opening, Braun hopes to operate throughout the winter at markets, events, and arenas and will be posting her locations on the cafe’s Instagram<\/a> page so people know where they can get caffeinated. While she wants to do different fairs and events next summer, she also plans to keep the Bruhn Crossing as a home base, where the neighbours love her.<\/p>\n “It’s been a great addition,” Dawn Backs, owner of neighbouring food truck Snacktastic, said of the cafe. “We’re very happy Emma’s here.”<\/p>\n Currently, Braun is the only one working Sip & Sol, but still manages to have it open Tuesday to Sunday from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Information on her winter hours and different locations can be found on her Instagram page at instagram.com\/sipandsolcafe<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n