Humblemaker Coffee Co. — Restaurant in Seal Beach

TL;DR — Latte 5/10… Pastry 4/10… Manager 0/10

Unfortunately had a bad experience could have been handled so much better. The manager was straight up rude surprisingly. Bought a couple coffees for us and a donut for my daughter. While waiting for our coffee (inside) a bee landed in the donut and scared my daughter when she reached for a bite. She cried and didn’t want to eat it so I asked the cashier if I could swap it out for another. The manager came and asked me questions that were rude even tho I laughed them off at the time, “was it our bee that landed on the donut?”… and “Hey guys, a bee landed on this so now I have a donut to eat”

They asked me to pay the difference for the new pastry and I was cool with that but then the manager said something to cashier and walked away before I paid. At payment, I noticed the total was for a new pastry ($8) and nothing removed for cost of donut. I asked the cashier why I wasn’t paying the difference and she said the manager told her to charge me full price. At that point the manager walked away to be busy elsewhere and wouldn’t even acknowledge me when I said “yo man I need you back here”. Dude has some problems in his life beyond me tbh.

In either case, I could understand if they didn’t want to swap out the pastry but to tell me one thing, do another, and then ignore me was pretty crazy. I don’t care about the few bucks man...

In the early days of the pandemic, back when the currency of society was toilet paper and hand sanitizer, the greyness of the clouds hid any silver lining beyond the horizon. Hopelessness cast a pall over the sunny streets of Seal Beach. Locked down and depressed, I drove down PCH looking for comfort in some sort of normalcy. Yelp suggested Humblemaker and I decided to venture into the lions den to see if a mocha could save me from the crashing waves of doom. I walked in and the barista greeted me, his eyes radiating positive energy as the mask hid his smile. After ordering my customary mocha, we somehow fell into easy conversation. I am certainly not a conversationalist but somehow he brought out the hope of this hopeless situation. We talked about surfing, history, classics, and writing, all within the 2 minutes it took for the mocha to be made. Leaving Humblemaker humbled was an experience I was not expecting. I've been back often since and plan to continue. What a lovely experience and a blueprint for what a local shop can and should...

Wow! If you’re like me and haven’t been here because you’re not sure if it’s part of the workspace, well it’s not! It’s for everybody. 👍

Upon walking in, the vibe is very easy and relaxing with people in corners working away. Music is perfect and not overbearing like other places and surprisingly the noise level is kept to a minimum.

I ordered an oat milk matcha latte, and let me just say: I was not sure about it at first because no matcha is made the same (iykyk) and I usually ask for an added scoop on top of their normal scoops.

Anyway, ordered the larger of the two sizes, walked out, and within the first 15 mins I could feel the type of matcha I was dealing with… and I was pleasantly surprised!

I would choose this spot over and over again before I go to any other spot on main…unfortunately for me, I’ve been to the others and was not thrilled.

So go give this place a try! And if you’re a matcha lover, then you’re in...